How to load chess engine; what string to use in place of "/usr/bin/stockfish"

[JohnSalter1994]

So I've downloaded stockfish, moved the folder containing stockfish into the folder containing my script, and copied and pasted the target to take the place of the string used in the documented example, but I'm just met with a bunch of errors.

Could you please specify how to figure out what string to use? Is there a particular version of stockfish I need to use? Is there a specific file within the stockfish folder I'm meant to link to?

The location of the application: "C:\Users\REDACTED\Dropbox\Python Programs\Optimal Chess Opening Config\stockfish_14_win_x64_avx2"

[niklasf]

That would be the path to the executable of any UCI engine, for example any version of Stockfish. In this case C:\Users\REDACTED\Dropbox\Python Programs\Optimal Chess Opening Config\stockfish_14_win_x64_avx2.exe, presumably.

[JohnSalter1994]

Thanks for the quick reply!

If I use the string featured in the above answer I receive:

SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

If I format instead as a raw string (e.g. r"this_is_my_raw_string"), I instead recieve:

"Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 2798, in popen_uci
return cls.popen(UciProtocol, command, timeout=timeout, debug=debug, setpgrp=setpgrp, **popen_args)
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 2790, in popen
return run_in_background(background, name=f"{cls.name} (command={command!r})", debug=debug)
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 201, in run_in_background
return future.result()
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\concurrent\futures_base.py", line 445, in result
return self.__get_result()
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\concurrent\futures_base.py", line 390, in __get_result
raise self._exception
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 195, in background
asyncio.run(coroutine(future))
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\runners.py", line 44, in run
return loop.run_until_complete(main)
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\base_events.py", line 642, in run_until_complete
return future.result()
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 2778, in background
transport, protocol = await Protocol.popen(command, setpgrp=setpgrp, **popen_args)
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\site-packages\chess\engine.py", line 1196, in popen
return await asyncio.get_running_loop().subprocess_exec(cls, *command, **popen_args) # type: ignore
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\base_events.py", line 1661, in subprocess_exec
transport = await self._make_subprocess_transport(
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\windows_events.py", line 389, in _make_subprocess_transport
transp = _WindowsSubprocessTransport(self, protocol, args, shell,
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\base_subprocess.py", line 36, in init
self._start(args=args, shell=shell, stdin=stdin, stdout=stdout,
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\windows_events.py", line 885, in _start
self._proc = windows_utils.Popen(
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\asyncio\windows_utils.py", line 153, in init
super().init(args, stdin=stdin_rfd, stdout=stdout_wfd,
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\subprocess.py", line 951, in init
self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
File "C:\Users\redacted\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\subprocess.py", line 1420, in _execute_child
hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified"

^ I did change back the redacted to my actual user name before running the code.

[niklasf]

r"C:\Users\... is definitely the way to go. I now had an opportunity to test this on Windows, and it worked without any problems.

Try double checking your path by opening the cmd command prompt, and trying to cd C:\Users\redacted\Dropbox\Python Programs\Optimal Chess Opening Config\. I was a bit surprised that Windows truncated my username to 5 letters.