SF18 finally coming

[Werewolf]

Or here:

https://github.com/official-stockfish/S ... h/releases

Whether that will actually be SF18 remains to be seen. I though they still wanted more Elo gains before releasing.

I thought they wanted fewer bugs

[MOBMAT]

Got it. I thought there was an official "Stockfish 18 RC" release.

Was this the first instance of a dev having a "18" reference?

[syzygy]

Got it. I thought there was an official "Stockfish 18 RC" release.

Was this the first instance of a dev having a "18" reference?

There is a "Stockfish 18 release candidate" pull request pending, but this does not have much meaning other than that they're apparently working towards a release. It does not fix any particular version as "SF18rc1" until the PR is actually applied.
https://github.com/official-stockfish/S ... /pull/6553

[pohl4711]

If you want information about the upcoming Stockfish 18 release, check discord, not GitHub.

from SF dev discord:

Vondele, January, 16:
"Release candidate PR made. Code will be frozen for 1-2 weeks to watch out for issues, to do testing, and release admin."

Vondele, January, 18:
"OK, so, will test, merge in master and rebase the release candidate PR on this."

So, if no bugs are found and binary-building works as expected, Stockfish 18 should be released soon, IMHO. Considering previous releases, I expect SF 18 in early February. Fingers crossed.

[Werewolf]

If you want information about the upcoming Stockfish 18 release, check discord, not GitHub.

from SF dev discord:

Vondele, January, 16:
"Release candidate PR made. Code will be frozen for 1-2 weeks to watch out for issues, to do testing, and release admin."

Vondele, January, 18:
"OK, so, will test, merge in master and rebase the release candidate PR on this."

So, if no bugs are found and binary-building works as expected, Stockfish 18 should be released soon, IMHO. Considering previous releases, I expect SF 18 in early February. Fingers crossed.

I fear they're still a way off

[MOBMAT]

I never thought about it before, but does the latest version of SF development contain all the incremental changes or does it only represent the single change referenced in the description?

[Geezer one]

I never thought about it before, but does the latest version of SF development contain all the incremental changes or does it only represent the single change referenced in the description?

Every change.

[Jouni]

False alarm? In Discord they now speak about Q1 2026 release. And probably February 29th .

[Ipmanchess]

https://github.com/official-stockfish/S ... ab31b77c3d

Just be patient..

[pohl4711]

False alarm? In Discord they now speak about Q1 2026 release. And probably February 29th .

I am still expecting SF 18 very soon. D.Monroe just released this new video about SF 18 (Threat Input Nets) on his channel and mentioned, this great idea was taken from Monty engine.