Answers.Body: <p>See the Chess Programmming wiki on <a href="https://www.chessprogramming.org/Depth" rel="nofollow noreferrer">depth</a>. It is <em>nominally</em> a measure of how far ahead an engine is searching, so e.g. an engine that is looking at depth = 10 is looking five moves ahead (10 ply = 5 moves). &quot;Nominally&quot; because these days there are all sorts of pruning techniques and quiescent searches and similar that makes the number itself relatively meaningless; however, in terms of playing strength, a higher number is still always better than a lower one. As you let Stockfish run, you should see that its depth continuously increases, as well.</p>
  
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Answers.Body: <p>Depth means roughly nothing. It used to mean the depth in the search tree that an engine searched but with modern search algorithms, there is enough pruning that the depth becomes fairly non-informative.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: This answer would benefit from more details or with some citations to be more valuable for future visitors. For example, "with modern search algorithms, there is enough pruning that the depth becomes fairly non-informative"  [**citation needed**]
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Body: <p>When I'm observing a game, the evaluation bar works and above the moves list, there is a numerical value for depth. But what is Stockfish depth and what does it measure or tell?</p>
  
Tags: <stockfish>
Title: What does Depth mean in Stockfish Game Analysis?
ThreadText: # What does Depth mean in Stockfish Game Analysis?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-01-11)
  
  When I'm observing a game, the evaluation bar works and above the moves list, there is a numerical value for depth. But what is Stockfish depth and what does it measure or tell?
  
  **Tags:** stockfish
  
  
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  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2023-01-11. Score: 1 | Accepted answer
  
  See the Chess Programmming wiki on [depth](https://www.chessprogramming.org/Depth). It is *nominally* a measure of how far ahead an engine is searching, so e.g. an engine that is looking at depth = 10 is looking five moves ahead (10 ply = 5 moves). "Nominally" because these days there are all sorts of pruning techniques and quiescent searches and similar that makes the number itself relatively meaningless; however, in terms of playing strength, a higher number is still always better than a lower one. As you let Stockfish run, you should see that its depth continuously increases, as well.
  
  
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  ### Answer by username_2 on 2023-01-11. Score: 1
  
  Depth means roughly nothing. It used to mean the depth in the search tree that an engine searched but with modern search algorithms, there is enough pruning that the depth becomes fairly non-informative.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: This answer would benefit from more details or with some citations to be more valuable for future visitors. For example, "with modern search algorithms, there is enough pruning that the depth becomes fairly non-informative"  [**citation needed**]  
  
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