Answers.Body: <p>It's the score of the <em>current</em> position, but it is computed by static evaluation (i.e. counting pieces, pawns, pawn structure, king safety, mobility, etc.) of positions arising in the program's search tree, and applying the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimax#Minimax_algorithm_with_alternate_moves" rel="nofollow noreferrer">minimax algorithm</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha%E2%80%93beta_pruning" rel="nofollow noreferrer">alpha-beta pruning</a>.</p>
  <p>A cp-score of 6000 does indeed mean the engine thinks it's 60 pawns (centi means 1/100) = between 6 and 7 queens ahead. Because it wasn't able to find a forced mate, it will just try to get the highest possible point advantage, knowing that this will bring the game closer to mate. In practice, a score of (+/-)150 is already decisive most of the times.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: `A cp-score of 6000 does indeed mean the engine thinks White is 60 pawns ahead` I'm confused - if positive scores mean white is winning, doesn't this answer contradict another of your answers? https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/21845/why-does-stockfish-give-a-negative-score-in-a-theoretical-win-for-white/21846#21846
Answers.UserDisplayName: Nick ODell
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Answers.Text: @NickODell good question - I must've mixed it up with (older?) engines who always display the score from White's point of view.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
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Answers.Text: The centipawns rating is somewhat arbitrary as engines for a long time don't consider only material, and no engine rates a pawn exactly 100 cp. So it's better to think about it as approximate score that's not consistent between engines either.
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Body: <p>According to <a href="http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/UCIProtocol.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>cp 
          the score from the engine's point of view in centipawns.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but is it a score for the current (start) position of the game that I feed to engine, or it is a difference between start and final(when coputations completed and best line found) scores?</p>
  
  <p>And the range in which this value varies is unclear to - how could it be as big as 6000 that I sometimes get for my positions? That would be a ton of figures:)</p>
  
Tags: <engines><stockfish><uci>
Title: What exactly means centipawns field in stockfish/uci output?
ThreadText: # What exactly means centipawns field in stockfish/uci output?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-02-14)
  
  According to [this page](http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/UCIProtocol.html):
  
  ```
  cp 
          the score from the engine's point of view in centipawns.
  
  ```
  
  but is it a score for the current (start) position of the game that I feed to engine, or it is a difference between start and final(when coputations completed and best line found) scores?
  
  And the range in which this value varies is unclear to - how could it be as big as 6000 that I sometimes get for my positions? That would be a ton of figures:)
  
  **Tags:** engines, stockfish, uci
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-02-14. Score: 8 | Accepted answer
  
  It's the score of the *current* position, but it is computed by static evaluation (i.e. counting pieces, pawns, pawn structure, king safety, mobility, etc.) of positions arising in the program's search tree, and applying the [minimax algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimax#Minimax_algorithm_with_alternate_moves) and [alpha-beta pruning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha%E2%80%93beta_pruning).
  
  A cp-score of 6000 does indeed mean the engine thinks it's 60 pawns (centi means 1/100) = between 6 and 7 queens ahead. Because it wasn't able to find a forced mate, it will just try to get the highest possible point advantage, knowing that this will bring the game closer to mate. In practice, a score of (+/-)150 is already decisive most of the times.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: `A cp-score of 6000 does indeed mean the engine thinks White is 60 pawns ahead` I'm confused - if positive scores mean white is winning, doesn't this answer contradict another of your answers? https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/21845/why-does-stockfish-give-a-negative-score-in-a-theoretical-win-for-white/21846#21846  
  > **username_1**: @username_2 good question - I must've mixed it up with (older?) engines who always display the score from White's point of view.  
  > **username_3**: The centipawns rating is somewhat arbitrary as engines for a long time don't consider only material, and no engine rates a pawn exactly 100 cp. So it's better to think about it as approximate score that's not consistent between engines either.  
  
  ---
  
  