Beating Stockfish 18 on time in a hyperbullet game.

[Robert Pope]

You should probably turn off the animation delay if you aren't doing increment, then.

[Henk]

Yes looks promising. I switched it off and played about twenty games. No wins on time. Record is 52 moves and five seconds left. So Skipper could not win a single game. Or maybe it is not his lucky day.

[Rom77]

A bug with time control in Stockfish has recently been fixed:

https://github.com/official-stockfish/S ... 47a87a24cf

[Henk]

Problem has been solved by disabling animate dragging, animate moving and highlight last move in winboard user interface.
Skipper only able to win a 5 second game now. I tried 15 seconds yesterday. But Skipper lost all games.

[pgn]
[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site "GEBRUIK-645EVFP"]
[Date "2026.05.02"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Skipper_15_143"]
[Black "Stockfish 18"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "5"]
[Annotator "1. +0.35 1... -0.40"]

1. e4 {+0.35/10} e5 {-0.40/14 0.2} 2. Qh5 {+0.08/9 0.1} Nc6 {+0.44/13 0.1}
3. Bc4 {+0.24/8 0.1} g6 {+0.41/14} 4. Qf3 {+0.01/6 0.1} Nf6 {+0.32/14} 5.
Ne2 {+0.14/5 0.1} Bg7 {+0.41/13} 6. Nbc3 {+0.63/5 0.1} d6 {+0.32/15 0.4} 7.
O-O {+0.02/6 0.1} O-O {+0.48/12 0.1} 8. Kh1 {-0.23/5 0.1} Nd4
{+0.99/12 0.2} 9. Nxd4 {+0.39/6 0.1} exd4 {+1.12/14} 10. Ne2 {-0.37/6 0.1}
Qe7 {+1.01/16 0.4} 11. Nxd4 {+0.06/6 0.1} d5 {+1.43/11} 12. exd5
{+1.27/5 0.1} Qc5 {+2.51/13 0.1} 13. Qd3 {+1.05/5 0.1} Ng4 {+2.46/16} 14.
c3 {+1.35/4 0.1} Ne5 {+3.95/14 0.1} 15. b4 {-2.40/5 0.1} Qxc4
{+4.70/13 0.1} 16. Qxc4 {-2.51/6 0.1} Nxc4 {+4.48/17} 17. b5 {-2.16/5 0.1}
Re8 {+4.72/17 0.3} 18. d3 {-2.55/4 0.1} Nb6 {+4.90/13 0.1} 19. Bd2
{-2.83/4 0.1} Bxd4 {+4.89/15 0.1} 20. cxd4 {-1.78/6 0.1} Nxd5 {+4.87/16}
21. a4 {-1.52/5 0.1} Bd7 {+4.99/15 0.2} 22. Rfe1 {-1.47/5 0.1} a6
{+4.99/18 0.2} 23. bxa6 {-1.35/6 0.1} Rxe1+ {+4.99/16 0.1} 24. Rxe1
{-1.60/7 0.1} bxa6 {+5.01/14 0.1} 25. Re5 {-1.14/5 0.1} Bc6 {+4.92/16 0.2}
26. a5 {-1.67/5 0.1} Rb8 {+4.95/15 0.1} 27. Re1 {-2.69/6 0.1} Rb2
{+4.89/16 0.1} 28. Rd1 {-3.09/6 0.1} Ba4 {+5.23/13 0.1} 29. Bc1
{-3.29/6 0.1} Ra2 {+5.18/16} 30. Rf1 {-2.94/6 0.1} Bd7 {+5.21/16 0.1} 31.
Bg5 {-2.60/5 0.1} f6 {+5.44/15 0.1} 32. Bh6 {-3.10/6 0.1} Rxa5
{+5.27/13 0.1} 33. Rd1 {-3.16/4 0.1} g5 {+5.23/16 0.1} 34. Rb1
{-3.66/5 0.1} Rb5 {+5.47/18 0.1} 35. Re1 {-5.00/5 0.1} a5 {+5.63/13 0.1}
36. g3 {-4.36/4 0.1} a4 {+5.64/14 0.1} 37. f4 {-4.13/5 0.1} a3
{+5.96/13 0.1} 38. fxg5 {-2.56/5 0.1} a2 {+6.06/14 0.1} 39. gxf6
{-2.46/4 0.1} Rb1 {+7.59/16} 40. Rxb1 {-11.76/5 0.1} axb1=Q+ {+99.85/28}
41. Kg2 {-13.75/6 0.1} Qc2+ {+99.87/31} 42. Kg1 {-14.53/5 0.1} Bh3
{+99.93/26 0.1} 43. f7+ {-327.65/8 0.2} Kxf7 {+99.95/174 0.4} 44. Bd2
{-327.65/7 0.2}
{White wins on time} 1-0

[/pgn]

[mar]

Problem has been solved by disabling animate dragging, animate moving and highlight last move in winboard user interface.
Skipper only able to win a 5 second game now. I tried 15 seconds yesterday. But Skipper lost all games.

GUIs that count piece animation time as engine thinking time are fundamentally broken though
GUIs should stop clock as soon as they receive a move from the engine

[ehenkes]

Stockfish is really very strong with high time pressure:

[Henk]

Yet another win. But again only 5 seconds game. It is a bit different for I also closed the engine output window. So it does not show the pv tree etc. which might save time.

By the way it also still writes the moves to the games.pgn move which is also time consuming I guess.
So next step would be to disable that.


[pgn]
[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site "GEBRUIK-645EVFP"]
[Date "2026.05.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Skipper_15_143"]
[Black "Stockfish 18"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "5"]
[Annotator "1. +0.30 1... -0.43"]

1. e4 {+0.30/9} e5 {-0.43/15 0.2} 2. Bc4 {+0.18/8 0.1} Nf6 {+0.11/12 0.1}
3. d3 {+0.01/8 0.1} c6 {+0.05/13 0.2} 4. Be3 {-0.06/7 0.1} d5
{+0.72/13 0.1} 5. exd5 {-0.71/6 0.1} cxd5 {+0.73/15} 6. Bb5+ {-0.71/6 0.1}
Nc6 {+1.03/12 0.1} 7. Nf3 {-1.17/6 0.1} Qa5+ {+2.86/13 0.1} 8. Nc3
{-1.06/6 0.1} d4 {+3.06/15} 9. Nxd4 {-2.34/6 0.1} exd4 {+2.97/12} 10. Bxd4
{-2.65/6 0.1} Be7 {+3.10/15 0.4} 11. O-O {-2.13/5 0.1} Be6 {+3.15/15 0.2}
12. Bxc6+ {-2.88/5 0.1} bxc6 {+3.10/14 0.1} 13. Qf3 {-2.91/5 0.1} O-O
{+3.12/14} 14. Qxc6 {-2.98/5 0.1} Rab8 {+3.29/15} 15. Ne4 {-3.26/5 0.1}
Rfc8 {+4.34/15 0.1} 16. Nxf6+ {-3.21/5 0.1} Bxf6 {+4.57/13} 17. Qe4
{-3.70/5 0.1} Bxd4 {+4.62/12} 18. Qxd4 {-3.86/6 0.1} Rxc2 {+4.69/12 0.1}
19. b3 {-3.99/6 0.1} h6 {+4.55/17 0.4} 20. Qa4 {-3.34/6 0.1} Qxa4
{+4.95/14} 21. bxa4 {-3.44/6 0.1} g6 {+4.86/16 0.3} 22. Rab1 {-2.82/5 0.1}
Rxb1 {+5.20/15} 23. Rxb1 {-4.01/8 0.1} Rxa2 {+5.09/17 0.2} 24. h4
{-3.83/6 0.1} Rxa4 {+5.11/17 0.2} 25. g3 {-4.03/6 0.1} Kh7 {+4.92/17 0.3}
26. f4 {-3.76/6 0.1} Ra3 {+5.05/14 0.1} 27. Kf2 {-4.60/6 0.1} Rxd3
{+5.38/14} 28. Ra1 {-4.82/6 0.1} Rd2+ {+5.23/16 0.1} 29. Kf3 {-4.61/6 0.1}
Ra2 {+5.28/16 0.1} 30. Rxa2 {-4.65/7 0.1} Bd5+ {+5.72/17 0.1} 31. Ke3
{-4.65/8 0.1} Bxa2 {+6.01/15} 32. g4 {-4.60/8 0.1} Be6 {+5.97/13} 33. g5
{-4.61/8 0.1} h5 {+6.65/18 0.1} 34. Ke4 {-4.73/9 0.1} a5 {+6.87/16} 35. Kd4
{-4.86/8 0.1} a4 {+7.32/13} 36. Kd3 {-5.51/8 0.1} a3 {+7.87/14 0.1} 37. Kc3
{-5.58/8 0.1} a2 {+8.04/16} 38. Kb2 {-5.62/9 0.1} Kg7 {+8.53/14} 39. Ka1
{-5.78/9 0.1} f5 {+9.13/15 0.1} 40. Kb2 {-6.14/10 0.1} Kf7 {+10.51/10} 41.
Ka1 {-7.60/10 0.1} Kf8 {+16.07/20} 42. Kb2 {-7.60/10 0.1} Bd5 {+12.71/18}
43. Ka1 {-7.60/9 0.1} Ke7 {+99.67/19 0.1} 44. Kb2 {-7.60/9 0.1} Kd6
{+99.67/27} 45. Ka1 {-7.60/10 0.1} Bb3 {+99.73/28} 46. Kb2 {-7.60/9 0.1}
Kd5 {+99.77/28} 47. Ka1 {-10.20/10 0.1} Ke4 {+99.79/29} 48. Kb2
{-10.20/8 0.1} Kxf4 {+99.81/30} 49. Ka1 {-15.35/8 0.1} Ke4 {+99.83/32} 50.
Kb2 {-15.35/8 0.1} f4 {+99.85/31} 51. Kxb3 {-16.15/7 0.1} a1=Q
{+99.87/29 0.1} 52. Kc4 {-23.13/7 0.1} Qd4+ {+99.89/21 0.1} 53. Kb3
{-27.00/8 0.1} Kd3 {+99.93/60} 54. Ka2 {-24.49/7 0.1} Kc3 {+99.95/171 0.2}
55. Kb1 {-327.65/9 0.1} Qd2 {+99.97/195 0.2} 56. Ka1 {-327.65/10 0.1}
{White wins on time} 1-0
[/pgn]