Cloud engine

A cloud engine is a chess engine whose computation runs on another computer and is accessed through the Internet or another network. A chess engine is a program that analyzes positions and proposes moves or evaluations. In this model, the position is sent to the remote system, the analysis is performed there, and the results are returned to the user's application.

This model lets users draw on hardware that is not physically inside the device they are using. Someone might access from a laptop an engine running on a more powerful computer, for example, or a service may provide engines installed on servers. A graphical user interface, the visual layer with a board and controls, can display that analysis much as it would display output from an engine installed locally.

The essential difference from a local engine is the location of the computation, not the strength of the program. Being in the cloud does not automatically make an engine better: analysis quality depends on the engine, version, settings, hardware, and thinking time. Remote access also depends on the network connection and the availability of the service.