Local engine

A local engine is a chess engine that runs on the user's own computer or device. A chess engine is a program that calculates positions and proposes moves or evaluations. When it is local, the program is installed on that device and performs its calculations with that machine's processor and memory instead of sending the work to a remote server.

A graphical user interface, the visual layer with a board and controls, normally loads the engine and sends it the position to analyze. The engine returns moves, evaluations of which side appears better, and other data, while the interface organizes that output for the user. Stockfish is an example of an engine that can be installed and run locally inside many different interfaces.

The main difference from a cloud engine is where the computation happens. With a local engine, performance depends directly on the user's hardware and the resources assigned to the engine. This gives control over the engine version and settings, but slower hardware may take longer to advance the search. The surrounding application may still use the Internet for other features, so local engine does not necessarily mean the entire program works offline.