Exciting news for the computer chess world – Houdini 5 chess engine has officially confirmed participation in the Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC) Season 9.The winner of Seasons 1 to 3 and holder of the bronze medal in Seasons 5 to 7 will enter all-in Season 9 of the competition with a brand new version. The top of the line Chess King Diamond Pro includes the new super strong engine Houdini 6 Pro and now replaces versions with Houdini 5 Pro. Houdini 6 Pro is the latest and strongest engine that most GM’s use, with an estimated rating above 3460 ELO.
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Large Memory Pages. Houdini Pro will use so-called large memory pages if they are provided by the operating system. Depending on the hash table size the speed gain may be between 5% and 15%.
| Developer(s) | Robert Houdart |
|---|---|
| Initial release | May 15, 2010; 9 years ago |
| Stable release | |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Chess engine |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm |
Houdini is a UCIchess engine developed by Belgianprogrammer Robert Houdart. It is influenced by open-source engines IPPOLIT/RobboLito, Stockfish, and Crafty. Earlier versions are free for non-commercial use (up to version 1.5a), but later versions (2.0 and onwards) are commercial. As of February 2019, Houdini 6 is the third highest-rated chess engine on major chess engine rating lists, behind Stockfish and Komodo.[1]
Playing style[edit]
Chess commentator and video annotator CM Tryfon Gavriel compared Houdini's playing style to that of the Romantic Era of chess, where an attacking, sacrificial style was predominant.[2] According to Robert Houdart, Houdini's advantage against other top engines is in its handling of piece mobility, which is why it 'favors aggressive play that tries to win the game'.[3]
Version history[edit]
| Version | Release date | Features[4] |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | May 15, 2010 | First release |
| 1.01 | June 1, 2010 | Bug fixes, improved search algorithm |
| 1.02 | June 18, 2010 | SMP and hash collision bug fixes. Work-around for Shredder GUI. |
| 1.03 | July 15, 2010 | Multi-PV, searchmove and large page support. Improved evaluation function. |
| 1.03a | July 17, 2010 | Bug fix for Multi-PV |
| 1.5 | December 15, 2010 | Improved search and evaluation. Gaviota Table Base Support. |
| 1.5a | January 15, 2011 | Maintenance update with work-arounds for Fritz GUI and other minor improvements. |
| 2.0 | September 1, 2011 | First commercial release. Improved analysis capabilities, enhanced search and evaluation. Houdini Pro version for high-end users with powerful hardware (multi-core support). Chess960 support. Strength limit feature. Position learning. Save hash to file, load hash from file, never clear hash. |
| 2.0b | November 7, 2011 | Maintenance update with minor bug corrections and Nalimov EGTB support. |
| 2.0c | November 20, 2011 | Maintenance update with minor bug corrections and new analysis options. MultiPV_cp option to limit multi-PV analysis to moves within a range of the best move. FiftyMoveDistance option to make the 50-move rule kick in earlier. UCI_Elo and UCI_LimitStrength options as UCI standard-compliant alternative to Strength option. Exit on detection with GUI exit. |
| 3.0 | October 15, 2012 | Major new version. Improved search and evaluation (+50 Elo), Tactical Mode, Scorpio bitbases, accelerated Principal Variation Search 'Smart Fail-High', optimized hash usage. |
| 4.0 |
November 25, 2013 |
Major new version. Improved search and evaluation (+50 Elo), 6-men Syzygy table bases (coding provided by Ronald de Man) |
| 5.0 |
November 7, 2016 |
Major new version, about 200 Elo stronger. Rewritten evaluation function, deeper search. |
| 5.01 |
November 15, 2016 |
Maintenance update with some interface corrections and improvements. |
| 6.0 |
September 15, 2017 |
Major new version. Improved search and evaluation (+50-60 Elo), enhanced multi-threading. |
| 6.01 |
September 24, 2017 |
Maintenance update with Nalimov EGTB correction and new output option. |
| 6.02 |
October 1, 2017 |
Maintenance update with Polyglot book support. |
| 6.03 |
November 20, 2017 |
Correction for incorrect detection of stalemate in positions with white pawn capture moves. |
The latest stable release of Houdini comes in two versions: Houdini 6 Standard and Houdini 6 Pro. Houdini 6 Pro supports up to 128 processor cores, 128 GB of RAM (hash) and is NUMA-aware, Houdini 5 Standard only supports up to 8 processor cores, 4 GB of hash and is not NUMA-aware. As with many other UCI engines, Houdini comes with no GUI, so a chess GUI is needed for running the engine. Houdini 5 uses calibrated evaluations in which engine scores correlate directly with the win expectancy in the position.[4]
Competition results[edit]
Houdini is one of the most successful engines in the TCEC tournament, which is often regarded as the Unofficial World Computer Chess Championship, with four championship wins to date.[5]
Notable games[edit]
Houdini 5 Chess Program
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
- TCEC Houdini - Rybka Match 2011 · Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation. Stoltz Attack Ivanchuk Line (B22) · 0–1 Houdini sacrifices three pawns for piece activity and defeats the reigning computer chess champion Rybka in this game, popularly dubbed as the 'Houdini Immortal'.[6][7]
- TCEC Houdini - Rybka Match 2011 · Spanish Game: Closed Variations (C84) · 0–1[8]
- TCEC Houdini - Rybka Match 2011 · Queen Pawn Game: London System (D02) · 1–0 Houdini plays a pawn sacrifice on move 43.[9]
References[edit]
- ^'CCRL 40/40'. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
- ^'Houdini with Black pieces in the Thoresen Chess Engines Competition. Game shows Houdini playing style from 6:23' on YouTube
- ^'Interview with Robert Houdart, Mark Lefler and GM Larry Kaufman'. chessdom.com. November 23, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2017.
- ^ abCruxis, Retrieved 16 June 2012
- ^'Houdini is TCEC Season 10 champion!'. 7 December 2017.
- ^Video annotation by Kingscrusher on YouTube
- ^Monokroussos, Dennis. 'Houdini 1.5a defeats Rybka 4: 23.5-16.5'. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^Video annotation by Kingscrusher on YouTube
- ^'Free Houdini beats commercial Rybka 23.5-16.5'. Chessvibes. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
External links[edit]
Houdini Chess Engine Free Download
- Interview with Houdart about the genesis and strengths of his program
Free Chess Program Download
Chess Program Cheat