Houdini Chess Engine
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Welcome to the Houdini Chess Engine home page. Houdini is a state-of-the-art chess engine for Windows that competes with the best commercial and free software.
The name "Houdini" was chosen because of the engine's tenacity in difficult positions and its ability to defend stubbornly and escape with a draw – sometimes by the narrowest of margins. At the same time Houdini will deny its opponents the same escape routes when it has the better position.
How to use it
The program has no graphical interface but can be used with any UCI-compatible chess graphical user interface (GUI) like the free Arena chess interface or the commercial Chessbase, Shredder or Aquarium chess interfaces.
If you haven't already, first download the chess GUI of your choice.
Then download the Houdini version that suits your environment (32 or 64-bit, 1, 2 or up to 8 cores), copy it to a local directory on your computer, and install it in the chess GUI.
Downloads
Houdini is currently available for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, for 1 CPU, 2 CPU and up to 8 CPU. Each executable is optimized for the specific number of CPUs, it's recommended that you use the version that matches your hardware. For example, on a single core computer the 1 CPU version will run slightly faster than the 2 CPU version. Use the 8 CPU version if you have a computer with more than two cores.
Strength
Houdini appears to be notably stronger (+75 Elo) than Stockfish 1.7 and Rybka 3, and slightly stronger (+20 Elo) than the Firebird / Ivanhoe / Robbolito gang.
Your mileage may vary, obviously.
Each executable is optimized for the specific number of CPUs, it's recommended that you use the version that matches your hardware. For example, on a single core computer the 1 CPU version will run slightly faster than the 2 CPU version. Use the 8 CPU version if you have a computer with more than two cores.
I don't have regular access to computers with 4 or 8 cores, so haven't been able to test the 8 CPU version as extensively as the 1 and 2 CPU versions. It would be nice if someone with 4 or 8 cores could use it a while to see whether the SMP algorithm works equally well with a high number of cores.
32 bit version
Can be used on any not too ancient Windows version.
* Single core: Houdini_w32_1CPU (129 kB)
http://www.multiupload.com/4MVNQKYGRJ * Dual core: Houdini_w32_2CPU (156 kB)
http://www.multiupload.com/0P6GF8028K * Up to 8 cores: (currently not available)
64 bit version
Recommended for 64-bit Windows, the speed increase is about 30% compared to the 32-bit version.
* Single core: Houdini_x64_1CPU (120 kB)
http://www.multiupload.com/A9JW3L94UZ * Dual core: Houdini_x64_2CPU (147 kB)
http://www.multiupload.com/XOPPVWHW8W * Up to 8 cores: (currently not available)
Version history
* Version 1.0 (20100515): First public release
Options
Currently the following UCI options are available:
* Hash: amount of memory used by the program in MB. Default 128, min 4, max 16384.
* Threads: maximum number of cores used by the analysis. Default is version-dependent, min 1, max 8.
* Split_Depth: minimum depth at which work will be split between cores. Default 11, min 8, max 99.
* Ponder: have the engine think during its opponent's time. True (1) or false (0).
Houdini does not (yet) use Endgame Table Bases, but has built-in knowledge of a number of basic endgames including KQ v KP, KB v KBP which makes it a great performer in the endgame as well.
2010 Cruxis, Robert Houdart Cruxis Home
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NOTE **
Some have problems creating engines in Fritz
advice (not mine ) is as follows
Try in Fritz 11 and go to the Houdini x64 2_CPU.uci file and put any name Author =
or
make this File Manually
Quote:
[ENGINE]
Name=Houdini x64 2_CPU
Author=any name
Filename=C:\ { put here the engine }
