'Houdini wins the Superfinal 25-23 and is therefore the nTCEC Grand Champion. Congratulations to Robert Houdart and thanks to everyone following nTCEC. Season 2 will begin in the autumn, about 4 months from now.'
Background
Houdini and Stockfish played a big match in 2012.
Houdini Background
Houdini is a state-of-the-art chess engine for Windows combining outstanding positional evaluation with the most sophisticated search algorithm.
The name Houdini was chosen because of the engine's positional style, its tenacity in difficult positions and its ability to defend stubbornly and escape with a draw – sometimes by the narrowest of margins. On the other hand Houdini will often use razor-sharp tactics to deny its opponents escape routes when it has the better position.
At the time of writing Houdini leads all the major Computer Chess rating lists and is widely considered to be the strongest chess engine on the planet.
The new Houdini 3 contains many evaluation and search improvements in all phases of the game and is about 50 Elo stronger than its predecessor Houdini 2. The opening improvements are mostly related to piece activity and space management and are convincingly demonstrated by the progress in Fischer Random Chess for which Houdini 3 has become about 75 Elo stronger.
In the middle game Houdini 3 has significant enhancements for recognizing pieces with limited mobility and in king-side safety. In end games Houdini 3 will seek deeper and solve more positions than before.
From ChessBase
'Houdini's "father" is Robert Houdard, a Belgian structural engineer with a peak rating of 2250 and chess engines as hobby.
Houdini programmer Robert Houdard
Photo-Chessbase
It is interesting to hear him explain the secret behind Houdini:
- I would like to pinpoint two key concepts: good evaluation and even better selectivity. It's self-evident that good evaluation of a position is the key for a good chess engine. Houdini is probably the best engine to evaluate piece mobility and space control on the board.
- Selectivity is another key feature in Houdini. Just like a human player, an engine doesn't look at all the moves to the same depth. Potentially good moves are examined exhaustively, whereas apparently weaker moves are only given a quick, shallow look.
Some moves are examined 40 or 50 plies deep, other only five. Houdini has a good ability to identify which moves in the position have some potential. It's similar to the instinct and experience of a strong human chess player – looking at just a handful of moves in a position, discarding nearly instantaneously and without thinking the 30 other moves.
Superfinal Match Game 9 of 48
Houdini3.0 gambited a pawn early and then got dark square control on the queenside for the pawn. Later Stockfish made a defensive exchange sacrifice to reduce the pressure but allowed the c-file to be opened. Houdini cashed in with strong RR-RB play in the ending.
Houdini 3 (3169) - Stockfish 250413 (3095)
Catalan Open[E04]
nTCEC - Superfinal - Season (9.1), 28.04.2013
http://www.tcec-chess.net
Position 1
The initial focus on dark square control for a pawn continued into the ending. Now white has an extra exchange, better king and many weak pawns to target. What do you recommend for white?
White to Play
54...Ke8
No comments:
Post a Comment