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Bram Mourik · Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 421

TimoK wrote:

beram wrote:

As far as can be judged by observing the games and the results, there is no diminishing strength difference to be seen between Komodo and Houdini, as was the myth created by Don.
Game 18 was an example of good late middlegame/endgame play by Houdini. With black it played very strong as you can replay from move 80 till move 112.

Hi Bram,

indeed it seems like there is no worse scaling of Houdini with long TCs. Ok, Don and Larry were talking about version 1.5a, maybe they were right concerning that version, but version 2.0c shows the same excellent performance like in shorter TCs.

The game you mentioned was very thrilling in the late middlegame / endgame, but in the end the time was too short for Houdini to find the best moves. With an even longer TC like 125/50+125/50+... (repeating) maybe it would score even better.

Best regards
Timo

Hi Timo, and it goes on with another tactic finale by Houdini in game 23
[D] 6k1/1p1rqp2/r1p1p1pb/P3P2p/1pNPQ2P/1P3RP1/5PK1/3R4 w - - 0 45

After some squeezing manoeuvring in middlegame, the position asks for an attack on the black king by opening up on the kingside with g4.
Houdini played 45. Kh3 ! (giving already +0.73) Komodo4 had expected g4 (which is not that good, for example: 45.g4 Qxh4 46.Rg3 Bg7 47.Rh1 Qd8 48.gxh5 Rxd4 49.Qf3 Qd5 50.hxg6 f5)
Giving the position to Komodo 3 it just wants to play Ra1 for very long time till depth 28. At depth 29 after 16 minutes it sees the light:
Analysis by Komodo64 3:
45.Ra1 Bg7 46.Ra4 Qd8 47.Qf4 Bf8 48.Nb6 Rc7 49.Ra1 Bg7 50.Qe4 Re7 51.Ra4 Rc7 52.Ra2 Bf8 53.Qf4 Ra7 54.Kg1 Bg7 55.Ra4 Bf8 56.Qd2 Bc5 57.Rd3 Bxb6 58.axb6 Rxa4 59.bxa4 Rc8 60.Qxb4 c5
+/= (0.41) Depth: 29 00:07:56 634mN
45.Kh3
+/= (0.58) Depth: 29 00:16:01 1261mN
45.Kh3
+/- (1.05) Depth: 29 01:04:14 4918mN

All other engines; Stockfish2.2.2, Rybka4.1, Critter1.4, I ve tried, find Kh3 within reasonable time 10-60 sec. With reversed colors in game 24, it became a draw.
So now 13,5 – 11,5 for Houdini = 56,25 %

Grts Bram

(23) Houdini 2.0c Pro x64 [t=1] - Komodo64 SSE Version 4 [E05]
Houdini-Komodo (23.1), 11.03.2012
[0.12;0.03]
AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 905e Processor 3000 MHz W=23.2 plies; 1.863kN/s B=23.9 plies; 863kN/s 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4 a5 11.Nc3 Na6 12.Ne5 Bxg2 13.Kxg2 Nd5 0.03/24 3:00 14.Rad1 (Nxd5) 0.12/22 3:58 14...c6 (Nab4) 0.01/23 2:51 15.Bc1 (Qb3) 0.12/23 2:33 15...Nb6 0.05/25 4:14 16.Qb3 0.11/23 2:12 Nb4 0.17/24 2:17 17.e4 0.16/23 49 Qc7 (Bd6) 0.13/23 2:49 18.Be3 (Bf4) 0.18/23 10:47 18...Rfe8 (Rfd8) 0.17/22 3:43 19.Rc1 (Nd3) 0.25/22 3:01 19...h6 0.17/21 4:50 20.Rfd1 (Nb5) 0.24/24 0 20...Ra6 (Bf8) 0.26/23 4:58 21.Bf4 0.31/23 2:50 Qd8 0.37/23 36 22.Na2 0.27/22 5:39 Ra8 (Bf8) 0.37/24 1:36 23.Nxb4 (Be3) 0.31/22 3:48 23...axb4 0.21/24 2:07 24.h3 (Ra1) 0.28/23 2:20 24...Bf8 (Rf8) 0.19/23 4:18 25.Ra1 0.26/23 2:31 Nd7 0.46/25 4:47 26.Nc4 0.27/22 27 Nb6 0.46/25 4:25 27.Nd2 0.29/25 0 h5 (Ra6) 0.41/24 5:04 28.h4 (a5) 0.44/24 7:22 28...Nd7 (Ra5) 0.47/23 3:11 29.Qe3 0.50/23 2:48 Nf6 0.59/24 50 30.Nc4 (f3) 0.48/25 2:10 30...Nd5 0.34/23 48 31.Qf3 0.48/26 4:59 Nxf4+ 0.34/28 4:31 32.Qxf4 0.49/26 0 g6 (Qf6) 0.35/26 3:00 33.a5 (b3) 0.50/24 4:05 33...Ra6 (Bg7) 0.23/23 50 34.Rd3 (Qf3) 0.51/24 3:23 34...Qe7 (Re7) 0.43/24 5:58 35.Rad1 0.51/25 3:21 Rd8 0.44/24 56 36.e5 (b3) 0.51/25 7:20 36...Bg7 0.35/24 4:04 37.Rb3 (Rf3) 0.51/25 2:25 37...Rd5 0.18/22 33 38.Qe4 (Rf3) 0.51/25 6:51 38...Bf8 (Bh6) 0.27/25 3:48 39.Rf3 0.51/24 2:28 Bh6 (Bg7) 0.26/24 44 40.Qe1 (Nb6) 0.51/25 3:05 40...Bg7 (Rd8) 0.24/25 2:10 41.b3 (Qe2) 0.51/25 3:05 41...Rd7 (Rd8) 0.30/25 3:19 42.Qd2 (Qe3) 0.51/26 2:53 42...Qf8 (Rd5) 0.31/26 2:51 43.Qf4 (Qe2) 0.51/26 3:00 43...Bh6 0.54/25 8:26 44.Qe4 0.51/29 0 Qe7 (Qd8) 0.48/26 4:01 45.Kh3 (g4) 0.73/24 6:08 [45.g4 Qxh4 46.Rg3 Bg7 47.Rh1 Qd8 48.gxh5 Rxd4 49.Qf3 Qd5 50.hxg6 f5 51.exf6 Bxf6 52.Rh5 Qxf3+ 53.Rxf3] 45...Bg7 (Qf8) 0.81/24 11:19 46.g4 1.55/21 4:23 hxg4+ 1.11/23 1:24 47.Qxg4 1.70/21 3:16 c5 (Qd8) 1.00/25 2:37 48.h5 2.08/21 4:08 cxd4 (Rxd4) 1.15/25 18 49.hxg6 3.33/22 4:45 f5 1.79/26 0 50.exf6 (Qf4) 3.42/21 1:19 50...Bxf6 1.75/22 20 51.Nb6 3.43/23 0 Rd8 (Rc7) 1.77/23 3:10 52.Qh5 4.59/19 39 Qg7 1.85/22 16 53.Kg2 (Qh7+) 4.78/19 0 53...Rf8 3.70/22 2:13 54.Rc1 7.51/22 0 Rxa5 (Re8) 6.11/23 5:57 55.Qxa5 10.47/18 26 d3 6.23/23 1:08 56.Qxb4 (Qh5) 10.05/21 0 1–0