Houdini 3 released

[Tennison]

It's logical ...
You write your message at 6:00 am (Belgium Time) ...
I think Robert Houdart must sleep a little sometimes.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

3 are enough

for you maybe, so speak for yourself

For me not even close.

At least i SHOULD now that before i buy it

I agree with Kostas....

He as a customer has the full right to know before buying.....
Dr.D

[Lion]

Last results after 1836 games is showing +44 ELO over H2c which is IMHO a very good improvement.
It is now over 100 ELO stronger than Deep Rybka 4.1 !

For now, Vas is no longer in the game....

rgds

[MM]

Big congratulations to Mr. Houdart. It's clear that the tremendous strength improvement didn't happen by tuning values, but by adding new chess knowledge, search improvements, etc.

I don't see any tremendous strenght improvement, for now.
Basing on the most reliable (in my opinion) rating list, ipon chess, actually H3 is rated 38 elo better than H2. Of course it would be a good gain as well but i wouldn't call it in that way, at least for now.

http://www.inwoba.de/index.html

Best Regards

It's too early to conclude based on the IPON results. But at the very top even +38 ELO is a tremendous improvement. It's very difficult to achieve and requires a lot of work and ridiculous amounts of testing.

I think you are certainly right when you say that at this high level it is hard to improve the strenght of an engine.

But IMO i think that, considering 13 months and especially considering the ''relative'' positional play weakness of Houdini 2, H3 could have been a bit stronger than what it appears.

Of course it is too early to jump to conclusions and perhaps it's me to want too much, but i expected more.
Best Regards

How much stronger do you want it? It is (at the moment at least) scoring over 60% against every opponent on the IPON.

I expected 50 elo better, as claimed by Robert. I see we are not so far right now.
But +40 would be satisfying, don't forget consumers pay for the product.

Best Regards

[Uri Blass]

It's logical ...
You write your message at 6:00 am (Belgium Time) ...
I think Robert Houdart must sleep a little sometimes.

I got it some minutes ago.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Hi Robert.
Congratulations and many thanks for a wonderful engine!
Houdini is a piece of art.
I have 2 questions:
1. not important, but still interesting to know - what is the pronunciation of Houdini? Is the 'h' actually pronounced or not? It is logical that the name of the engine is patterned after the author's name, and Houdart is obviously a French name.
2. What made it impossible to integrate the tactical mode into the default engine? Would you plan to do so in the future?

Best regards,
Lyudmil

[MM]

Hi Robert.
Congratulations and many thanks for a wonderful engine!
Houdini is a piece of art.
What made it impossible to integrate the tactical mode into the default engine? Would you plan to do so in the future?

Best regards,
Lyudmil

The question is very interesting, i quote it.

Best Regards

[Houdini]

Hi Robert.
Congratulations and many thanks for a wonderful engine!
Houdini is a piece of art.
I have 2 questions:
1. not important, but still interesting to know - what is the pronunciation of Houdini? Is the 'h' actually pronounced or not? It is logical that the name of the engine is patterned after the author's name, and Houdart is obviously a French name.
2. What made it impossible to integrate the tactical mode into the default engine? Would you plan to do so in the future?

Best regards,
Lyudmil

1) In Dutch the "H" is pronounced like in English, but of course I cannot tell anyone how the name Houdini should be pronounced, the name existed long before the engine.

2) By separating the Tactical Mode I could add more focus on tactical moves and some clever search "tricks" that work well for tactical positions but not for normal positions.
The Tactical Mode ended up about 25-30 Elo weaker than the default.

Robert

[Master Om]

Is it possible to buy without Paypal ?. I don't have credit card and in India donot work.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Hi Robert.
Congratulations and many thanks for a wonderful engine!
Houdini is a piece of art.
I have 2 questions:
1. not important, but still interesting to know - what is the pronunciation of Houdini? Is the 'h' actually pronounced or not? It is logical that the name of the engine is patterned after the author's name, and Houdart is obviously a French name.
2. What made it impossible to integrate the tactical mode into the default engine? Would you plan to do so in the future?

Best regards,
Lyudmil

1) In Dutch the "H" is pronounced like in English, but of course I cannot tell anyone how the name Houdini should be pronounced, the name existed long before the engine.

2) By separating the Tactical Mode I could add more focus on tactical moves and some clever search "tricks" that work well for tactical positions but not for normal positions.
The Tactical Mode ended up about 25-30 Elo weaker than the default.

Robert

Thanks, Robert.
So you are actually a Flemish?

When I asked about the tactical mode, I thought that it would not be very reasonable to expect from users to switch back and forth to tactical and normal mode, moreover that most users would not have objective criteria to know with certainty which position is better checked with the tactical mode and which with normal mode. Was not it really possible to introduce yourself such a clever system of criteria so that the engine knows when to use the one or the other mode?
That would certainly make much sense, just my couple of cents.

Best regards,
Lyudmil