VERY INTERESTING Stockfish vs. Houdini Match Has Begun!

[shrapnel]

Yes, certainly very interesting.
Hmm.... wonder whether Stockfish results would be so good if Houdini 3 was at Contempt 0 !?
It's my belief that Houdini 3 becomes a STONEWALL when at Contempt 0, especially at LTCs !
It may not be very aggressive of course, but its evaluation is dead accurate and the SLIGHTEST mistake by the opponent is severely punished, in my experience.

[geots]

Yes- game 17 was most definitely a loss for Stockfish. As the King STILL had never moved, as hard as it may be to believe- Stockfish's kingside Rook had moved 5 times- the 5th being back to his original position! That won't beat Houdini.

Game 18- Stockfish plays the white pieces & the game is drawn.

Game 19- Houdini plays white- Stockfish wins with black!

(I thought I had noticed it before, more than once or twice- but I wrote it off to blitz. I believe- notice that means "maybe" - I found a hole in Houdini's game. Problem is- I cannot imagine how it could help a programmer. I'm just sayin'......)





Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games

Code: Select all

Stockfish 290613 64 SSE4.2    +7/-3/=9
Houdini 3 x64                 +3/-7/=9

Lot of chess to be played yet-

[geots]

We have finished one game past the halfway mark. Interesting that Stockfish has 2 different back-to-back wins and one stretch where he won 3 games in a row. Whereas Houdini has NO back-to-back wins. A bit unusual.

*I might add that unless I am asleep, I keep a close check on task manager to make sure all is as it should be there.




Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games

Code: Select all

Stockfish 290613 64 SSE4.2    +9/-4/=13 
Houdini 3 x64                 +4/-9/=13

Only change since the last update- Stockfish has increased his lead from 4 to 5 games. Game 27 is at the endgame beginning, as Houdini has the white pieces. Problem is there, he is going to have to fight for a draw. He cannot win- Stockfish conceivably could. The point to all this rambling on my part: if Stockfish were to win this game, or draw and win the next game with white- the lead would then be 6 games. A good bit of "what if", but at what point, as games are drawn quite a bit- does Houdini start running out of time?

I shall leave that to "each his own"..................

[geots]

Stockfish snatched a win from the jaws of a draw! Which means he has now increased his lead over Houdini 3 to 6 games! And playing the white pieces in game 28 that has just begun. Hmm.....................


See you after sleep-

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Stockfish snatched a win from the jaws of a draw! Which means he has now increased his lead over Houdini 3 to 6 games! And playing the white pieces in game 28 that has just begun. Hmm.....................


See you after sleep-

Thanks George for running this match.....

The fight between these two monsters is unhuman.....

I am following up with big interest regards,
Dr.D

[shrapnel]

Yes- game 17 was most definitely a loss for Stockfish. As the King STILL had never moved, as hard as it may be to believe- Stockfish's kingside Rook had moved 5 times- the 5th being back to his original position! That won't beat Houdini.

Game 18- Stockfish plays the white pieces & the game is drawn.

Game 19- Houdini plays white- Stockfish wins with black!

(I thought I had noticed it before, more than once or twice- but I wrote it off to blitz. I believe- notice that means "maybe" - I found a hole in Houdini's game. Problem is- I cannot imagine how it could help a programmer. I'm just sayin'......)





Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games

Code: Select all

Stockfish 290613 64 SSE4.2    +7/-3/=9
Houdini 3 x64                 +3/-7/=9

Lot of chess to be played yet-

Oh yes, you did, like I already have ! Houdini 3 is definitely the best in the Opening phase and early Middle game and End-Game, but after many online games, I'm absolutely certain there are a lot of holes in its Middle-Game proper !
I'm no programmer myself, but I can DEFINITELY say that some of Stockfish's moves in the Middle game most certainly take Houdini 3 by surprise. This has happened too many times to be just a coincidence .
I have a feeling that Mr Houdart is aware of this middle-game problem and will hopefully address it in Houdini 4 !

[gerold]

Yes- game 17 was most definitely a loss for Stockfish. As the King STILL had never moved, as hard as it may be to believe- Stockfish's kingside Rook had moved 5 times- the 5th being back to his original position! That won't beat Houdini.

Game 18- Stockfish plays the white pieces & the game is drawn.

Game 19- Houdini plays white- Stockfish wins with black!

(I thought I had noticed it before, more than once or twice- but I wrote it off to blitz. I believe- notice that means "maybe" - I found a hole in Houdini's game. Problem is- I cannot imagine how it could help a programmer. I'm just sayin'......)





Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games

Code: Select all

Stockfish 290613 64 SSE4.2    +7/-3/=9
Houdini 3 x64                 +3/-7/=9

Lot of chess to be played yet-

Oh yes, you did, like I already have ! Houdini 3 is definitely the best in the Opening phase and early Middle game and End-Game, but after many online games, I'm absolutely certain there are a lot of holes in its Middle-Game proper !
I'm no programmer myself, but I can DEFINITELY say that some of Stockfish's moves in the Middle game most certainly take Houdini 3 by surprise. This has happened too many times to be just a coincidence .
I have a feeling that Mr Houdart is aware of this middle-game problem and will hopefully address it in Houdini 4 !

I watch a lot of games. Most engines are weak in the end game. That's where TB.s come in.

[gerold]

Thanks for taking the time to run this match George.

Best,
Gerold.

[geots]

Well- we have 15 games remaining in this battle- and one hell of a battle it is. Look, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But I can tell you that anyone who thinks there is a Critter version that could stay with either of these engines at said controls is just delusional. Ain't gonna happen.

My friend Anil has some extremely interesting observations. I'm guessing he saw the handwriting on the wall before this match was 1 game old.




Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games

Code: Select all

Stockfish 290613 64 SSE4.2    +10/-5/=20
Houdini 3 x64                 +5/-10/=20

Understand that in no way am I suggesting Houdini wave the white flag. 15 games can be a lifetime when you are playing Houdini 3. If anything were to stand out to me that meant the most- it would be that in the first 35 games, Houdini has been unable to put together even one back-to-back win. And if you figure close to half or more the last 15 games will be drawn, that doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. I'm just sayin'........ it will be tough, but not impossible.



See you soon-

[geots]

The last update was after 35 games, leaving 15 to be played- and Houdini finding himself needing to make up 5 games.

Each has his own take, but to me a rating list is like an FIDE Elo list for humans. First, no engine relinquishes his standing or his being the World champion because of blitz. To me, a championship match on my end must be at no faster control than 40/40. Preferably either 4 or 6 Cores for each. If Stockfish were to win this match- this version is the No.1 engine in the world in my eyes until Houdini or another engine can unseat him. Minimum 50 games and no speeds faster than 40/40. If I go with 40 moves in the 1st 2.5 hours, etc...... , then I would look at the best of 24, or something of that order.

Again, would a victory here mean this version of Stockfish is actually stronger than Houdini 3? That is moot. He would have- at the time it counted, played the better chess. And that is all that matters.

So here is an all-important update:



Alienware AURORA_R4
Intel i7 w/6 True Cores
Fritz 11 gui
6 Cores/64bit
256MB hash
Bases=NONE
Ponder_Learning=OFF
Perfect 2012b.ctg w/12-move limit
40/19 Repeating- benchmarked to adapt to 40/40
Match=50 games


Game 36- Stockfish plays the white pieces- game is drawn!

Game 37- Houdini plays the white pieces- game is drawn!

Game 38- Stockfish plays the white pieces- again, game is drawn!



Now it is really crunch time. Houdini is running out of time- he must now make up a 5 game deficit in 12 games.


Later-