POLL: Whether Houdini Is A Clone?

[Uly]

Any chess engine rating list that avoids including the strongest chess engines (in particular Houdini 1.5!!) has basically a hidden agenda of wanting to avoid dethroning their pet chess engines (very often Rybka 4)!

Oh, come on!, that's pure speculation, I just hope the day comes soon when Stockfish or Critter (or anybody) top the rating list and it becomes evident that the reason was unrelated to "pet chess engine" nonsense.

[xshat]

less talk of clones it seems more like a race.

[BB+]

Albert Silver was suggesting the name "Houdini" back in Dec 2005:

I can't recall Deep Fritz 8 ever looking in such bad shape. It lost even winning attacks. Here is one position where I was certain Rybka was done for:
[D]5k1r/pb3q2/1p2p1Rp/3nPp1Q/2r2P2/P5P1/1P2N3/4KB1R w K - 0 32
yet 20 some moves later the position looked like this:
[D]8/p7/1p2p1k1/1P2Pp2/P2r1PnP/5Q1K/R5B1/2q5 b - - 0 56
I think Rybka is a poor name. Houdini seems more appropriate.

Incidentally, there was "Rybka 1.0 Preview" available Dec 11 [via shareit! for 34 euros], and by Dec 21 there was "Rybka 1.01" (or Preview II) playing against GM Berg on ICC.

[Uly]

Oh, so that's from where the name comes from.

I have to agree, leaving everything computer chess aside, Houdini is a great name (probably better than Rybka, but I don't think Rybka is a poor one. Still IMHO Houdini has the best name of all the controversial engines).