Hello to All,
Honestly, there is something really wrong with people's thinking concerning Rybka 4 with respect especially to Houdini! Rybka has been, for years, the best chess engine around by a wide margin. Therefore, goes the current thinking of most people, any chess engine that would be better than Rybka should be a clone or should have borrowed heavily from Rybka's source code! This thinking is plain wrong and it is certainly not logical at all!
It is true that to create a strong chess engine is not for the faint of heart, it is really hard. But, as Robert Houdart has shown with Houdini, it is still possible. Robert Houdart, the gifted Belgian programmer of Houdini, is a programmer by trade and he has programmed chess engines for many years without distributing his previous attempts. When he managed to produce a strong chess engine that is better than Rybka 4, he decided to distribute it freely to all. Oh, I hear some of you say, this must be a clone!! LOL
Robert Houdart, on his web site at
http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm , has the honesty of praising those who inspired him at improving his previous chess engine efforts. He says:
"Without many ideas from the open source chess engines Ippolit/Robbolito, Stockfish and Crafty, Houdini would not nearly be as strong as it is now.".
Where did he find his inspirations? From open source chess engines!! Therefore, not from illegal or dishonest means!
Yes,
many praises to Robert Houdart for creating the strongest chess engine in the world and making it available to all for free. The guy is definitively gifted at programming, that is the only conclusion that you should deduce from the results obtained by Houdini 1.5 on reliable chess engine rating lists.
By the way, here are reliable chess engine rating lists:
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I suggest four reliable and trustworthy chess engines rating lists. Reliable and trustworthy because they compile their chess engines rating lists honestly and they do not have a hidden agenda of wanting to avoid testing particular strong chess engines in order to keep their pet engines at the top!
1)
The TCEC (Thoresen Chess Engines Competition) web site (40 MOVES IN 100 MIN+NEXT 20 MOVES IN 50 MIN+20 MIN FOR THE REST+10 S ADDED PER MOVE AT THIS LAST TIME CONTROL; 6 CORES; TABLEBASES USED; PONDER OFF; HASH USED; ALL OPENING MOVES ARE RANDOMLY FETCHED FROM A PGN FILE WHICH CONTAINS 200.810 DIFFERENT OPENINGS AND THEY ARE ALL FIXED TO 12 MOVES / 24 PLIES) at
http://www.tcec-chess.org/
This site is outstanding! It is not a chess engine rating list per se but it should give you a very good idea of which chess engines are currently the best, as it does several tournaments with the best chess engines available.
Check the listing and the rating of the chess engines that have played in each category (Elite Match, Division I, Division II, and Division III) and you should have a very good idea which chess engines are currently the best in each category. Division I being a stronger category than Division III and the Elite Match being a match between the current top two chess engines in the world (in 2011, Houdini 1.5 is the best first and Rybka 4.0 is a worthy second).
Highly recommended.
In particular, check the Elite Match between Houdini 1.5a and Rybka 4.0 (that is for the top two chess engines in the world). Very interesting games have been played so far.
2)
The G/90mins Ratings (90 MIN TO PLAY ALL THEIR MOVES; 2 CORES; TABLEBASES USED; PONDER ON; HASH USED; OWN OPENING BOOK USED) at
http://www.brinan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... atings.htm
This web site is outstanding!
Visit in particular the other links on this web site.
Highly recommended.
3)
The IPON-Rating-List (5 MIN/GAME+3 S/MOVE; 1 CORE; TABLEBASES USED; PONDER ON; HASH USED; 50 DIFFERENT OPENING POSITIONS [NO BOOKS] ) at
http://www.inwoba.de/
For those more interested at how chess engines perform at playing quick games.
4)
The SWCR Rating (40 MOVES IN 10 MIN; 1 CORE; TABLEBASES USED; PONDER ON; HASH USED; RANDOM OPENING BOOKS USED) at
http://www.amateurschach.de/
Again, for those more interested at how chess engines perform at playing quick games.
WARNING:
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)!
Unfortunately, for quite some time, the CCRL and the CEGT chess engines rating lists have had a not-anymore-hidden agenda of favoring their pet chess engines by avoiding testing stronger chess engines!! In such a case, you know that these chess engines rating lists are completely unreliable and nothing less than dishonest!! Avoid them at all costs!!
In the near future, the CCRL and the CEGT chess engines rating lists will probably be forced to add the best current chess engine in the world, Houdini 1.5, to their rating lists to avoid being ridiculed any further by those who complained about their dishonest way of choosing which chess engines to test in their rating lists and which to purposefully avoid testing!
By carefully selecting dishonestly which chess engines to test and especially which ones to avoid testing (the stronger ones!), one could create completely bogus chess engines rating lists that are completely unreliable, with the only goal of keeping at the top someone's pet chess engines that have been dethroned by stronger and more recent chess engines!! Keep that in mind when you decide which chess engines rating lists to visit regularly!
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Best Regards to All
MichaelIsGreat
