Houdini 1.5 stays perfect, destroys Rybka 4 with black
Ivanhoe jumps into clear second position
Chessdom report
The computer chess world as we know it is changing right from the start of 2011. What many private testers have already discovered, is now known to the world wide audience. Houdini 1.5 is the new chess engine star, performing at a level superior to opposition.
In round 4 of the computer super tournament TCEC Division 1, Houdini 1.5 continued with it’s perfect performance. This time it defeated Rybka 4 in a convincing way with black.
Rybka 4 won the World Cumputer Chess Championship 2009 with a large margin. It was a culmination of years of dominations on the computer chess scene. However, despite winning the 2010 title, things have been going on a downwards spiral for Rybka. Strong competitors have been emerging and new algorythms have been challenging the top spot.
One is left to wonder what is the actual strength of Houdini 1.5 to defeat the world champion with black and go with a convincing 4,0/4 so far in TCEC Division 1. According to the IPON World Ranking for computer chess engines, Houdini 1.5 is playing at strength of 3006 ELO, which is 54 points higher than Deep Rybka 4, and close to 90 points over Stockfish 2.01.
Can Houdini 1.5 prove that the margin is realistic? Can it keep up with the perfect performance? Round 5 of TCEC has just started, follow the games live here.
TCEC Division 1 standings
3 points for win, 1 for draw, and 0 for loss
1 Houdini 1.5 12
2 Ivanhoe B47cB 6
3 Stockfish 2.0 5
4 Rybka 4 4
5 Naum 4.2 4
6 Critter 0.9 3
7 Shredder 12 3
8 Hiarcs 13.2 3
Official site of TCEC / Houdini official site / TCEC round 3 report
This is a shocking upset.
The Rybka That is playing in this Tournament is not the same as the version that has been dominating the Computer World Championship.
I don’t understand how machines that can calculate that well can lose games. I don’t see how they can make mistakes bad enough to drop the eval to resignable. Every game should be a draw between players that accurate.
it is actually a better Rybka 4 modification, which make the things for Rybka look worse.
Let’s face it, Rybka turned in commercial nonsense, it is now trailing behind Houdini, and soon after Critter and Stockfish.
When Houdini, Critter and Stockfish start to win Tournaments Like the Computer World Championships then I will sit up and take notice 🙂
As for “a better modifacation” Rybka 4 and Cluster Rybka are entirely different chess engines, they dont even work the same way or have anywhere near the same code.
What do you mean it is not the same Rybka 4 that won the Computer World Championship? Which Rybka is it? BTW it doesn’t matter since this performace will certainly hurt Rybka’s reputation. Now it knows how Fritz “feels” after being de-throned.
And the best thing is, they – Houdini, Stockfish, Critter are still for free
At the end IvanhoeXX (compiled for Windows) will win, I believe. Because it is really open source.
This is the open source strength and the weakness: all can look at the code and to take ideas.
If Houdini wins, I bet 2 cents that he won’t be free anymore.
Deep Rybka 4 32/64-bit the same as the version what she buys in shop.
Sweet greetings, Susan.
Stef
I think Rajlich should finally stop trying to convince World Computer Championship organizers to not allow free programs from playing! Organizers wake up!
One should at least point out the controversial origin of Houdini. It is based on RobboLito which is itself based on a decompiled version of Rybka.
The author of Houdini managed to improve Houdini (to such a point that it is now apparently stronger than Rybka itself), by incorporating additional ideas from open source engines like Stockfish and Crafty.
Why is it controversial. Many programs do the same. That’s the reason for the word Open Source. Good for the programmer on doing a better job improving it.
To the Anon “This is the open source strength and the weakness: all can look at the code and to take ideas.”
You are forgetting the difference between open source and freely available. Houdini 1.5 is just freely available and NOT open source. So no one can look at the code.
More importantly, Rybka isn’t open source, so decompiling it to learn its algorithms and use them is at least unethical and likely illegal.
Houdini 1.5 is available for free as a UCI chess engine at http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm .
Houdini 1.5 is now surprisingly the uncontested best chess engine in the world, significantly better than Rybka 4 (more than 50 ELO points)! Hard to believe, considering the fact that Rybka had been the best chess engine for several years in the past.
See for yourself:
I suggest three reliable, trustworthy chess engine rating lists:
1) The G/90mins Ratings (90 MINUTES TO PLAY ALL THEIR MOVES, 2 CORES, PONDER ON, TABLEBASES USED) at http://www.brinan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ … atings.htm
2) The IPON-Rating-List (5 min/game + 3 sec/move, ponder ON) at http://www.inwoba.de/
3) The SWCR Rating (40 MOVES IN 10 MINUTES) at http://www.amateurschach.de/
Not a single human player would have a chance of winning any match against such a strong chess engine.
In a match with 24 games, it is sure that the best human player would lose by a very significant margin against Houdini 1.5!
This tournament (TCEC – Division I) between chess engines is excellent. Several matches have been really very interesting and of very high quality.
@Harish Srinivasan
“You are forgetting the difference between open source and freely available. Houdini 1.5 is just freely available and NOT open source. So no one can look at the code.”
You read better my post. I spoke of Ivanhoe.
Sweet greetings, Susan.
Stef