Houdini is a state-of-the-art chess engine for Windows combining outstanding positional evaluation with the most sophisticated search algorithm. The name Houdini was chosen because of the engine's positional style, its tenacity in difficult positions and its ability to defend stubbornly and escape with a draw – sometimes by the narrowest of margins. On the other hand Houdini will often use razor-sharp tactics to deny its opponents escape routes when it has the better position.
Houdini is written for Windows and will run on any not too ancient Windows version. On Linux you can run Houdini using Wine without any significant performance loss.
At the time of writing Houdini leads all the major Computer Chess rating lists and is widely considered to be the strongest chess engine on the planet. From numerous interviews it appears that many top Grand Masters including the current chess World Champion Viswanathan Anand use and appreciate Houdini.
What is new in Houdini 2.0c Released November 20, 2011.
Corrections
• Nalimov EGTB probing would not recognize KvK end game.
• Nalimov EGTB: Houdini would exit when a corrupt table base file was encountered.
• On some Windows systems the internal timer would overflow after approx. 30 minutes.
Improvements and New Features
• New MultiPV_cp option to limit multi-PV analysis to moves within a range of the best move.
• New FiftyMoveDistance option to make the 50-move rule kick in earlier.
• New UCI_Elo and UCI_LimitStrength options as UCI standard-compliant alternative to Strength option.
• Houdini now exits when it detects that the communication with the GUI is broken.
Homepage : http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm
