5-Round Round Robin Tournament, starring:

Houdini 2.0 x64, Houdini 1.5a x64, Critter 1.2 x64 SSE4, Stockfish 2.11 x64 JA, and Deep Rybka 4.1 SSE42 x64

Time Control: 40 moves/4 minutes
Processor: Quad-core 64-bit AMD 9750
Hash: 512 mb each
EGTBs: Nalimov and Gaviota on an SSD
Ponder: Off
Book: Adam Hair 12-Move
EGTB Hash: 128 mb each

difficult to read too much into the result, an even number of rounds with equal games with white/black would have perhaps been better?

More games coming...

Here we had Houdini 2 take on Deep Rybka 4.1 in 200 5-minute games:

1   Houdini 2.0 Pro x64       3195  +77/-29/=94 62.00%  124.0/200
2   Deep Rybka 4.1 SSE42 x64  3190  +29/-77/=94 38.00%   76.0/200


AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor x6 @ 3.20 GHz - 8.00GB Memory
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (Build 7600)
Fritz Benchmark:
Speed: 23.33
KNS: 11196
GUI: CB Rybka 3
Book: Perfect 2011- 10 moves
Hash: 256
RB and TB: ON
Ponder: OFF
Blitz:5' 0

Here we had Houdini 2 take on Deep Rybka 4.1 in 120 10-minute games

1   Houdini 2.0 Pro x64       3195  +44/-19/=57 60.42%   72.5/120
2   Deep Rybka 4.1 SSE42 x64  3190  +19/-44/=57 39.58%   47.5/120

AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor x6 @ 3.20 GHz - 8.00GB Memory
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (Build 7600)
Fritz Benchmark:
Speed: 23.33
KNS: 11196
GUI: CB Rybka 3
Book: Perfect 2011- 10 moves
Hash: 256
GTB and TB: ON
Ponder: OFF
Blitz:10' 0

Here we had Houdini 2 take on Critter 1.2 SSE4 x64 in 60 10-minute games:

1   Houdini 2.0 Pro x64      3195  +17/-10/=33 55.83%   33.5/60
2   Critter 1.2 64-bit SSE4  3190  +10/-17/=33 44.17%   26.5/60

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Q- 960 3.20 GHz8x @ 4.00 GHz 18.00 GB Memory
Windows 7 Professional Professional (Build 7600)
Fritz Benchmarks:
Speed: 24.89
KNS: 11946
GUI: CB Rybka 3
Hash: 256
Book: Perfect 2011 -10 moves
GTB: ON
Ponder: OFF
Blitz:10' 0

Here we had Houdini 2 take on Deep Rybka 4.1 in 120 5-minute games:

1   Houdini 2.0 Pro x64       3195  +58/-13/=49 68.75%   82.5/120
2   Deep Rybka 4.1 SSE42 x64  3190  +13/-58/=49 31.25%   37.5/120

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 4CPU 960 3.20 GHz x8 @ 4.00 GHz with 17.9 GB Memory
Microsoft Windows XP 64 Bit Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 3790)
Fritz Benchmark:
Speed: 24.98
KNS: 11988
GUI: CB Rybka 3
Book: Perfect 2011-10 moves
Hash: 256
RB and GTB: ON
Ponder: OFF
Blitz:5' 0

All of those games listed above were a side project of The Power Chess Project. We have more blitz games, but the point is made. Houdini 2 is doing well. Back to our real testing: G/3 hours + 60 sec/move. Join us!

Interestingly, Houdini 2 (standard edition) is weaker than Houdini 1.5a on my hex-core. Houdini 2 (standard) has been "hobbled" for high end hardware, requiring those users to buy the Pro edition. A very neat trick by Mr. Houdart.

p.s. My Fritz benchmark:

Impressive, Prawn!

Yeah, power boxes have to buy the Pro version of Houdini 2. I am a bit displeased that the Large Page support is not included in the Standard version.

Houdini 2 uses only 75% of the processor power that Houdini 1.5a does on my machine. The reason? the max number of threads has been reduced from eight to six.

Yeah, that is a good point to make everyone aware of. The pro version supports more than 6 threads/CPUs.

Is there a free version of Houdini 2? If so, where?

No, there are no free versions of Houdini 2.

http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm

That's not quite the same as saying that one cannot obtain a copy of the Standard Edition, for free.

Seek and ye shall find.

all the free online versions of Houdini 2.0 seem incredibly weak, to me it looks like somebody has just renamed the Chess Titians engine and passed it off as Houdini 2.0

and some 1 minute results !

 Engine                Score        Ho       Ho       Cr       Fr       Fi       St       De       Ko       Ko    S-B

1: Houdini_20_Pro_x64    48.0/64 

2: Houdini_15a_x64       45.0/64 

3: Critter_1.2_64bit     40.0/64 

4: Fritz UCI 13 x86      38.5/64 

5: Fire_22_xTreme_x64_PP 36.5/64 

6: Stockfish-211-64-ja   31.5/64 

7: Deep Rybka 4.1 x64    23.0/64

8: Komodo3-64-sse        14.5/64 

9: Komodo3-64            11.0/64 

288 games played / Tournament is finished

Name of the tournament: Arena tournament15

Level: Blitz 1/0

Hardware: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz oc to 3.70GHzwith 16.0 GB Memory

and some 1 minute results !

 Engine                Score        Ho       Ho       Cr       Fr       Fi       St       De       Ko       Ko    S-B

1: Houdini_20_Pro_x64    48.0/64 ········ =1110001 100=00=1 =0111111 1=101=11 1110=111 =111==11 =1111111 1111=111  1337.2

2: Houdini_15a_x64       45.0/64 =0001110 ········ =0=11=11 =011==1= ===11=11 01101=11 =0=11=0= 111=1111 11111111  1261.5

3: Critter_1.2_64bit     40.0/64 011=11=0 =1=00=00 ········ 0==111=0 110=1=01 =1=11=== ==111101 11001111 0101=111  1167.0

4: Fritz UCI 13 x86      38.5/64 =1000000 =100==0= 1==000=1 ········ ===1==11 11101110 11100==0 111111=1 1111=111  1020.0

5: Fire_22_xTreme_x64_PP 36.5/64 0=010=00 ===00=00 001=0=10 ===0==00 ········ ==1==1=1 11111=0= 11111111 1=111111  912.00

6: Stockfish-211-64-ja   31.5/64 0001=000 10010=00 =0=00=== 00010001 ==0==0=0 ········ 01=10111 11111111 11111==1  772.25

7: Deep Rybka 4.1 x64    23.0/64 =000==00 =1=00=1= ==000010 00011==1 00000=1= 10=01000 ········ 00010010 1=10011=  721.75

8: Komodo3-64-sse        14.5/64 =0000000 000=0000 00110000 000000=0 00000000 00000000 11101101 ········ =11=01==  338.75

9: Komodo3-64            11.0/64 0000=000 00000000 1010=000 0000=000 0=000000 00000==0 0=01100= =00=10== ········  305.50

288 games played / Tournament is finished

Name of the tournament: Arena tournament15

Level: Blitz 1/0

Hardware: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz with 16.0 GB Memory

here are some results of 5 min blitz tourny i did with my engines :

  Engine                Score    Ho   Fr   Ho   Fi   De   Ko   St   Ko   Cr    S-B

1: Houdini_20_Pro_x64    22.0/30 ···· =11= 1=0  =110 =111 1=0= 1101 11=  1111  306.00

2: Fritz UCI 13 x86      18.5/30 =00= ···· ===1 1==0 1==0 01== 110  111  1111  251.75

3: Houdini_15a_x64       17.5/30 0=1  ===0 ···· 1=1= 1001 01=  0111 1=1= 1=0=  248.00

4: Fire_22_xTreme_x64_PP 16.5/30 =001 0==1 0=0= ···· 1=== 101  10=1 =11= ==1   233.25

5: Deep Rybka 4.1 x64    16.0/31 =000 0==1 0110 0=== ···· =011 111  10== ===1  219.25

6: Komodo3-64-sse        11.5/29 0=1= 10== 10=  010  =100 ···· 0000 0==? 10=1  185.00

7: Stockfish-211-64-ja   11.5/30 0010 001  1000 01=0 000  1111 ···· ==0= =0==  161.00

8: Komodo3-64            11.0/29 00=  000  0=0= =00= 01== 1==? ==1= ···· ====  149.75

9: Critter_1.2_64bit     10.5/31 0000 0000 0=1= ==0  ===0 01=0 =1== ==== ····  143.50

135 of 360 games played

Name of the tournament: Arena tournament

Level: Blitz 5/0