My nephew beat HOUDINI?!?!

You misspelt Gullible. All the new dictionaries give it as Gulible.

At what time control?

If you're serious, I would take the challenge. A chance to win $10,000 just for drawing against Houdini in one of ten games?  Yeah, I think it would be worth the risk of only $100.

If you had offered $1000 per game, I would have been more ready to believe you are serious. But, if you are willing to lose $10K or more, let me know!

Cute, Roop.

ha ha very funny.

The kid seemed to do fine with 5/0.  Because it's a minimum 10 game match and I woudln't want it to take too long 5/0 is great for me.

If piphilologist wants it a bit longer that's fine.  I'd like all 10 games to be finished the same day though, so they can't be tournament length games.

Notice ridiculous 3 fold repetition draws on move 20 won't count.  Either by the contempt value setting or some rule I make up.  Draws can be from insufficient material, 50 move rule, stalemate, or if you offer the draw and I accept for houdini.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gullible

And if I said you had to play the white side of the english/hungarian (whatever it's called) attack in the najdorf like the kid supposedly did?

Little known fact: Cnacnel's photo if featured in Wikipedia's entry for "gullible".

Am I willing to lose 10k ?  Absolutely.  Unfortunately all the willpower in the world won't give me loads of dough to spend.  If you won I could not pay you, I suppose you should know that.

Not that it makes any difference

you can pay him in waffles :P

lol

From the OP statement, Houdini was given five minute time control but "{the kid} took longer to make his moves" suggests he wasn't under the five minute time control likewise. This matter should be cleared up before he comes to your house. :p

Shit. You got me.

By the way, I played against Houdini just now, but I made first two moves for him to get some handicap.

nice game. must've been hard to win XD

Wow I've never seen Houdini lose that fast, Cnacnel. How did you intimidate it that it allowed you to make its first two moves, and then with the foresight to find mate yourself? You should challenge Carlsen in the same manner! ;)

Well, if we're talking imaginary money, then all bets are off (cash up front for cautious types).

With a 1000-to-1 payoff, I figure that the odds are about even if the kid's strength is around 1900 elo (very unlikely, but I guess it's not outside the realm of possibility). This is based on Houdini 3, 64-bit, 1 core, blitz TC, and lowering Houdini's rating approx 100 points for playing against humans. Of course, anything can happen in a short number of games.

I would not give a 2000 rated player 1000:1 odds of drawing houdini in a blitz (or tournament length) game if trivial 3 fold repetitions are thrown out.

I want you guys to play a few blitz games against houdini and post your best game and then let me know why you think you could draw it.  That is to say I get the feeling you've never used houdini to play a game against from the starting position.

The default contempt value is 1, but it can be increased as high as 2. Increasing it might help to avoid draws.

My calculations simply used the standard winning expectancy formula that can be found almost anywhere.

Just an FYI: Autistic people don't think by using language--some think in pictures, others in sounds, smells, etc...

I made that argument a while back but someone pointed out to me that it's not accurate in those extreme cases.  The formula doesn't reliably predict 1/1000.

I just tried a few 5/0 games vs houdini.  To my surprise it's roughly equal (a bit better for houdini) after 20-30 moves.  But I end up blundering a piece or a king as soon as I have to move fast (I'm nearly out of time) and I barely get houdini under 3 minutes : /