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Houdini 3 Chess Engine
User's Guide

Houdini 3
The Leading Chess Engine
by Robert Houdart

Houdini is a state-of-the-art chess engine 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 escapewith 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 3 Chess Engine
© 2012 Cruxis

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Printed: October 2012

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Houdini 3 Chess Engine

Table of Contents
6

Part I Introduction

1 Version History
................................................................................................................................... 6

10

Part II Installing and Running Houdini

1 Installing Houdini................................................................................................................................... 10
2 Running Houdini in a graphical chess environment
................................................................................................................................... 11
3 Installation with Arena 3.0................................................................................................................................... 11
4 Installation with Fritz/ChessBase GUI
................................................................................................................................... 15
5 Installation on Linux using Wine/Wine64
................................................................................................................................... 176 Off-line Activation
................................................................................................................................... 18
7 Some Frequently Asked Questions
................................................................................................................................... 19

23

Part III Houdini Configuration

1 Hash Memory................................................................................................................................... 24
2 Persistent Hash
................................................................................................................................... 24
3 Position Learning................................................................................................................................... 25
4 Cores and Threads Management
................................................................................................................................... 26
5 Game Play
................................................................................................................................... 28
6 End Game Table Bases...