I guess if you're rated over 3000 it might be worth buying rather than using a free one.
Is it worth buying Houdini?
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haha you again :D well im over 9000
It will not help you improve any more than the analysis that Stockfish, Komodo, Critter, or any of a dozen other free and very powerful engines can provide.
That being said, if you have the money, and want to own Houdini, then purchase it. But no, if you think Houdini will help you improve more because it's a commercial product, then you're mistaken.
The simple answer is no. It's not worth the money to buy Houdini when there are other chess engines out there that are plenty strong for what you want, and one engine (Stockfish) that is even stronger than Houdini.
However, if you are looking for more than simply the stongest engine, it may be worth your money to buy a program such as Fritz. Personally, I have found Arena and other free programs to be more than sufficient for what I want.
No, Stockfish is free and open source and almost as powerful as Houdini. 99'9% of chess players (you and me included) won't note the difference.
Okay, thanks guys :) I will stick to Arena then.
But can any of the programs give me an analysis as the one you can get from this site?
From what I've read, analysis from this site is terrible.
Use your own GUI (Fritz, Arena, WinBoard, Scid vs. PC, etc.) and use your own desired engine(s).
Hudlommen wrote:
Well the title gives it away; Is it worth buying Houdini?
Im only rated around 1200, and im wondering if this program could have any use for a chess player of my level? Can it help me improve other than from analyzing moves? (like you can do with the free program arena)
Stockfish is just as good for tactical analysis. FOr analysis that will actually help you, find another person.
Okay, maybe im just not good enough to use my program. I would like to see how i thinks about every move put in from a PGN, but all i can make it do is analyze what move it would have done in real time (as we were playing)
May 15, 2014
0
#12
Lucas Chess is very good for analysis. It is a gui that has many features that can help you to improve and it comes with quite a few engines built in so you can try them all out and decide for yourself which one you prefer.
Hudlommen wrote:
Okay, maybe im just not good enough to use my program. I would like to see how i thinks about every move put in from a PGN, but all i can make it do is analyze what move it would have done in real time (as we were playing)
Any engine will be able to analyse a position and give you the best move (most of the time) available. To understand why it picked one move over another your gonna have to study & study & study, ask stronger players to go through your games with you, pick GM games and go through them slowly, try to work out what the next move will be, find games with annotations.
We're lucky to live in an age when all these resources are a couple of mouse clicks away.
Engines are good for finding out what you missed when the game is over, but they can't tell you why you missed it.
Hudlommen wrote:
Okay, maybe im just not good enough to use my program. I would like to see how i thinks about every move put in from a PGN, but all i can make it do is analyze what move it would have done in real time (as we were playing)
Load your pgn file.
Select the game you want to analyze from this pgn file.
Load / Start your favorite engine.
Turn on what is usually referred to as "infinite analysis."
That's it. Now just step through your game, one move at a time, as quickly or as slowly as you want. Keep an eye on the analysis window, to see what line the engine thinks is best for both sides, and the anaylsis score.
Ideally, you probably want to set your PV to, say 3, to see the top three moves/lines.
no
May 16, 2014
0
#16
Hudlommen wrote:
Okay, maybe im just not good enough to use my program. I would like to see how i thinks about every move put in from a PGN, but all i can make it do is analyze what move it would have done in real time (as we were playing)
This GUI is very simple to use and comes with some engines:
With almost every GUI you can make "infinite analysis".
If you are not playing advanced chess, Stockfish will be just great and it's free
EvgeniyZh wrote:
If you are not playing advanced chess, Stockfish will be just great and it's free
Stockfish and Komodo are the top engines, so your "advanced chess" comment doesn't make any sense.
To answer the OP's question...no, it is not worth it to buy Houdini.
May 16, 2014
0
#19
btickler wrote:
EvgeniyZh wrote:
If you are not playing advanced chess, Stockfish will be just great and it's free
Stockfish and Komodo are the top engines, so your "advanced chess" comment doesn't make any sense.
To answer the OP's question...no, it is not worth it buy Houdini.
It makes sense, since if you discover that your opponnent is always playing Houdini first moves in all his games, you could try to set a trap.
(Advanced Chess = Centaur Chess in this case)
SocialPanda wrote:
btickler wrote:
EvgeniyZh wrote:
If you are not playing advanced chess, Stockfish will be just great and it's free
Stockfish and Komodo are the top engines, so your "advanced chess" comment doesn't make any sense.
To answer the OP's question...no, it is not worth it buy Houdini.
It makes sense, since if you discover that your opponnent is always playing Houdini first moves in all his games, you could try to set a trap.
(Advanced Chess = Centaur Chess in this case)
???
- You don't need Houdini to detect Houdini-level engine moves.
- A "centaur" chess player is more likely to be using Stockfish over Houdini these days anyway.
- The only way to "set a trap" for someone using Houdini's top move every single move is to use a better engine to beat them; i.e. Stockfish.
Well the title gives it away; Is it worth buying Houdini?
Im only rated around 1200, and im wondering if this program could have any use for a chess player of my level? Can it help me improve other than from analyzing moves? (like you can do with the free program arena)
Edit: Get Lucas Chess!