PART 2 • Analyzing your games with houdini
• Note that Houdini doesn't just measure material, but also positional
factors (such as space and pawn structure), as well as a time
advantage (such as a tempo advantage as mentioned in the preceding
paragraph). So even though a player may have a material advantage,
his position may not be very good and the number provided by Houdini
would not reflect the full value of the material. For example, Black may
be two pawns ahead, but Houdini evaluates Black's advantage as
-1.25 (just a pawn and a quarter) due to the lack of mobility for Black's
pieces.
• The upper bar of the engine pane provides some extra information. We
see the best (from the point of view of the moving player) evaluation
Houdini has found so far in the current position. We see the amount
of time (in seconds) which Houdini has spent on analyzing the current
position. We also see how far ahead (the “depth”) Houdini has
searched. This number is given in half-moves (that is, one move for one
player is a half-move, also known as a “ply”); in the above illustration,
Houdini has looked ahead to a depth of 18 plies or, in other words, nine
moves for each player.
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