PART 2 • Analyzing your games with houdini
You can play through the game and keep an eye on the numbers to see the ebb and flow of the game as the advantage swings from one player to the other. In fact, Chess King even provides a visual graph for Houdini ' s evaluations to make it easy for you to find the“ crisis points” in a game. If the panel just below the Notation panel shows the chess tree( which we ' ll learn about in the next chapter), click the“ Graph” button to the right of the tree to display Chess King ' s evaluation graph:
• This graph provides an easy visual guide to Houdini ' s evaluations for the moves of the game. The numbers along the lower part of the graph( the x axis) correspond to the move numbers in the game. The numbers along the lefthand side of the graph( the y axis) correspond to the numerical evaluations( 0 pawns, 2 pawns, and 4 pawns). A bar above the center line shows that White has the advantage at that point in the game, while a bar below the center line shows that Black enjoyed the better evaluation; the longer the bar, the greater the advantage. The heavy vertical black line will move across the graph as you replay the game; it shows what move is currently displayed on the chessboard( and the position of the cursor in the game notation).
• Using a strong chess engine to help guide your study is one of the most important features of using any chess program. Chess King ' s easy to use and understand interface along with Houdini ' s strength as a chess engine is a tough combination to beat!
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