Manual de Houdini 3 2012 | Page 245

Reference

245

· 1 = Default Contempt
Contempt 1 is primarily based on piece value imbalance, Houdini will value its own
pieces higher than the opponent pieces, so will only exchange them if there’s a clear
positional advantage in doing so.
This also means that the score is evaluated optimistically for the side to move (at
most 0.15 pawn). For example, the starting position evaluates as approx. +0.30 when
analyzing for White and +0.00 when viewed from Black. This is only recommended for
position analysis if you always analyze for the same side.

· 2 = Aggressive
Contempt 2 adds some king safety imbalance, leading to a more attacking style.
The contempt settings are fairly mild and have little impact on the objective strength
of the engine. It’s hard to say which will give the best results against a given
opponent, it may depend on the style and strength of the opponent. One could
envisage more pronounced contempt but this would start to degrade the engine’s
objective strength.
By default the contempt is only activated during game play, not during infinite
analysis.

FiftyMoveDistance
The number of moves after which the 50-move rule will kick in.
Default 50, min 5, max 50.
This sett ing defines the number of moves after which the 50-move rule will kick in the default value is 50, i.e. the official 50-moves rule.
Setting this option in the range of 10 to 15 moves can be useful to analyse more
correctly blockade or fortress positions:
- Closed positions in which no progress can be made without some sort of sacrifice
(blockade);
- End games with a material advantage that is insufficient for winning (fortress).

Mate Search
Maximum search depth for mate search.
Default 0, min 0, max 99.
If set, this option will usually speed-up a mate search.
If you know that a position is "mate in X", you can use X or a value slightly larger than

© ChessBase 2012