Chess King with Houdini 2

A good review of the new Chess King with the  Houdini 2 engine is available at Chesscafe. 

Houdini 2 comes in the Standard Version and the Pro Version. The main difference between the two is that the Pro Version comes with support for up to thirty-two cores, while the former is a single core version.

Some features are it can play at reduced strength, it has a GigaKing Database and Corr 2011 contain over five million chess games. These databases contain games from the sixteenth century up to November of this year. GigaKing contains almost all available master games, as well as games from many lesser tournaments, junior events, etc. Corr 2011 is a database of correspondence games.

Those features are OK, but there are other programs and some really weak engines that will allow you to play games at reduced engine strength, so for the price, I don’t see this as much of a plus.  As for the databases, the main problem with almost all of them is that they contain games played by some really low rated players.  The fact is you can use internet resources and make your own database for free.  I don’t see this as much of a plus.

It has is a statistics database of positions that shows you how often a move has been played and the success rate of each move. Most programs have this feature and the free SCID offers the same thing. I don’t see this as much of a plus.

It also has chess puzzles and photos of more than 1,600 players. Again, all this stuff is available free on the internet somewhere. I don’t see this as much of a plus.

It’s rating is estimated to be 25 points higher than the last free version. I don’t see this as much of a plus.  Houdini site

Short version: Save your money.