Fire 2.2 xTreme GH x64 was out for some time but I never
paid much attention to it until a couple of days ago. Apparently it is no longer available for
download; I am not sure why. However, it can be downloaded from MediaFire HERE.
For a while now I have been relying on Critter 1.6a 64-bit
for my analysis instead of Houdini 1.5 x64 but decided to run a quick and
very unscientific test by playing some engine vs. engine 5-minute games
and was kind of surprised at the results.
I am quite aware that this ‘test’ in no way meets even the minimal
standards for testing, 5-minute games are not a satisfactory time limit and the
Fritz Opening Book may not be a suitable book for all three engines, but the
results were still interesting.
Critter scored +3 -3 =7 against Houdini so I ran some quick
games to pit FirexTreme against Houdini. FirexTreme also tied with Houdini with
a +2 -2 =5 score. Then I pitted
FirexTreme against Critter. FirexTreme
won that match by a score of +4 -0 =0!
So, against Critter and Houdini, FirexTreme scored +6 -2 =5. Of course this hardly constitutes anything
even close to being ‘scientific’ and a long match might give totally different
results, or even longer time controls for that matter, but the results are
worth further investigation. I could not
find FirexTreme on any rating lists, so am not sure how it stacks up against
other engines.
The following game was interesting because Critter misevaluated
the ending. After 55.a5 it took Houdini a minute or so to discover the mate
while FirexTreme found it faster and also a shorter mate. Even after several minutes Critter had not
found a mate. When I finally played 55…a3 after about 3 minutes Critter started
showing a mate in 24 while FirexTreme was showing one in 14. My impression is that Critter is a little
slow in its calculations. Other than that you can’t draw any real conclusions,
but it was an interesting…let’s call it a quiz.
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