Arena, Rybka, Houdini, & Scid

A year is a long time in the world of computing. Since it's been more than two years I last upgraded my chess GUI and engines -- see Arena / Rybka Analytical Upgrade & Adventures with Arena & Rybka -- I downloaded the latest version of Arena (from Arena Chess GUI 3.0 - Download), a newer version of Rybka, and for good measure, a copy of Houdini (from Houdini Chess Engine). To make sure I wouldn't interrupt my main analysis lab, I downloaded and installed all software on a test machine. Everything worked fine and I'll install the same ASAP on my main machine.

While I was at it, I checked for a new release of Scid -- see Scid @ Mark's -- and discovered that version 4.3 was just released in February 2011. I downloaded that as well (from Scid - Downloads), but haven't tried it yet.

That's a lot of new toys for a few hours work. I'll report on any results if I think it's worth mentioning.