Vass wrote on 12/03/14 at 08:00:11:


It's true that I found it a bit disconcerting at first, it seems to jump around a bit, but it soon settles on a good move.

@Tony Well, every top engine can be a good weapon in the hands of a good player! 
@brabo Yes, a powerful hardware is a must when using Stockfish.

I can speak for hours about all the strengths and weaknesses of the today's top engines, because I use them every day in my correspondence chess tries. But, I won't do that here! I think everyone can learn best by his own experience.
Just to say that the correspondence chess player's approach is much different than the approach of an OTB player when comes to analysis with engines. While the OTB player can be satisfied with +0.35 (let's say as per Houdini evaluations) after the opening and all the opening book writers can claim an advantage open-heartedly, the correspondence chess player will prolong the analysis of the lines until he finds a good advantage (+0.65 for example). And he won't play the move if he finds out that 8-10 moves after, all the lines go to +0.20 or less.. Instead, he will choose the second, or the third line if he is sure it will provide say +0.32 in all variations 8-10 or more moves ahead. In other words, a good correspondence chess player is fighting for an advantage inch by inch! I've read many opening books with much novelties with a big 'N' with my engines at hand. And I may say that most of the given lines, while good for OTB play, are not appropriate for correspondence chess at all.
As for the top engines, I would say only one thing - give them enough time and all will find the "perfect line" sooner or later. All you have to do is...prolong the lines! 

Vass wrote on 12/03/14 at 08:00:11:


That's interesting, I find myself using it more and more to analyse games as I get the impression that it finds stronger moves than Houdini (my previous favourite).

I have Stockfish on my iPad, which seems like a nice little piece of work. Does anyone have any sense of its overall strength and what kinds of strengths and weaknesses it possesses as an analysis tool?