Hiarcs and Essentia for Mac

HIARCS has been designed with the serious chess player in mind and contains a host of useful features for chess players of all strengths. It has a huge new opening library containing over 488,000 unique positions, and is able to automatically identify and display the ECO code and name of the opening played and select an appropriate strategy. The program has an excellent mix of tactical wizardry combined with a sound grasp of positional play which enables it to play a more human-like game including true speculative sacrificing. The program can look ahead up to 31 moves enabling more long term strategic issues to be understood.

The HIARCS 7.0 software package comes complete with an extensive general user manual, Mac specific manual and quick reference card. It is not copy protected.

System requirements: All Macintosh computers running MacOS 7.1 or later, a 68020 (or later) or a PowerPC processor and at least 8Mb of RAM. CD drive. Hard disk drive with 6Mb free disk space.

The following is a list of features offered by HIARCS 7.0:

Database and file formats

EPD databases: Create new EPD databases. Import/Export EPD positions. Analyse EPD databases such as those produced by BOOKUP. Understands EPD opcodes for automatic test position processing. Purge an EPD database of all contained analysis so it can be re-analysed.
PGN databases: Create new PGN databases. Import/Export/Delete games in PGN databases.
HIARCS format: Save and Restore games in HIARCS format; including all analysis, evaluations, annotations, symbols and time used for every move.
ASCII format: Export a full textual game history; optionally with analysis and annotations.

Unrivalled range of playing levels

Infinite user settable time controls including any specification of primary, secondary and/or tertiary time controls.
User settable Fischer incremental clock.
Preset Time Controls: from Blitz to Tournament.
Average Response per move.
Instant play without any lookahead.
Adaptive response to that of the opponent.
Infinite analysis up to 31 moves deep.
Limit the number of moves deep HIARCS will search.
Limit the maximum time available to HIARCS for each move.
Special strength enhancement or reduction options.

World class chess engine

Incredibly strong chess engine with new deep search (up to 31 moves).
First class positional program with human-like playing style including true speculative sacrifices.
6 different user selectable search techniques from Brute Force to Highly Selective.
User selectable playing style: Solid, Aggressive or Normal.
Large knowledge base of endgame heuristics: Mate with bishop and knight. Exact king and pawn knowledge. Pawn races with precise who promotes first knowledge. King & queen against king & pawn on the 7th rank. Knowledge of 'Philidor' and 'Lucena' techniques and active rook play. Wrong colour square bishop & rook pawn endings and exact knowledge of drawing techniques. Opposite colour bishop endings. Specialised endgame liquidation knowledge.
Hash table size now configurable from 256K to 64MB.
Hash table efficiency now displayed on screen as a percentage.
Position-based learning now lets HIARCS automatically learn for positions outside of book.

Extensive game analysis capabilities

Two player monitor mode with continuous HIARCS analysis.
Have up to the 3 best variations computed and displayed simultaneously.
Search for Next Best move(s).
Analyse Game or just marked positions for either white, black or both sides; detailing best lines and evaluations.
Find Keypoints in a game and show possible improvements.
All principle variations and evaluations stored for later recall.
4 separate levels of analysis display detail including Permanent Brain analysis.
Add/Remove/Save/Restore user textual annotations to any move/position.
Adjudicate the current game.
Mark positions and scan forwards or backwards to other marked positions
Go directly to any move number.
Takeback or go forward one move.
Jump to the start or end of a game.

Viewable massive opening book/library

Automatic Book Learning capability.
Book moves are displayed on screen.
Large opening books with over 488,000 unique book positions/moves.
Choose which opening book HIARCS will use from its library of Tournament, Normal, Wide and Fun books or turn the books off.
Automatically classifies openings into their ECO category and assigns appropriate opening names.

Special features

Shuffle Chess allows any of the 960 different starting positions specified in Fischer Random Chess to be randomly generated.
HIARCS can rate its and your chess ability in Elo points, updating as you play more games.
Set "Contempt factor" to encourage/discourage draws.
Change the 50 move rule in case of chess rule changes.
Offer HIARCS a draw or offer your resignation.
Correct the chess clocks for white or black during a game.
View the current game details e.g. White player name, ECO code etc.
Change the piece characters to use in all functions, e.g. default PNBRQK.
Set HIARCS to display moves in short or long algebraic notation.
Set all HIARCS chess strength options to their optimal values for strong play via one menu option.
Turn Permanent Brain on or off.
Optionally randomise between moves of almost equal value.
Multilingual support including English, German and French languages.

All the essential features

Start a new game.
Extremely user friendly position setup and editing.
Save the current preferences for use each time HIARCS starts up.
Give move hints and display the principle variation.
Autoplaying at any level for a single game or continuously.
Swap sides at any time.
Pause the game while in play.
Replay current game with optional user settable delay.
Enter your name as the opponent for HIARCS.
Toggle board algebraic coordinates on or off.
Toggle game sounds on or off.
Flip board to view from white or black perspective.
Toggle square flash on or off.

New features in HIARCS 7.0

Chess strength improvements: +60 Elo over HIARCS Mac version 6, including: 25% overall search speed up, improved positional play, new tactical search which is often quicker to see real game tactics, improved accuracy of search extensions giving improved middle and endgame, improved tactical evaluation giving better understanding of positions, better understanding of mate threats and improved evaluation of piece placement with pawn structure.
Hash table size now configurable from 256K to 64MB.
Hash table efficiency now displayed on screen as a percentage.
Position-based learning now lets HIARCS automatically learn for positions outside of book.
Enlarged opening books with over 488,000 unique book positions.

Minimum Macintosh Requirements

68020 Processor or better, or Power PC Processor
8 MB of RAM
6 MB Hard Drive space
MacOS 7.1 or later
CD-ROM Drive
Recommended performance system: PowerPC with 8Mb RAM.