Hiarcs 14 on promotion uci move format

[Ferdy]

Does not comply the uci move format for promotion.
Example, e2e1R, it should have been e2e1r.

[Ovyron]

What's the advantage of enforcing case sensitivity on uci move format?

[Leo]

Can Hiarcs be used by chess engines? If it can, how good is it? I know very little about it.

[hgm]

What's the advantage of enforcing case sensitivity on uci move format?

It is always a good thing to enforce standards. Not enforcing them will quickly lead to a situation where you can no longer count on compatibility of every engine with every GUI.

[Ovyron]

Can Hiarcs be used by chess engines? If it can, how good is it? I know very little about it.

Hiarcs is a Chess engine. It's... huh, Top 41 engine, weaker than Rodent III and Critter 1.6a, to name a few.

However, for commercial engines it's the top 6 engine, just after Komodo, Houdini, Shredder, Fritz (rebranded Rybka) and Chiron 4.

It was very famous 12 years ago, by being a very strong engine that had a very appealing playing style, topping it with the Hiarcs Paderborn 2007 version. Later versions of the engine sacrificed this style for strength (just like original Fritz, Shredder and even Junior had to do), though I never checked the "Aggressive" setting of other versions, so it's possible one is out there that plays stronger and with a better style than HP2007.

Nowadays, who cares? Fizbo is an engine that is 250 elo stronger than Hiarcs, plays in a more appealing style than any Hiarcs, and it's free (I haven't checked Xiphos, Ethereal or Fire 7...)

So I guess the answer is "Hiarcs isn't very good, considering the price" (their website is a mess, I can't even find where to buy Hiarcs 14 or how much it costs, but they still brag about being World Chess Software Champion of 2013, so you bet it's full, premium price, probably pricier than Komodo...)

[Leo]

Can Hiarcs be used by chess engines? If it can, how good is it? I know very little about it.

Hiarcs is a Chess engine. It's... huh, Top 41 engine, weaker than Rodent III and Critter 1.6a, to name a few.

However, for commercial engines it's the top 6 engine, just after Komodo, Houdini, Shredder, Fritz (rebranded Rybka) and Chiron 4.

It was very famous 12 years ago, by being a very strong engine that had a very appealing playing style, topping it with the Hiarcs Paderborn 2007 version. Later versions of the engine sacrificed this style for strength (just like original Fritz, Shredder and even Junior had to do), though I never checked the "Aggressive" setting of other versions, so it's possible one is out there that plays stronger and with a better style than HP2007.

Nowadays, who cares? Fizbo is an engine that is 250 elo stronger than Hiarcs, plays in a more appealing style than any Hiarcs, and it's free (I haven't checked Xiphos, Ethereal or Fire 7...)

So I guess the answer is "Hiarcs isn't very good, considering the price" (their website is a mess, I can't even find where to buy Hiarcs 14 or how much it costs, but they still brag about being World Chess Software Champion of 2013, so you bet it's full, premium price, probably pricier than Komodo...)

Thanks. I didn't know much of that. I guess in its day it was used by GMs for openings.

[mwyoung]

Can Hiarcs be used by chess engines? If it can, how good is it? I know very little about it.

Hiarcs is a Chess engine. It's... huh, Top 41 engine, weaker than Rodent III and Critter 1.6a, to name a few.

However, for commercial engines it's the top 6 engine, just after Komodo, Houdini, Shredder, Fritz (rebranded Rybka) and Chiron 4.

It was very famous 12 years ago, by being a very strong engine that had a very appealing playing style, topping it with the Hiarcs Paderborn 2007 version. Later versions of the engine sacrificed this style for strength (just like original Fritz, Shredder and even Junior had to do), though I never checked the "Aggressive" setting of other versions, so it's possible one is out there that plays stronger and with a better style than HP2007.

Nowadays, who cares? Fizbo is an engine that is 250 elo stronger than Hiarcs, plays in a more appealing style than any Hiarcs, and it's free (I haven't checked Xiphos, Ethereal or Fire 7...)

So I guess the answer is "Hiarcs isn't very good, considering the price" (their website is a mess, I can't even find where to buy Hiarcs 14 or how much it costs, but they still brag about being World Chess Software Champion of 2013, so you bet it's full, premium price, probably pricier than Komodo...)

Fizbo is the weakest. Xiphos, Fire 7.1, and Ethereal are much better then Fizbo and of course Hiarcs 14. I will let you decide what program has the best Style.

Another engine that was big "in style" and strong back in the day was Junior.

[Ovyron]

Thanks. I didn't know much of that. I guess in its day it was used by GMs for openings.

Yeah, here's Susan Polgar praising Ipod Touch Hiarcs in 2009:

Here is my personal assessment:

1. The interface is nice and easy on the eyes. It is quite easy to see.
2. Everything works intuitively and it is quite simple actually. I think everyone can figure it out immediately. You can customize the color of the board and the type of pieces you want to use. I chose the brown board and the elite piece.
3. The playing program is good. It is good enough to beat 99.9% of chess players on this planet.
4. The default mode is a 5 0 game. As soon as I completed the download, I tried out a game right away. I was White. I played a non-book opening and the program was good in handling the opening and middlegame. I managed to squeeze out a 99 move win.
5. It gives an excellent entertainment and educational value, especially if you are on a flight or with kids on a road trip. I definitely prefer my kids playing chess over playing violent video games any day.

On the scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 9.5. Well done!

Umm... looks like any other software would have worked just as well in the interface. But it was used...

Fizbo is the weakest. Xiphos, Fire 7.1, and Ethereal are much better then Fizbo and of course Hiarcs 14. I will let you decide what program has the best Style.

I mentioned Fizbo specifically because it has better playing style than Stockfish, Komodo, Fire 6 and Shredder 13 ("much better engines"), and Houdini 6 requires at least Contempt=2 to surpass Fizbo (so Houdini Contempt=10 would be the peak of playing style for a "much better engine", but Leela just breaks these models.)

I hope Ferdy's style measuring tool works and we are able to answer the question "Who has the strongest playing style? Fizbo, Fire 7, Xiphos, or Ethereal?" without having to look at the games, and make subjective assessments. But at least we know that if Fizbo > these, then Houdini Contempt 2 > these.

Another engine that was big "in style" and strong back in the day was Junior.

For its time, at least. I don't think I ever tested the most stylish version, as I've only used the UCI one, and that one had nothing special. But for what I've seen Rodent III personalities has ones that play in a style bigger than Junior, but on a much more higher level, so I wonder how many engines are stronger than Junior, and with a better style than Junior, up to Roden III, that nobody paid attention to, because they weren't at the top of their generation.

Thinker 5.3b Inert anyone? That one had a bigger style than Houdini 6 C=2, but at a much weaker level. I wish Brendan J. Norman didn't move to make commercial videos about this, maybe he already figured all the styles of all these, but that info is now hidden behind paywall...

[peter]

Thanks. I didn't know much of that. I guess in its day it was used by GMs for openings.

And that's still so. Hiarcs to me (and most corr.- players I know) is much more the GUI HCE (Hiarcs Chess Explorer) than the engine. It's online- books are monthly updated for abo- users (only) and I don't know any better books than these as for wideness and depth.

There are separate parts collected from different kind of games, e.g."Human Reference" and "GM++", latter from human+engine- (mainly corr.) games.

Of course you need databases yet still, no book can spare you that, but for first look at opening- statistics, it's very fine edited. Guess it's still mainly Harvey Williamson's work.

[Ovyron]

I'm sure that whatever benefit comes from Hiarcs Chess Explorer, you can do better by ditching the Hiarcs engine and using on there some other engine more capable.