HIARCS
Developer(s) | Mark Uniacke |
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Initial release | 1980 |
Stable release | 15
/ January 2022 |
Written in | |
Type | Chess engine |
License | Proprietary |
Website | www |
This article is part of the series on |
Chess programming |
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HIARCS is a proprietary
HIARCS opening book authors over time were Eric Hallsworth, Sebastian Böhme and Harvey Williamson, who is also operating HIARCS regularly at various computer chess tournaments. HIARCS author Mark Uniacke said in a 2011 video interview that one of his current priorities in development is improving HIARCS to play in a more "human-like fashion" at different Elo strengths.[2]
History
The first version of HIARCS was written in 1980 in PDP-11 Basic, when Mark Uniacke was only 15 years old. Subsequent versions were also written in interpreted Basic, which meant that the program was rather slow. To compensate for this, Mark developed some heuristics to guide the program's search and evaluation in a more 'targeted' way.[3][4] This resulted in a program that relied on positional algorithms, rather than search depth.[5]
At the end of the 80s, HIARCS was rewritten in C, and soon competed in computer chess tournaments. In 1991, Hiarcs went commercial and Hiarcs 1.0 was released for PCs and the MS-DOS operating system.[6] In 1996, Hiarcs 4.0 became the first version to be marketed by Chessbase sold inside the Fritz GUI.
Version 11, the first version to support
Competition results
HIARCS has won numerous computer and human tournaments. In 1991, it won the title of the World Amateur Microcomputer Chess Champion at the 11th
In April 1997, HIARCS 6.0 became the first PC chess program to win a match played at tournament time controls over a
In January 2003, HIARCS played a four-game match against Grandmaster Evgeny Bareev, world number 8 at the time. All the four games were drawn, resulting in a tied match.[1]
Since 2005, HIARCS has been tested to be the strongest chess program available on a handheld device. It is the top handheld on the SSDF rating list, and was considered the strongest engine in a comprehensive review of 63 handheld chess programs.[1][7]
In December 2007, HIARCS won the 17th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship,[10] and after the disqualification of Rybka,[11] HIARCS was placed first at the 2008 World Computer Chess Championship.[12] It also won the 2009 International CSVN Tournament, and the World Chess Software Championship in 2011[13] and 2013.[14]
Pocket Fritz 4 (which uses the HIARCS chess engine) won the Copa Mercosur (a
Notable games
- HIARCS vs Viswanathan Anand, AEGON Simul, The Hague NED 1997 · Sicilian Defense: Dragon. Classical Variation General (B72) · ½–½ HIARCS plays in a simultaneous exhibition, amongst other chess engines, against Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.
- Zappa vs HIARCS, CCT9 2007 · Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. Poisoned Pawn Accepted (B97) · 0–1 Zappa traps HIARCS's queen but ends up losing.
- HIARCS vs Jonny 17th World Computer Chess Championship (2009) · Sicilian Defense: Scheveningen Variation. English Attack (B80) 1–0 HIARCS sacrifices a piece for positional gain.
17th WCCC 2009
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References
- ^ a b c d e f Uniacke, Mark. "Milestone History". Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Kingscrusher YouTube Interview. London, December 11, 2011. "Hiarcs chess engine author." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQX_PxKAMTE
- ^ Uniake, Mark. "Where It All Began". Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Uniake, Mark. "Now Walking". Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Christian Kongsted, How to Use Computers to Improve Your Chess (London: Gambit Publications, 2003), p. 111.
- ^ Uniake, Mark. "Free HIARCS Chess Software Programs". Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ a b "Chess Programs for Pocket PC and Palm devices". Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
- ^ "HIARCS Chess Explorer". HIARCS.
- ^ "12th World Microcomputer Chess Championship". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "Developers' announcement of 17th Paderborn championship victory". Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- GPL'ed runner-up in 2005), and was stripped of its title. (Doggers, Peter. "Rybka disqualified and banned from World Computer Chess Championships". Chess Vibes. Archived from the originalon 30 June 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2011.)
- ^ "16th World Computer Chess Championship". Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "9th World Computer Chess Championship (Software)". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ HIARCS wins the 2013 Computer Chess Software Championship
- ^ Mercosur Cup 2009, www.hiarcs.com
- ^ "The New Pocket Fritz 4(Hiarcs) Wins in Mercosur 2009 9.5/10". Retrieved 25 October 2013.