New engine releases & news 2021

[carldaman]

I disagree. As long as it is the REAL Hiarcs (not like "Fritz" which has had 20 authors since the legendary Frans Morsch) and retains its nice positional playing style, I will buy it in an instant.

I'm sure a lot of old-school computer chess fellas fall into the same boat as me.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Yeah, granted. Deep Fritz 13 was the last real Fritz. Nowadays "Fritz" is just the user interface program, running some engine renamed "Fritz". HIARCS 14.1 already was 3150 Elo or thereabouts, on 4 threads. It's possible to reach 3100 on a single thread (see Strelka), gain another 100-150 for multithreading on 4 cores, which makes 3200-3250. Then you get into the "realm of the weird", where you need to do lots of work for every 20-30 Elo. (Stockfish has been at it for what; 10 years?) If Mark Uniacke did this on his own, I can imagine that it takes 10 years. I can also imagine that he at some point decided to "just" outfit HIARCS with a NNUE network of his own making (keeping the 14.1 evaluation as an option) and then release it as HIARCS 15. It would make sense.

I wonder what people like him, and Stephan Meyer-Kahlen now do as a daily job. I can't believe that there's enough money in commercial chess engines to live off of nowadays.

For some of us, DF10 was the last real Fritz. Versions 11-13 may have taken on a bit of an Ippolit/Rybka influence, for better or worse.

[pohl4711]

HIARCS 15 looks like end of this week / early next week

Any source for that?

It's been all over the HIARCS forum and beta testing is in late stage. They are close now.

Mark Uniacke (Hiarcs Forum):

"We have reached RC1 which is with testers now.
We have worked constantly at this for a long time now with very little sleep and HCE Pro itself is ready.
However, I have to consider next week is my wedding anniversary and our first Christmas with our new grand daughter. Personally the thought of releasing the day of my wedding anniversary and doing support over Christmas instead of being with my family does not fill me with joy.
Added to that I think both Michal and I are exhausted at the moment and it would be worthwhile enjoying a few days at Christmas unburdened by tiredness.
Therefore I have decided to reschedule the release date to 30th Dec. I am sorry if this disappoints you, but I think the product will be worth the very short wait now."

(Mention, that it is not clear (to me), that a new, stronger Hiarcs engine will be included in the HCE Pro ?!? Perhaps, it is a new GUI-version, only)

[Guenther]

HIARCS 15 looks like end of this week / early next week

Any source for that?

It's been all over the HIARCS forum and beta testing is in late stage. They are close now.

Mark Uniacke (Hiarcs Forum):

"We have reached RC1 which is with testers now.
We have worked constantly at this for a long time now with very little sleep and HCE Pro itself is ready.
However, I have to consider next week is my wedding anniversary and our first Christmas with our new grand daughter. Personally the thought of releasing the day of my wedding anniversary and doing support over Christmas instead of being with my family does not fill me with joy.
Added to that I think both Michal and I are exhausted at the moment and it would be worthwhile enjoying a few days at Christmas unburdened by tiredness.
Therefore I have decided to reschedule the release date to 30th Dec. I am sorry if this disappoints you, but I think the product will be worth the very short wait now."

(Mention, that it is not clear (to me), that a new, stronger Hiarcs engine will be included in the HCE Pro ?!? Perhaps, it is a new GUI-version, only)

For me this is the Hiarcs Chess Explorer and not a Hiarcs 15 uci engine.

[Werewolf]

I disagree. As long as it is the REAL Hiarcs (not like "Fritz" which has had 20 authors since the legendary Frans Morsch) and retains its nice positional playing style, I will buy it in an instant.

I'm sure a lot of old-school computer chess fellas fall into the same boat as me.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Yeah, granted. Deep Fritz 13 was the last real Fritz. Nowadays "Fritz" is just the user interface program, running some engine renamed "Fritz". HIARCS 14.1 already was 3150 Elo or thereabouts, on 4 threads. It's possible to reach 3100 on a single thread (see Strelka), gain another 100-150 for multithreading on 4 cores, which makes 3200-3250. Then you get into the "realm of the weird", where you need to do lots of work for every 20-30 Elo. (Stockfish has been at it for what; 10 years?) If Mark Uniacke did this on his own, I can imagine that it takes 10 years. I can also imagine that he at some point decided to "just" outfit HIARCS with a NNUE network of his own making (keeping the 14.1 evaluation as an option) and then release it as HIARCS 15. It would make sense.

I wonder what people like him, and Stephan Meyer-Kahlen now do as a daily job. I can't believe that there's enough money in commercial chess engines to live off of nowadays.

For some of us, DF10 was the last real Fritz. Versions 11-13 may have taken on a bit of an Ippolit/Rybka influence, for better or worse.

DF10.1 was the last real Morsch IMO

[Werewolf]

HIARCS 15 looks like end of this week / early next week

Any source for that?

It's been all over the HIARCS forum and beta testing is in late stage. They are close now.

Mark Uniacke (Hiarcs Forum):

"We have reached RC1 which is with testers now.
We have worked constantly at this for a long time now with very little sleep and HCE Pro itself is ready.
However, I have to consider next week is my wedding anniversary and our first Christmas with our new grand daughter. Personally the thought of releasing the day of my wedding anniversary and doing support over Christmas instead of being with my family does not fill me with joy.
Added to that I think both Michal and I are exhausted at the moment and it would be worthwhile enjoying a few days at Christmas unburdened by tiredness.
Therefore I have decided to reschedule the release date to 30th Dec. I am sorry if this disappoints you, but I think the product will be worth the very short wait now."

(Mention, that it is not clear (to me), that a new, stronger Hiarcs engine will be included in the HCE Pro ?!? Perhaps, it is a new GUI-version, only)

For me this is the Hiarcs Chess Explorer and not a Hiarcs 15 uci engine.

Now postponed to Dec 30th. I read it will come with H15 at the same time, but can't remember where I read that. Guess we'll find out in 10 days.

[Frank Quisinsky]

Hi Werewolf,

good news!
I like the GUI Chess Explorer, I am customer with number 003 (number is part of the Hiarcs 1.4 Disk).

Engine is playing interesting chess, all the time.
Must not be in TOP-50 in the World, the human-like-style is much more important and the last version produced over 2825 on a modern PC with 1 Core. How many chess player are stronger?

Go Hiarcs go ...



Best
Frank

[carldaman]

I disagree. As long as it is the REAL Hiarcs (not like "Fritz" which has had 20 authors since the legendary Frans Morsch) and retains its nice positional playing style, I will buy it in an instant.

I'm sure a lot of old-school computer chess fellas fall into the same boat as me.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Yeah, granted. Deep Fritz 13 was the last real Fritz. Nowadays "Fritz" is just the user interface program, running some engine renamed "Fritz". HIARCS 14.1 already was 3150 Elo or thereabouts, on 4 threads. It's possible to reach 3100 on a single thread (see Strelka), gain another 100-150 for multithreading on 4 cores, which makes 3200-3250. Then you get into the "realm of the weird", where you need to do lots of work for every 20-30 Elo. (Stockfish has been at it for what; 10 years?) If Mark Uniacke did this on his own, I can imagine that it takes 10 years. I can also imagine that he at some point decided to "just" outfit HIARCS with a NNUE network of his own making (keeping the 14.1 evaluation as an option) and then release it as HIARCS 15. It would make sense.

I wonder what people like him, and Stephan Meyer-Kahlen now do as a daily job. I can't believe that there's enough money in commercial chess engines to live off of nowadays.

For some of us, DF10 was the last real Fritz. Versions 11-13 may have taken on a bit of an Ippolit/Rybka influence, for better or worse.

DF10.1 was the last real Morsch IMO

Yes, that was an important patch for DFv10.

[Guenther]

Should check the good ol' WB forum more often :)

Popochin 4.2
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... =2&t=55022

[carldaman]

Should check the good ol' WB forum more often

Popochin 4.2
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... =2&t=55022

Thanks, but the download link seems to require a username and password.
I tried more than one browser.

[Gabor Szots]

Should check the good ol' WB forum more often

Popochin 4.2
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... =2&t=55022

Thanks, but the download link seems to require a username and password.
I tried more than one browser.

Günther has already asked the author to change that.