Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro - Coming Soon! (Now Released)

[KLc]

I don't understand why you're still writing about the engine here. Hiarcs Chess Explorer has never been about a chess engine! Customers appreciated the ease of use and wide range of functionality available in Hiarcs Chess Explorer. Hiarcs Chess Explorer offers a huge range of new features that every chess player who wants to improve will appreciate. There is no better chess program in Mac OS than Hiarcs Chess Explorer.

Exactly! And many things in HCE are so much better than in decades old ChessBase (e.g. sorting a database with a few million (not billion!) entries by year takes about 20 seconds. How on earth is this possible in the 21st century?).

[AndrewGrant]

I've gotten an email stating that a user can't load Ethereal into the new HCE, despite being able to load it into all their other GUIs. Is anyone in this thread with Ethereal able to get things working? It this an issue on my end somehow?

[Eduard]

And honestly feel ripped off.

You can only feel ripped off if you actually bought it.

H15 doesn't even have NNUE and is not competitive.

Ridiculous. Compete with who? If you want maximal ELO, use Stockfish. If you want to play a decent game at a, say 1800 ELO level, play against HIARCS.

Fritz 18 costs less and is better for Elo 1800. If I can't say that 179 euros (purchase from Germany) is a rip-off, then your world is no longer mine, bye! Have a nice day, end.

Btw.. I understand: Apple (not my world) users are rich people!! Pay any price!!

[KLc]

then your world is no longer mine, bye! Have a nice day, end.

That may be a language thing but I have no idea what you're saying (and why).

[Harvey Williamson]

I've gotten an email stating that a user can't load Ethereal into the new HCE, despite being able to load it into all their other GUIs. Is anyone in this thread with Ethereal able to get things working? It this an issue on my end somehow?

Hi Andrew,
I just downloaded a 13.07 from your website and it runs fine.

[Ozymandias]

Komodo NNUE absolutely doesn't play human chess at all, even if I setup lower SkillLevel or UCI_ELO in the latest version.

What about Komodo? I mean Dragon using the hand-crafted eval. Isn't that human like? I ask because when I want a human-like opponent, I go to PlayChess and challenge actual humans

[Eduard]

Haha, right! Why should I play against computers? I play at Lichess, there I get very good opponents, and with my Elo of around 2200 with my more than 60 years, I'm also satisfied and have good training.

In the past I have played many games against computers and engines.

My nostalgia games:

https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/honor.htm

[Cornfed]

Haha, right! Why should I play against computers? I play at Lichess, there I get very good opponents, and with my Elo of around 2200 with my more than 60 years, I'm also satisfied.

In the past I have played many games against computers and engines.

My nostalgia games:

https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/honor.htm

You mean you...a pusher around of engines, actually PLAY honest to goodness human vs human chess on lichess?

[herO]

Komodo NNUE absolutely doesn't play human chess at all, even if I setup lower SkillLevel or UCI_ELO in the latest version.

What about Komodo? I mean Dragon using the hand-crafted eval. Isn't that human like? I ask because when I want a human-like opponent, I go to PlayChess and challenge actual humans

Komodo NNUE absolutely doesn't play human chess at all, even if I setup lower SkillLevel or UCI_ELO in the latest version.

What about Komodo? I mean Dragon using the hand-crafted eval. Isn't that human like? I ask because when I want a human-like opponent, I go to PlayChess and challenge actual humans

I have few issues with it. The Dragon chess engine plays inconsistently. Sometimes it plays too strong even though I choose low difficulty. It often makes mistakes as a beginner on higher difficulties. I had this suspicion for a long time as a human player and that's why I also tested the Dragon engine at lower levels of SkillLevel against the Hiarcs chess software and the Rodent chess engine. The Dragon at the lower levels of SkillLevel achieves poor results and plays very inconsistently.

Another disadvantage is that every move plays immediately. No human player plays like this. Of all the chess engines, Hiarcs tries his best to simulate human play. Here are a few examples: When the engine counts for a long time, if a player makes a move that the computer expected, he immediately makes a move like a human player. If there is only a good move and the rest of the moves are huge mistakes, then Hiarcs will play a correct move very quickly on medium difficulty. If I launch a surprise attack on the king side and Hiarcs doesn't "expect" it, Hiarcs starts thinking for a long time and I see in the analysis panel how the moves change quickly. This simulates Hiarcs trying to find an answer and "panicking" because it doesn't know what to do, simulates the behavior of a human player if it has made a mistake in previous moves, and tries to find a good move. At lower levels of difficulty, Hiarcs sometimes deliberately does not evaluate positions correctly, so it sometimes mistakenly "thinks" that its position is OK because it does not yet know that problems will gradually begin. It's similar to human chess. If I play against human players on the Lichess server, I or my opponents do not always evaluate the position correctly, so sometimes we are not aware that we have made a mistake because we are not a chess engine.

Hiarcs on lower levels of difficulty make tactical mistakes. Most other programs play tactically very strongly but very weakly positionally (see Chessmaster). Hiarcs plays much better in this area. Hiarcs also does not make stupid mistakes such as those seen in games against the Chessmaster chess program at lower levels. Hiarcs does not make stupid mistakes that a human player does not do, even on very low difficulties. For example, Hiarcs never moves a queen to a field where a pawn takes him "for free." Hiarcs also does not give up his bishops, rooks or knights meaninglessly. If the material is lost, it is usually necessary to use a trick or calculate 2 or 3 moves ahead or position has to be wild with many tactic complications.

Hiarcs also respects the set difficulty and simulates the player's opening knowledge and endgame knowledge. It is one of the few chess engines that respects time controls for the whole game. If I set too little time for the engine, then the chess engine plays weaker and even much weaker in bullet time controls. There really is a big difference if I play against the Hiarcs engine set at level 1800 ELO and set the time control to 1 minute or 10 minutes. If I used a Stockfish or Dragon chess engine, there is absolutely no difference. Stockfish and Dragon play absolutely the same on lower difficulty levels. It doesn't matter if I set 1 minute time control or 10 minutes time control.

If the Hiarcs chess engine has little time left, then "pressure / panic" is simulated at lower levels of difficulty, with the engine making a weak move because it has little time and wants to play fast because it doesn't have time to think. This behavior can be seen in online chess played by real chess players.

[Eduard]

Haha, right! Why should I play against computers? I play at Lichess, there I get very good opponents, and with my Elo of around 2200 with my more than 60 years, I'm also satisfied.

In the past I have played many games against computers and engines.

My nostalgia games:

https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/honor.htm

You mean you...a pusher around of engines, actually PLAY honest to goodness human vs human chess on lichess?

I do not understand? My account on Lichess is "Solista" (Human Account), and you can download all my played games. And I have an BOT account "SolistaBot", here play my Engine.

Until 5 years ago I played on FIDE online. At least I got the Title Arena Grand Master there. Now I play on lichess and freestyle chess on InfinityChess... and I like to run my engines on PlayChess!