Looking for user opinions on HIARCS Chess Explorer Pro

[Peter Berger]

I am considering buying this product, but it is quite expensive.

I am a PC user, and I usually use some Fritz GUI, that I am familar with. Usually I am not missing any features and I am very familiar with its little quirks (so I never do any GUI updates). I am the guy who doesn’t want to deal with technical problems or complicated setup procedures, so useability is important for me.

Some of the features of the HIARCS product described on its webpage sound interesting, but this depends on the chess quality of the features (like the books etc). And are they so easy to use that I would use them regularly?

I would be very interested to read about your daily experiences with HIARCS and what you do with it.

I am not interested in opinions on the chess engine as I already know enough about this part of the product.

[Dariusz]

https://www.chessengeria.eu/post/hiarcs ... pro-review

[Peter Berger]

You are right to point to your review. It is by far the most informative I could find and very good work.
And although you are a nice guy in general, you also hint at some potential weaknesses of the product. It is probably safe to conclude, that you don’t use HIARCS to do most of your chess work though.
What I kept wondering: although the engine hasn’t been updated for a while, the product is obviously still being maintained. The webpage suggests updates as recent as July 2023.
What do they contain? Is it just that recently played games are uploaded into the databases? And what kind of quality would I get with the advertised opening books? Just some random lines, or more than that?

[Dariusz]

The current version of HCE Pro currently is:
- for Windows PC is version 1.1.1.
https://www.hiarcs.com/pc-chess-explore ... nload.html

- for Mac is version 1.1.2
https://www.hiarcs.com/mac-chess-explor ... nload.html

HCE Pro development, changes and improvements are described on the pages according to the above attached links.

According to word from one of the developers, the next version, (probably 1.2), will be released next week:
https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic ... &start=105

In my experience, a great place for dialogue with developers is the Hiarcs forum https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=2, where users also share their experiences.

To answer your other questions in one sentence... HCE Pro is aimed at a specific target group and its capabilities and functionality have been tailored to their needs.

[Peter Berger]

To answer your other questions in one sentence... HCE Pro is aimed at a specific target group and its capabilities and functionality have been tailored to their needs.

Again a rich and useful post, thank you very much.
You probably sensed one reason for my questions: it is obviously a product aimed at a specific target group, but I was unsure about its members. I probably belong to it concept-wise, when it is about what I like to see in chess programs in general, but then there is also the MAC part of it (a kind of religious community in itself, if you ask me ).
I used to love the Hiarcs 7 DOS GUI though (it was the product I used the most back then).

[reflectionofpower]

Too expensive, and I don't like that I have to buy an interface with it to get the engine. I already have Stockfish 16 & Dragon Komodo.

[Ras]

Charging 30 EUR for multicore support was somewhat acceptable when it was new back then, but it's outright ridiculous in 2023. An established and (among well-below-top engines) basic feature is unsuited for market segmentation.

[Peter Berger]

Charging 30 EUR for multicore support was somewhat acceptable when it was new back then, but it's outright ridiculous in 2023. An established and (among well-below-top engines) basic feature is unsuited for market segmentation.

I agree, that this feels a bit random. Even worse, that you have to pay extra if you want to use the version that can use more than 16 CPUs.

Btw, I certainly don’t need to use more than 16 CPUs for a chessprogram, but maybe this online database and book service that comes with this bundle is interesting for me. This is somehow like buying a pig in a poke though. It would be much nicer, if you could try out this feature for a few weeks and only then decide if you want to have it.

But the most misleading thing for me was, that these prices are without taxes. This might be a UK thing, but I felt bad when I decided to buy the product only to see the price go up further in a substantial way. So I decided to postpone the decision some more.

In principle I am absolutely fine with some things being more expensive than others. But yes, it feels better if market segmentation is done in a more obvious and understandable way.

[Rio]

I have been using Hiarcs for many years but my use is not too demanding:

- I view the lots from pgn databases
- When I play a game somewhere on a server (chess.com, lichess, littlegolem) then I analyze it in Hiarcs
- I have my database (pgn) of games that I play OTB and I analyze them with Hiarcs
- Copy and paste works well for both pgn and FEN
- The program starts quickly and there is no problem with it
- Sometimes I use the function to make the engine finish a position

I always use the latest Stockfish in Hiarcs.

It doesn't work too well for matching different Engines against each other.

What bothers me the most and the only thing about Hiarcs is that I can't give it the whole database of games to analyze. I have to put one batch after another.

[Ciekce]

Charging 30 EUR for multicore support was somewhat acceptable when it was new back then, but it's outright ridiculous in 2023. An established and (among well-below-top engines) basic feature is unsuited for market segmentation.

I agree, that this feels a bit random. Even worse, that you have to pay extra if you want to use the version that can use more than 16 CPUs.

Btw, I certainly don’t need to use more than 16 CPUs for a chessprogram, but maybe this online database and book service that comes with this bundle is interesting for me. This is somehow like buying a pig in a poke though. It would be much nicer, if you could try out this feature for a few weeks and only then decide if you want to have it.

But the most misleading thing for me was, that these prices are without taxes. This might be a UK thing, but I felt bad when I decided to buy the product only to see the price go up further in a substantial way. So I decided to postpone the decision some more.

In principle I am absolutely fine with some things being more expensive than others. But yes, it feels better if market segmentation is done in a more obvious and understandable way.

UK prices usually do include VAT, unsure why hiarcs doesn't.