HIARCS Chess app for iPhone and iPad
HIARCS is a multiple World Championship winning chess program and the only handheld chess program in the world which has won matches and tournaments with Grandmasters. It twice won the Mercusor Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina ahead of Grandmasters with a performance of 2900 Elo, the best chess performance rating for any handheld device in history.
In 1997 the Worlds strongest ever human chess player, Garry Kasparov, said "HIARCS is much better positionally than Deep Blue" and even the current World champion, Vishy Anand, in a recent interview when asked what chess program he uses to analyse with said "generally I use HIARCS".
This power enables your iPhone to play chess like a super Grandmaster, analyse games and chess problems with you, or play at whatever weakened chess strength you want from beginner to GM strength while offering numerous features to help you learn and improve as you play with HIARCS. An advanced set of coaching features helps players of all strengths improve their chess play.
HIARCS Chess has a full range of realistic weaker opponent strengths and playing styles catering for players of all abilities from absolute beginners to Grandmasters. On the weaker playing levels HIARCS will make human-like mistakes appropriate to the level of play and this together with the integrated coach advice, assessments and alerts allow you to learn and improve quickly. HIARCS also monitors your chess performance and provides you with an Elo chess rating which tracks your chess ability in every game. It can continuously adjust its playing strength to give you challenging but beatable opponents as you improve.
HIARCS Chess will save battery life by using much less energy on the weaker levels, allowing more playing time on long journeys etc.
HIARCS Chess supports PGN chess game databases and has all the games between Fischer & Spassky and Kasparov & Karpov for you to play through and enjoy.
HIARCS has a large tournament book which is up to date with chess theory with over 235,000 variations. The book moves are displayed on screen with chess symbols and the opening variations are named and ECO coded.
Key features:
+ Strongest chess program on iPhone and iPod Touch, genuine strong GM-level performance
+ Suitable for all players from absolute beginners to strong Grandmasters with many handicap levels and opponents styles and advanced coaching
+ Intuitive and friendly user interface with multiple high quality pieces set, colour schemes and icons including high res support for iPhone 4 and 5 retina displays
+ Multiple playing modes: play white, black, both sides in two player mode, continuous analysis and interactive replay
+ Fully adjustable Elo strengths, adaptive levels and multiple playing levels and opponents
+ All levels below maximum are low energy to increase battery life
+ Rates your chess play and gives you an Elo rating which is updated after each game
+ Advanced coach can provide move options, give hints, indicate move safety and quality highlights and watch your play and warn about mistakes
+ Transfer PGN databases to/from HIARCS chess via iTunes file sharing, email games and PGN DBs from HIARCS
+ Launch HIARCS from PGN email attachments
+ Load, save or delete games to/from PGN databases
+ Set up or edit a position to analyse or play from
+ Advanced game navigation with game move slider and VCR buttons for rapid and precise game navigation
+ Many selectable preset blitz, incremental and average time clock settings for timed play
+ Large HIARCS tournament opening book as used by the professionals!
+ Permanent brain for enhanced playing strength
+ Numerous chess display functions for showing chess moves, analysis, book moves, coach advice, move quality even legal moves, offer draws or resign
+ 8 Piece sets and 9 colour schemes
+ Integrated Html manual and help screens
A discount coupon is included with a $10 USD discount on other HIARCS products on Mac and PC from www.hiarcs.com.
Pros and cons of HIARCS Chess app for iPhone and iPad
HIARCS Chess app good for
- best Chess Engine
- smooth interface
Wish List:
Analysis Mode
Pgn im-/Export
A Chess APP genuinely worth its money. Many thanks to the Hiarcs team; my chess knowledge has defiantly increased.
Great chess app!!! Needs retina display and better GUI!! Please update!
Superb! A super GM in your pocket. For the serious chess player, this is a must buy engine.
I started playing computer chess back in 1980 with Chess Challenger 7 by Fidelity Electronics. Over the years, I purchased lots of dedicated chess computers and software for the PC including: Chess Challenger 10, NOVAG Super Constellation, M-Chess, Sargon, Zarkov, Chessmaster 10th Edition, Mattel Electronics handheld, Rebel, Shredder, etc., etc., etc.! As you can see, Im a little bit obsessed...
All this to say, HIARCS is by far the best software/app/chess computer Ive ever played. It has an eerily human-like understanding of subtle positions and on the GM levels, is an absolute nightmare to play. My own game has improved immensely by serving as its punching bag, but Im still able to easily switch it to a level that is my equal by not my superior, so I still have the joy of checkmating it or seeing it resign. This is a CRAZY STRONG chessplayer, and an absolute joy to lose to. It would have eviscerated every other chess computer or chess program Ive ever owned, including the Master strength computers; all without breaking a sweat. When the ad copy states that this is true Grandmaster strength, they arent exaggerating. Buy it! Its the best chess bargain in the world. I have it in my iPod Touch and its a blast to carry a Grandmaster in my pocket whos always ready for a game.
Feature rich and powerful, the best iPhone chess is even better!
Some bad moments
I spent 10$ just to have an application that keep crashing on every action I do! Even the first load crashed! Never been able to change options or level... at 2600 ELO, displays +1.1 after the opening, in my favor! stupid, I am not a grand master!
I have been playing chess now for 50 years , and had my first Chess computer in 1980 , a little thing called Sargon 2 , it really was a weak little thing but I realized that it was the first of its kind and that the Future was going to bring more and more until todays Computer Chess Revolution
when we Humans are no longer at the top of the Chess mountain ! A sad day perhaps , but inevatable , and Hiarcs
is very near that Summit or sharing it
with a few of its Kind ! This Chess of the very best order . The only chance I have of winning at the Highest level is getting off the main lines as quickly as possible , throwing something very weird at and hopeing for the Best , it has worked a few times , but mostly
Ive been toast very quickly !
So hats off to the Development Team , you have done a great Job !!
Hal
This is a very strong engine, but the UI is very poorly implemented. The chess sets are quite low resolution and aliased, move animation is very jarring and often moves past the target square and often times opponents move is animated while your move is still in progress. Swiping to take back move rarely works, having dedicated buttons for this would be much better. The chip icon at the bottom is quite inappropriate here and touching it does something unexpected. I think the developers of this UI could take quite a few hints from Shredder which has pretty good UI.
I tested Hiarcs for iPhone by putting the engine at full strength and turned off all other apps. I used Fritz interface to enter the moves Hiarcs suggested. My computer has a 32bits processor. Rybka 4mated it in around 40 moves. Fritz 13 mated it in under 40. I didnt waste time testing it against Houdini. It is a fun program but some reviewer said it could draw with these big engines. No way, they totally dominate this engine. So dont buy it thinking it is as strong as a laptop engine. I did the same test with Shredder for iPhone and Fritz and Rybka mated it to but it took 50-60 moves. From my tests Shredder is Stronger. Dont believe the 2900 hype.
Goes from much too easy to much too hard, with nothing in between. The app itself is not very well done, a lot of the details are poorly designed. I really wish I hadnt wasted $10 on this. The cheaper chess apps Ive gotten are better.
Remembers the last file name you save and overwrites without confirmation, so its very easy to accidentally overwrite your saved games.
Also, doesnt resign even when the game is clearly lost, or end the game when there is insufficient material to mate.
Feels like a good underlying chess engine, but a very poor implementation of it. Definitely not worth 10 bucks, there are much better chess apps on the app store for much less. This shouldve been a $4 app.
Add a lighter blue (as tChess Pro default one) board please!
Current board colors are all ugly (dark ones too dark, light ones too light)
