Hiarcs Chess Explorer

Hi,

is anybody familiar with  Hiarcs Chess Explorer?

What do you think about it compared to the other software? 

Thank you all

I bought the program in 2012.  I rarely use it but that's because I prefer other interfaces.  YMMV.

That said, HCE is a decent, albeit expensive, software package.  You get a pretty good interface, an excellent openings book and a powerful engine.  The engine isn't the strongest, but it's plenty strong enough for most purposes.  Anand used to prefer the HIARCS engine, so rest assured it's adequate.  But you can plug in other UCI engines (like Stockfish) if that is your preference.

One feature that I really like is online access to six man Nalimov tablebases on the HIARCS server.  Just set up a six man position and the program will query the server and display the results.  See graphic below.

If I were still using a Mac, HCE would be my interface of choice.  Mark Uniacke has been supporting the platform since the 90's (at least).

A new version is supposed to be released sometime this year.

Hi Crappov,

I heard that HCE is a decent GUI so I'm surprised you don't use it.

May I ask which GUI you prefer over this one and why?

thanks!

jar

I use it on my mac and I'm very happy with it. It doesn't have as many features as Chessbase or SCID, but the upside is that it is very easy to use. The only drawback is that it needs to load a whole database into memory first, only than can one browse it. This takes time and will choke on databases with, say, 1 million games or more.

Understanding and accepting its limitations, this software is a joy to use. Highly recommended.

-Izmet Fekali (http://bestchessmenever.com)

Well, I've been using Fritz and Arena for years so it's mostly just that I'm used to these programs.  Lately, I've been learning to use the Aquarium interface.  I bought Aquarium because it's relatively inexpensive and comes with a huge database.

I bought HCE mainly because I wanted the HIARCS engine.  Don't misunderstand, though, HCE is a very good interface/database program.

Hello, 

so is it possible to use Hiarcs chess explorer as a main tool for analazing games and play angainst it? 

Just wondering why is not so popular..

Yes, you can analyze games and play against the engine.  

You can dumb down the engine so you don't have to lose every time.

Hello,

I have a pc not a mac.

I forgot to post this link.  Read all about the features of HCE here:  http://www.hiarcs.com/pc-chess-explorer.htm