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HIARCS Chess

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.
Category Price Seller Device
Games $9.99 Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. iPhone, iPad, iPod

In 1997 the World's 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.

Reviews

Crashes frequently
Dan 8889

Does not appear to be compatible with 13.3.1. Have tried reinstalling but that does not work. Don’t recommend buying until an update to fix the app is released.


Nice app
grotto the pig

I agree with one of the other reviewers that the strength might be overstated (including for humans; I won't tell you what Hiarcs rates me but there's no way I'm that good). However it's a fantastic training program and a handy opponent. I like it a lot and I've already recommended its training features to several people.


My Favorite Chess App
richerchess

HIARCS is now my favorite app. I use an iPhone SE with iOS 12. HIARCS is beautifully intuitive to run, and it shows you it’s Elo rating right on the display based on the processing power of your device. I believe it actually recognizes your phone’s CPU power. It displays 3075 elo on my smartphone. As with most chess apps, the phone can get warm or hot but this just shows the power being used. It can be reduced by features on the app to reduce power used, or by setting the phone to low power mode, or both. Naturally this will reduce it’s playing strength. Very much worth the low price!


Needs some adjusting
jose.olivera42

This program is supposed to mimic how a human player plays. Maybe I have not played enough games with it but it seems to find moves that a player at my same level should not find. It gets annoying since even at low levels, it does not mimic players well enough.


Excessive resource usage on iOS 13
hackworks

Sharing games to other chess apps via clipboard is required. I play on Hiarcs and analyze using Analyze This chess app based on Stockfish. There is no easy way to share games. I see crash logs consistently pointing to excessive wake ups.


Strongest engine period!
Madstein

There is no other app as powerful as this one. It's very helpful in analyzing your games and mastering the opening.


2900 strength? I tested it.
Gampapa3

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 didn't 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 don't 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. Don't believe the 2900 hype.


Awesome chess game
andyeugen

A


Top 3
DvdRoss

I like adjustable strength like shredder. Not sure if its better think it needs more board and piece choices . I would say top 3 chess app for iPhone .


Nice!
Eclectic411

I have owned Novag Constellation long ago. Hiarcs plays about as human as that model and is MUCH stronger!