HIARCS 13.1 Chess Pro for Palm by Mark Uniacke Copyright (c) 1992-2010 Applied Computer Concepts Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://www.hiarcs.com ------------------ Thank you for downloading Hiarcs for your handheld device. We hope you will enjoy the product and will purchase it to unlock the full capabilities. Your support is greatly appreciated and goes to help us develop even better products for you in the future. The following files are included: 1) License.txt - Please read before installing or using the Hiarcs product. 2) Readme.txt - This document. 3) HiarcsARM.prc - Hiarcs ARM product. Install this on your ARM based PDA* 4) Hiarcs68K.prc - Hiarcs 68K product. Install this on your 68K based PDA 5) H13BookSmall.pdb - Small Hiarcs openings book. Install this on your PDA Other much larger books are available at www.hiarcs.com 6) EcoNames.pdb - A database of opening names and ECO references 7) A number of databases: HiarcsAlekhineCapablancaDB HiarcsFischerSpasskyDB HiarcsKasparovKarpovDB HiarcsAnandKasparovDB HiarcsAnandKramnikDB HiarcsAnandTopalovDB PalmHiarcs9-MatchesDB * Any device running PalmOS 5 or later will support the ARM engine. ------------------ Introduction to HIARCS ---------------------- HIARCS stands for Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System. Hiarcs 13.1 contains the latest Hiarcs chess engine for PalmOS based PDAs. The engine has been in development for 23 years and is a significant evolution of a past World Software Champion HIARCS engine. This engine is close to the version which won the 2009 Mercosur Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina scoring an incredible undefeated 9.5/10 points (3 points clear of second placed Grandmaster) and a 2938 Elo performance rating! - clearly the best performance by a handheld chess computer in history. The new Palm HIARCS chess engine is the strongest engine available on PDAs. Palm HIARCS is the first and only Palm chess program to ever defeat a number of Grandmasters in matches and won GM tournaments. It has also beaten a number of the World's top 100 chess players in public and private matches and games. Two engines are supplied with this product, a 68K based engine for older PDAs and a new ARM engine which has been shown in test matches to be clearly stronger than any other chess product for PalmOS or Pocket PC based PDAs. Latest results can be found here: http://www.hiarcs.com/phresults.htm HIARCS has an unrivalled set of features for beginners, intermediate and advanced players and will offer challenging opposition for even the strongest players. HIARCS will run on all PalmOS devices running PalmOS 3.5 or later. ------------------ Palm Hiarcs 13.1 features since 12.1v -------------------------------------- 1) New Hiarcs 13.1 chess engine about 70 Elo stronger than 12.1v! 2) Genuine World Class chess performance as strong as a World Champion! 3) New and expanded opening books with the very latest opening theory 4) New and additional games databases of great players Palm Hiarcs 12.1v features since 12.1u -------------------------------------- Fix for long thinking times. Palm Hiarcs 12.1u features since 12.1t -------------------------------------- Fix so that when show thinking is OFF no analysis is displayed. Palm Hiarcs 12.1t features since 12.1p/q ---------------------------------------- 1) Increased chess strength, easily the strongest ever Palm chess program! 2) Improved weakened set Elo levels suitable for all players 3) Improved Resign option 4) Issue with castling after position set up fixed 5) Issue with smart move entry and isolated deep think freeze fixed 6) More engine room options saved 7) Improved move display Palm Hiarcs 12.1 New Features over Palm Hiarcs 9.7 -------------------------------------------------- 1) New Hiarcs 12.1p/q chess engine about 100 Elo stronger! 2) Configurable Set Elo opponents from Beginner to Grandmaster depending on the speed of the PDA. Settable by class or exact Elo. 3) Energy Saving Handicap levels to dramatically save battery life. 4) Energy saving analysis for prolonged battery life. 5) Load Game Databases - many game databases available for free from www.hiarcs.com 6) Load Next Game from database 7) Delete Game Database 8) Game Variations using Game Branches 9) Game Branch Navigation, Previous and Next and Game Branch Set Deletion 10) King and Pawn v King Database Heuristics for exact play 11) Offer Draw to Hiarcs 12) Resign Game 13) Adjudicate Game Result 14) New opening books with latest opening theory and new book learning. 15) Openings automatically named using ECO reference. 16) New Elite Piece Set Features -------- 9.7 Update features 1) New one touch flip board feature accessed through the colour to move icon in the bottom right hand corner. 2) Tapping "Your" or "Analysis" now switches back to previous play mode. So for example you can have two player watch mode set and toggle between analysis when required. This also saves on battery power when analysing games. 3) Hotsyncing on multiple computers now easier for some of the rare cases that were having issues. ------------------ 9.6 Update features 1) Enhanced graphics for all the piece sets available. In particular the high resolution piece sets have been significantly improved. Thanks to Bryan Whitby for the Challenger improvements. 2) The coaching feature has been improved. 3) The PGN Import option has been made more tolerant to non standard PGN formats. 4) Various minor improvements to the interface and miscellaneous fixes. 5) Enhancements to specialist endgame knowledge. 6) The chess engine is about 1.5% faster and slightly smarter. 7) More features are available in unregistered mode to give a better demo of the features available. ------------------ 9.5a Update features 1) Intermediate Set Elo levels now have 3 more elo opponents with human playing style and frailties. This means there are Elo opponents from absolute beginner level at 750 Elo through to expert at 2000 Elo in 50 Elo increments. In addition of course to the full strength and engine room configurations available. 2) The usage of the book by the weaker levels has been improved to more accurately behave like human players. 3) A problem with the clock when expected moves are played while pondering has been fixed. ------------------ 9.50 Update features 1) Set elo levels 1350 Elo to 2000 Elo inclusive catering for players of intermediate strength. Palm HIARCS now offers opponents from absolute beginner (750 Elo) to Strong Grandmaster (2600 Elo). Fast ARM based hardware is required for GM strength. 2) Chess coaching has now been extended to support ALL levels including the weaker instant sparring levels. If you accept the coach's warning and take back your move you can now ask for a move hint using the Move Hint menu item to perhaps see a better alternative move. 3) Move Hints are now almost always available (except in analysis mode where the best variations are displayed instead). So for example if you are playing on one of the weaker instant sparring levels you can now ask for move hints. 4) Some piece graphics have been improved in multiple board views. In particular the knights in both Classic and Challenger piece styles have been enhanced. Thanks to Bryan Whitby for the new Challenger knight. 5) There is now a separate indicator that the board has been flipped. When the board is flipped a pixel above the side to play box in the bottom right hand corner is set. This information is available is all board sizes. 6) A number of other improvements to areas such a clocks, typewriter input, book move display. ------------------ 9.46 Update features 1) Introduction of a new 3D effect piece style called Challenger - special thanks to Bryan Whitby for this piece design. This Challenger piece style is only available on colour displays and is optional and chosen through the Board Styles form. 2) VCR buttons have been introduced for on screen game navigation. These buttons enable navigation to the Start or End of the game, or to move backwards or forwards through the game. A stop button is also available. The VCR buttons are optional and chosen through the Preferences form. 3) A small side to move icon is available in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This shows a black filled square for black to move and a white filled square for white to move. 4) The show thinking option has been refined and now displays the last move played on the bottom line (except in full screen board size). 5) When pondering and displaying full analysis HIARCS displays the ponder move in the analysis line. 6) PGN import has been improved to be more tolerant of non standard PGN formats. 7) The Treo 600 left & right rocker buttons now work correctly to cycle through board sizes and to enter moves. 8) A couple of redraw problems found on older Palms have been resolved. This affected "tips" help display and the Hiarcs menu. ------------------ 9.41 Update features 1) The Hiarcs chess engine has been strengthened with king attack enhancements 2) The ARM Hiarcs performance has been improved still further 3) A new Smart Move Entry option is available in the preferences form. When selected this option allows you to just tap the destination square and if only one piece can move to that square the move is made immediately. This improves move entry especially in blitz games. ------------------ 9.32 Update features This update provides some new minor but useful features: 1) You can now tap on the "Your Move" text in the bottom right hand corner of the screen to provide shortcuts to often used functions. It works as follows: When "Your Move" is displayed, tap on the "Move" text to start Hiarcs thinking, tap on the "Your" text to start Hiarcs analysing. When "Thinking..." is displayed, tap on the text to make Hiarcs Move Now When "Analysis" is displayed, tap on the text to stop analysis and return to play mode. When "Auto Play" is displayed, tap on the text to stop Auto Play. 2) When Hiarcs imports external PGN games which are set up positions Hiarcs displays the position BEFORE any moves are played. This helps if you are importing problems and want to examine them without having the solution displayed first. 3) Hiarcs now displays how many moves are in a loaded game. The Game Details form also reflects the number of moves in the game. 4) Memory USAGE has been reduced to enable better coverage for 2Mb Palms as these devices have a shortage of memory. ------------------ 9.31 Update features 1) Improvements to Import PGN feature for externally created PGNs ------------------ The following features are offered by HIARCS 9.3 for the Palm. The full features are only available in the purchased and registered version. o Strongest Engine ever on PalmOS PDAs with infinite level options. o Load, Save and Delete Games in a Hiarcs Database of games. o Import and Export PGN capabilities including extended PGN support. o Position Set Up including castling rights and En Passant status. o An ever present Coach to watch your play and provide: - How the pieces can legally move. - Warnings of impeding mistakes. - Hints. - Post game or move identification of mistakes. - Book moves to help learn opening theory. - Play out positions using auto play. - Analysis of key points of the game. - Rating system to measure your progress and classify your chess ability o Game Navigation, forward and backwards including mistake navigation. o 3 different board sizes and screen styles, medium, large and full screen including a move list. o Configurable display colours. o Support for high density 320x320 colour graphics including support for Sony 320x320 HiRes. o Full Game Details maintained for each game including, Event, Site, Date, Round, White, Black and Result. o Configurable auto off timeouts with battery protection. o 5 way move entry for smart phones and similar devices. o Support for the Shuffle Chess variant of Fischer Random Chess with traditional castling rules. o Preferences like board orientation, move sounds etc. o Understands all the rules of chess including draws by 3 fold repetition, 50 move rule and insufficient material. o Analysis features for the advanced player including game analysis, mistake analysis, next best moves etc. o Infinite level options including Sparring levels, casual time levels, time controls including Blitz, Fischer, and traditional time controls. o Support for 3 configurable time control settings including gain times. o Move entry bonus time to give you extra time in Blitz games. o Engine Room full of configuration options for the Hiarcs engine: - Show thinking including full analysis. - Configurable hash table sizes. - Choice of 3 playing styles, solid, normal and aggressive. - Choice of Threat Depths and Combination searches. - Configurable search selectivities and special search options for Smart and Deep searches. - Special Avoid draw option. - Selectable opening books including Wild, Wide, Normal and Tournament. - Learning of positions. - Permanent Brain option for absolute top strength. o Large openings book of variations with free Power books available. o Hiarcs supports book learning to give more variety and user pleasure. ------------------ Books ----- Please note that larger books with more moves and positions are freely available on our web site www.hiarcs.com for registered owners. The opening books were developed by Mark Uniacke and the Hiarcs Team. ------------------ Registration ------------ In order to unlock the full features listed above you must purchase HIARCS and register the product. 1) To purchase visit http://www.hiarcs.com and select the Palm Hiarcs link and go to the "How to Buy" page. 2) To register, either a) please enter the registration code found on the registration screen when you purchase the software - this way you will recieve an immediate license key straight after purchase. A temporary license key will be sent to you on purchase if you are unable to provide a valid reg code at the time of purchase. b) please email the registration code found on the registration screen to hiarcs@hiarcs.com. The registration screen can be reached via the "Register..." button on the start up screen or via the "About Hiarcs" option in the Hiarcs menu. The registration code is of the form XX-XXXX-XXXX-XX (e.g. A1-DB71-0387-1C). Please email your code exactly as displayed to us (hiarcs@hiarcs.com). 3) By return of email we will send you the License Key to unlock the full features. You will find in unregistered form many Hiarcs features are disabled, namely: o Load Game, Import PGN, Setup position are unavailable. o Give Hint, Prev & Next Mistake are unavailable. o Coaching is unavailable. o Next Best Move o Analysis and Auto Play are unavailable. o All Engine Room features are unavailable. o Book moves are only shown until move 6 o Hiarcs changes the level to instant beginner sparring at move 20. o Some shortcuts giving direct analysis and move now functions. ------------------ Short Cuts ---------- Various hardware buttons can be used for short cuts: o The Up and Down buttons can be used to move backwards and forwards through the game. The Sony Jog Up and Down roller buttons perform the same function. The down button can also be used to make Hiarcs Move Now if it is thinking. o The Left and Right buttons on 5 way controls can be used to change the board styles. The Sony Jog Left and Right buttons perform the same function. Of course the above options are available also through the menu commands, Takeback, Forward, and Board Styles. Most commands have shortcuts which can be accessed through the usual Palm shortcut stroke. For example, the short cut for New Game is N, so enter / followed by N to invoke the New Game command. Please note the / stoke in Graffiti should be drawn starting from the bottom left going to the top right. There are some short cuts for very common commands which can be accessed just by directly entering the following strokes: t (or T) - Takeback a move (or use Up button or /t) f (or F) - Forward a move (or use Down button or /f) w (or W) - Select Watch options space - change board size larger (or use Right button) backspace - change board size smaller (or use Left button) Space and backspace are entered in Graffiti by entering a dash (-) stroke, start from the left for a space, start from the right for a backspace. ------------------ Useful Tips ----------- To access the menu commands tap on the common menu icon at the bottom of your screen or on the bottom left of the silk screen. Some screens in Hiarcs have built in help or tips. These screens show a (i) in the top right of the screen. To access this info tap on the (i). To play White simply make a move. You make a move by selecting (tap) a piece of the side to move and selecting (tap) a destination square. With Show Legal Moves Hiarcs will indicate the legal moves for each selected piece to help you. To play Black select the Move Now menu item under the Hiarcs menu. Hiarcs will play from the current position. If you wish White to play from the top of the screen select the Flip Board menu item under the View menu. There is a 5 way control check box for move entry on Smart Phones where the customer does NOT want to use the stylus. However, in this mode the button shortcuts for other commands (like takeback) obviously do not work because the buttons are being used for move entry. Those who prefer to use a stylus should NOT use this option. There are clocks displayed in both the medium and large board views. The clocks show the time in minutes and seconds or hours and minutes depending on the amount of time available. The format of the clock is 12:34. The clock will count down for time controls (blitz, fischer or timecontrol) and count up for other levels like casual time per move, instant sparring and infinite. In timecontrols if your time runs out the clock will show LOST. The Hiarcs analysis is shown in the following format: D6 10s -2.84 Bb4 Qd3 Bxc3 Qxc3 Re8 This means Hiarcs has searched to a Depth of 6 in 10 seconds and has an evaluation score of -2.84 (negative scores indicate Black is better, positive scores indicate White is better), then the principle variation is given in Algebraic notation. You can see long Algebraic if you uncheck the Short Notation option in the Preference screen. If you have the Show Thinking engine option set to Full Variation or Full Analysis Hiarcs will display its considerations below the analysis line. The Hiarcs considerations are show in the following format: D11 Rxa5 7/12 85938N This means Hiarcs is searching to depth 11 and currently looking at the move Rxa5 which is the 7th possibility out of 12. Hiarcs has searched 85938 position Nodes to this point. Once Hiarcs makes its move it can display search information such as: 1.87s 23759N 12705nps This means Hiarcs took 1.87 seconds to move. It searched 23759 position Nodes in making its decision and searched at a rate of 12705 Nodes Per Second. Hiarcs can show you its available book moves in each position (except in full screen board style). After the first move 1. e4 the book moves are shown in the following format: c5! e5! e6 Nf6: c6: d5? d6? g6? Nc6? The moves marked with a ! are strong moves for Hiarcs to play. The unmarked moves (e.g. e6) are okay for Hiarcs to play. The moves marked with a : are playable but not so strong. The moves marked with a ? are considered not so strong and Hiarcs will NOT play them in Playable or Tournament book mode. You can transfer games to and from your desktop computer by using the Export PGN and Import PGN options. Such games are stored in the memo pad in the PGN format and will be sync'd with the desktop the next time you perform a Hot Sync. See www.hiarcs.com Palm Hiarcs FAQ for details. ------------------ Further assistance ------------------ For help and tips go to our web pages: http://www.hiarcs.com and read the FAQ pages. Lastly THANK YOU for showing an interest in our program.