Accessed by clicking the analyse game shortcut icon in the Analysis Explorer pane. The dialog is also accessed from the Game->Analyse Game... menu item.


The Analyse game dialog enables you to set up the current selected engine to analyse a game. You can set the following information to control how the game is analysed and annotated:

  • Time
    • Average time per move - this is a guideline time the engine uses per move, over the course of the game the engine tries to average this time per move. However the engine has the freedom to spend more time on difficult moves and less time on easy moves.
    • Average time per game - this is a guideline time the engine should use to analyse the whole game. The engine has the freedom to spend varying amounts of time on each move depending on complexity.
  • Range
    • All moves - every move of the game is analysed, this includes book moves.
    • All non-book moves - every move in the game except established book moves are analysed. We recommend this setting is used as it saves time by not analysing established book moves.
    • Only selected moves - this allows you to set the range of moves that the engine should analyse in the game.
    • Show only errors, not inaccuracies - this option when enabled will mean only clear errors will be highlighted. Moves that are more marginal errors or inaccuracies are not highlighted.
  • Colour
    • you can select which side of play you wish the engine to analyse the moves of White, Black or both sides.
  • Format
    • Analysis format - you can select Score only or Score and engine name. Both will insert the evaluation and depth of search but the engine name is only added to the Game Notation if the engine name format is selected.
    • Annotating engine - you can adjust the annotating engine name to a shorter form which you prefer.
    • Remove previous analysis - if this is checked then any previous analysis by an engine will be removed


Please note if you analyse the same game with different engines or with the same engine but a different time per move then it is important to set an Annotating engine name to help distinguish which engine the analysis came from.


Click OK to begin the game analysis. The game analysis is performed in reverse order from the end of the game to the beginning of the game. This helps improve the analysis especially with HIARCS chess engines which learn from their previous analysis and can use that information of future outcomes as the analysis progresses backwards through the game.


As the game analysis progresses HIARCS Chess Explorer will use the chess engine's analysis of the moves and variations to annotate the game with chess symbols to indicate where blunders, poor, dubious, interesting and good moves are found and add alternative variations to the Game Notation pane where they are considered useful.


As the game is analysed the current move being analysed is displayed in the History & Statistics view. For example:

The progress of Analyse Game is also shown in the progress bar at the bottom of the HIARCS Chess Explorer window. You can also cancel the analysis in progress by clicking the [x] next to the progress bar.