HIARCS Chess Software

History of HIARCS
Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System

HIARCS is a chess program by Mark Uniacke developed from an original idea born out of a physics classroom at a comprehensive school way back in 1980. The objective was to create a chess playing entity with an emphasis on artificial intelligence, rather than sheer number-crunching, capable of competing with the best human chess players in the world.

2022 HIARCS 15.2 wins 58th CSVN

2022 HIARCS 15.1 wins 57th CSVN

2022 HIARCS 15 released

  • HIARCS 15 Elo Rating: 3250 (Athlon 1.2GHz)
  • Deep HIARCS 15 Elo Rating: 3400 (1800X 3.6GHz)
  • HIARCS 15 has the largest ever Elo increase of 250 Elo since previous version.

2018 HIARCS wins 53rd CSVN

2017 HIARCS wins 51st CSVN

2013-2015 HIARCS X is World Champion

2011-2013 HIARCS 14 is World Champion

2010

  • HIARCS is equal top single-computer in 30th Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship in Leiden, The Netherlands

  • HIARCS is top single-computer in 10th International CSVN Tournament in Leiden, The Netherlands

  • PC, Mac, Pocket PC and Palm HIARCS 13.1 released

  • HIARCS is top single-computer in 12th Internet Chess Club CCT tournament

2009

  • HIARCS 12.1 for iPhone released on the Apple App Store

  • HIARCS on Pocket PC won the 2009 Mescosur Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina ahead of Grandmasters scoring an incredible undefeated 9½/10 in the process. This is a performance of 2938 Elo which is the best ever chess performance rating for any handheld device in history and higher than Garry Kasparov's peak Elo rating!

  • HIARCS wins 9th International CSVN Tournament in Leiden, The Netherlands

2008 HIARCS 12 is World Champion

  • HIARCS 12.1 for CEBoard on Pocket PC released

  • HIARCS is top single-computer in 28th Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship in Leiden, The Netherlands

  • HIARCS is top single-computer and World Computer Chess Champion in 16th World Computer Chess Championship in Beijing, China

  • HIARCS on Pocket PC won the 2008 Mescosur Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina ahead of Grandmasters scoring an incredible undefeated 8/10 in the process. This is a performance of 2691 Elo which is the best ever chess performance rating of a chess program on a PDA in history

  • HIARCS 12.1 is the chess engine powering Pocket Fritz 3

  • PC & Mac HIARCS 12.1 released

  • HIARCS wins 17th International Thüringer Computer Chess Championship in Germany ahead of all major competitors

  • PC & Mac HIARCS 12.0 released

2007

  • HIARCS wins International Paderborn Computer Chess Tournament in Germany ahead of a world class field including other World Computer Chess Champions

  • HIARCS wins annual Internet Chess Club open computer chess blitz tournament for the second year running and is second in the main tournament

2006

  • PC & Mac HIARCS 11.0 released with a multiprocessor capability for the first time

  • PC HIARCS MP just born and competes for the first time ever and gains third in the Dutch Open Computer Chess Tournament

  • HIARCS for Palm becomes the first handheld chess computer in history to win a GM tournament when it won the 2nd Congress Pichay Invitational in the Philippines and defeated super GM Mark Paragua

  • HIARCS wins annual Internet Chess Club open computer chess blitz tournament and is second in the main tournament

2005

2004

  • HIARCS 9.60 released on Apple Mac (for the first time since 1998) - the strongest program on the Mac and 40 Elo stronger than HIARCS 9.0

  • HIARCS 9.3 for Palm released as the strongest chess program ever on PalmOS based devices. Palm HIARCS rating on Palm T3/T5/C/400Mhz 2614 Elo

  • HIARCS 9.2 on a single processor came equal first in the Internet Chess Club computer tournament (2nd after play off to 8xmultiprocessor Crafty version)

2003

  • PC HIARCS 9.0 released including the Bareev engine. HIARCS 8 Bareev rating on PC Athlon/2Ghz 2720. HIARCS 9.0 rating on PC Athlon/2Ghz 2750

  • PC HIARCS 8.X draws match 2-2 with Super GM Evgeny Bareev (Elo 2729), Maastricht, The Netherlands

2002

  • PC HIARCS 8.0 released as a Chessbase product. Rating on PC Athlon/1.2Ghz 2685 Elo

  • PC HIARCS 8.0 defeats GM Boris Gulko 1½-½ and draws with GM Illya Smirin 1-1 in Internet man-machine challenges

1999

  • PC HIARCS 7.32 released as a Chessbase product. The first PC chess program to use tablebase endgame databases in its search

  • HIARCS 7.0 rated top on all computer rating lists

1998

  • PC and Mac HIARCS 7.0 released. Rating on PC P2/450Mhz 2535 EloPC and Mac HIARCS 7.0 released. Rating on PC P2/450Mhz 2535 Elo

  • HIARCS 6.0 with learning used by leading players in their tournament preparations

1997

  • World’s highest rated chess program HIARCS 6.0 leads on all rating lists including a 71 Elo lead on the SSDF list

  • HIARCS 6.0 defeated I.M. Deen Hergott 4-2 in a match at long time controls, Ottawa, Canada (first PC in history to win a match against a FIDE I.M.)

  • Garry Kasparov specifically requested an experimental HIARCS 6.X version for his preparations for the Deep Blue 2 match

  • HIARCS 6.0 released as a Chessbase chess engine

  • PC and Mac HIARCS 6.0 released to great acclaim as the strongest PC chess program ever. Rating on PC PPro/200Mhz 2430 Elo

1996

  • HIARCS 5.0 released

  • HIARCS 4.0 is the first ever Chessbase chess engine

1995

  • PC and Mac HIARCS 4.0 released. Rating on PC P/133Mhz 2320 Elo

  • HIARCS 3.0 top computer, AEGON man-machine tournament, The Hague, Holland (performance rating Elo 2631)

1994

  • HIARCS 3.0 released. Rating on PC Pentium/90Mhz 2275 Elo

1993

  • HIARCS 2.1 World Championship version released. Rating PC 486/66Mhz 2140 Elo

  • World Microcomputer Chess Software Champion, Munich, Germany

  • HIARCS 2.0 released. Rating on PC 486/50Mhz 2125 Elo

  • QMW Uniform-Platform Computer Chess Champion, London, UK

1992

1991

  • World Amateur Microcomputer Chess Champion, Vancouver, Canada

1989

  • HIARCS competes in its first tournament, the first Computer Olympiad in London

1980