HIARCS Chess Software for PC Windows, Apple Mac and iPhone/iPad Mac Chess HIARCS 11
World Championship winning computer chess software program & downloads for chess database, analysis & play on PC, Mac and iPhone

HIARCS Home Up Download HIARCS How To Buy Mac Chess FAQ

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Macintosh Sigma Chess 6.1.5 HIARCS 11.2
The strongest and best-featured chess software ever for Macintosh computers.

We are proud to present our latest chess product offering the strongest chess engine ever on Apple Macintosh computers. We have partnered with the premier Macintosh Chess GUI, Sigma Chess, to provide not only the strongest chess engine but also the best featured and most user friendly GUI. HIARCS is a UCI chess engine which runs inside any UCI compatible chess GUI. Sigma Chess is the premier Macintosh Chess GUI supporting UCI chess engines. We can now offer you the latest versions of each component for the ultimate Apple Macintosh chess package:

bulletSigma Chess 6.1.5 Graphical User Interface
bulletHIARCS 11.2 single processor and multiprocessor versions as universal binaries!

Existing customers should have received an email detailing a discount offer for upgrading from Sigma Chess HIARCS 10 to Sigma Chess HIARCS 11. If you are an existing customer and have not received upgrade details please email us here:

       

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The Sigma Chess HIARCS combination gives the ultimate chess package for the Macintosh with the strongest ever chess engine on the Macintosh and the best features integrated into a stylish GUI. Key features of the full Sigma Chess Pro HIARCS product:  

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The new premier HIARCS 11.2 single or multiprocessor chess engine in UCI form

bulletUniversal binary chess engines supporting new Intel and older PowerPC G3/G4/G5 based hardware
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Suitable for all players from absolute beginners to World Chess Championship strength and beyond! (1250 Elo – 2900+ Elo!).

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Can play at any chess standard you set in Elo rating points challenging all players*.

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Unlimited levels and time controls: Casual, Blitz, Active, Fischer and Tournament.

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Tournament book with the latest opening theory for study and preparation.

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Nalimov tablebase support of up to 6 pieces for perfect play in the endgame*.

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New Sigma Chess 6.1.5 Graphical User Interface with new features like MultiPV

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UCI engine support so you can run other Mac OS X engines in addition to Sigma Chess & HIARCS

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Sigma Chess now supports engine-engine matches - see those engines do battle!*

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Native Macintosh OS X compatibility - runs on all Macs, Intel and PowerPC

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Monitors your play, measures your progress with Elo history graph and statistics.

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Sigma Chess GUI database game collections including PGN & EPD with search capabilities

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HTML web page export including "Rules of Chess" collection*

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High resolution, colour graphics with 2D/3D boards and multiple piece styles.

*Sigma Chess HIARCS Pro features.

Sigma Chess HIARCS are software download products.
Requires an Intel or PowerPC Apple Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

            


Just two steps needed to enjoy the capabilities of the latest Sigma Chess HIARCS:

1) Download Sigma Chess HIARCS Lite and TRY IT for FREE. Sigma Chess HIARCS Lite will run for free in demo/unregistered mode (restricted features and strength) until you purchase and receive the license key to activate the software.

2) If you like it BUY IT by secure online payment. You can buy Sigma Chess HIARCS for Macintosh by a variety of secure online payment methods including credit and debit cards. You can even pay by cheque/check or wire transfer. Soon after payment is completed you will receive a personalised license key to enable the purchased product option and  get full free access to the full tournament opening books with GM play and analysis!  Now you have a Super GM on your Apple Macintosh!

Further details about secure online purchasing of Sigma Chess HIARCS can be found on our How to Buy page.

There are three product versions:

1) Sigma Chess HIARCS Lite - This is a free demo version which demonstrates most of the features on offer. You may download our free demonstration version, Sigma Chess HIARCS Lite on our Macintosh download page. In free limited feature form Sigma Chess HIARCS Lite has the following main limitations:

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HIARCS 11.2 Lite chess engine with chess strength limitations:
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Over 400 Elo weaker than the activated/registered engine

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Chess Engine search is 10-40 times slower

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Search depth is limited to 13 plies (one ply is a move for one side)

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Some important evaluation components are disabled

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Only one CPU core is used

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No Nalimov endgame tablebase support

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Achieves about 2500 Elo, strong enough to defeat more than 99.9% of chess players

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Even this heavily weakened version is one of the strongest Mac chess engines

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Playing styles and all other configuration options are fixed.

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Only the first 10 moves of the opening books will be playable

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Hash tables are limited to 16Mb.

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Sigma Chess 6.1.5 Graphical User Interface - Lite product features

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Monitors your play, measures your progress with Elo history graph and statistics (limited to 10 games).

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Sigma Chess GUI database game collections (PGN & EPD) limited to 1000 games

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Printing and exporting  HTML web page features (diagrams not included).

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High resolution, colour graphics with 2D/3D boards and multiple piece styles.

If you like the product please purchase it so that you have access to the full strength and features of the Sigma Chess HIARCS product. Purchasing a the product enables us to provide you with an activation key to unlock the features of the product chosen. See below for the product options.

 

2) Sigma Chess HIARCS Single or Multiprocessor version - This is an activated HIARCS chess engine offering unrivalled chess strength on Apple Macintosh computers. This product is available by purchasing the HIARCS chess engine product. In return we will send you a license key to unlock and activate the chess strength and features of the HIARCS chess engine - now you have a Super GM on your Apple Macintosh! The following features beyond the Lite version are provided:

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Choice of HIARCS 11.2 Single or Multiprocessor engine versions

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HIARCS is a Universal binary to maximise performance on both Intel and PowerPC based Macs

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Chess strength up to 2900+ Elo depending on your hardware performance and version.

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Full chess brain enabled and 10-40 times faster than Lite version

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Maximum depth extended from 13 moves to 62 moves lookahead

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Hiarcs 11.2 scores 98% v Hiarcs 11.2 Lite!

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Unlimited levels and time controls: Casual, Blitz, Active, Fischer and Tournament.

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Multiple playing styles, Solid, Normal and Aggressive; together with hypermodern play.

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Configurable Smart Search, Selectivity, Threats and Combination settings.

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Positional and book learning capabilities so Hiarcs improves as it plays.

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Full Tournament book with the latest opening theory for study and preparation

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Hash tables up to 64Mb. Larger hash tables up to 2Gb are available with the Sigma Chess Pro version.

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Explore new Sigma Chess 6.1.5 GUI with new features like MultiPV

The Multiprocessor version is strongly recommended for Intel based Macs as they have multiple processor cores and the MP version can take full advantage of them.

Find out how to buy the Mac HIARCS chess engine here

 

3) Sigma Chess Pro HIARCS - Upgrade the Sigma Chess HIARCS product above to the professional GUI version offering the following extra features from the GUI:

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Settable Elo chess strength in the range (1250 Elo - 2900+ Elo depending on your hardware performance)*

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Endgame database support of Nalimov tablebases up to 6 pieces for perfect play in the endgame*

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Support for hash tables over 64Mb up to 2Gb depending on RAM availability*

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Sigma Chess GUI now supports engine-engine match play.

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Continuous monitor analysis by HIARCS*

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Full Elo history graph and statistics.

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Game collections of up to a million games including PGN & EPD with search capabilities

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HTML web page export including "Rules of Chess" collection and diagrams

*Please note you must have also purchased the HIARCS chess engine in (2) above in order to upgrade to the HIARCS enhanced features above.

Already a Sigma Chess HIARCS owner? Upgrade to the full Sigma Chess Pro HIARCS product here.

You can view the Sigma Chess 6.1 series User Manual online. Please visit the Sigma Chess website www.sigmachess.com to see further details of the Sigma Chess Macintosh software and a full Sigma Chess GUI feature list or to obtain downloads for Mac OS 9 or earlier.

Your support of Sigma Chess and the Mac HIARCS chess engine enables us to provide you with even better Apple Macintosh chess products in the future. Thank you for your support!

 

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Ole Christensen (Sigma Chess) for his superb Sigma Chess software, quite simply the best chess GUI for the Macintosh.

A big thank you to Richard Fowell for his superb beta testing and suggestions without which this product would not be what it is today.  Richard has helped test HIARCS Mac versions since the first HIARCS chess product for the Macintosh way back in 1995 and his detailed knowledge and thorough testing is truly outstanding.

Finally many thanks to David Gill for his excellent contribution to beta testing Sigma Chess HIARCS.

These people have helped make the product the best it could be.  THANK YOU!

SigmaChess is copyright (c) Sigma GameWare.  

We thank Eugene Nalimov and Andrew Kadatch for their kind permission to use their access code (copyright (c) Eugene Nalimov) and decompression code (copyright (c) Andrew Kadatch) for Nalimov tablebases in the HIARCS chess engine.

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"generally I use HIARCS." - Five time World Chess Champion Vishy Anand, in a recent interview when asked what chess program he uses to analyse with
 
"HIARCS is much better positionally than Deep Blue." - Garry Kasparov 1997 (after game 5 of the rematch)

World Chess Champion, Vishy Anand, used "Powerful" HIARCS machine in preparations for his 2010 & 2012 world title matches

"This level of service is one other big reason to buy HIARCS." - John Jackson

† Highest performance reached depends on computer used. Computer Chess Software with world class chess engine playing strength.
HIARCS is designed and developed by Mark Uniacke in England.

*VAT and local sales tax may be applicable. Prices given in GBP, USD and EUR are subject to change without notice.
Other currencies are subject to conversion rates from GBP.

HIARCS is a trademark of Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. All other product trademarks acknowledged.
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