Mac Hiarcs Chess Explorer

I purchased Hiarcs Chess Explorer a couple of weeks ago and I thought I would write a quick review for those who like me were wondering about this new chess program. I took sometime deciding but I was convinced by the promo video they put on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtBdRjtrBDU

and I had all my pre-purchase questions answered by one of the authors by email very quickly, I was impressed by the support given by Mark who I am guessing is the engine author. 

I previously have used Chessbase and Fritz et al on PC and while they have lots of features they are hard to use and often lock up my PC. I did not want to buy another PC program even though Hiarcs is available on PC - I prefer using my Mac. On my Mac I have run a dual boot (mainly for chess) but final we have a high quality chess program for the Mac itself and it is really very good indeed.

I was attracted to Hiarcs Explorer because it offered me the game analysis and book preparation facilities I was looking for. It has all the usual features for chess play and the graphics are really very good quality - I understand it supports Retina Macs as well.

Having used the program for a couple of weeks I can say it has exceeded my expectations. The features that really stand out for me are:

1) The ability to play games against weakened Elo opponents which make realistic moves to challenge and not overwhelm. Unlike any other chess programs I have played (and I have lots). Hiarcs plays chess realistically and misses some combinations/pins just like a human club player on the weakened levels I am playing anyway. It has really made the chess fun. Unlike other computer coaches the Hiarcs coach actually points out very good moves I missed and gives me the chance to look for the ! move which is more interesting because it is happening in the games I play. It also rates me and adapts its play to my level which means I don't need to fiddle with levels although there are loads of them.

2) I can chose the selection of openings I want to play, it is great to be able to play openings I want to play rather than what the computer might want - I never realised Hiarcs would give me this flexibility

3) I was able to load and enter games I have played for my club, I can then analyse them with any chess engine and write comments and add chess symbols, that is really easy and helps my chess and understanding. I can also get Hiarcs to analyse my games for blunders etc.

4) The opening view is fantastic, i really cannot commend the programmers enough for this great feature. I can study openings and databases, positions and moves, even my favourite players and download lots of pgn games of great players to view their openings. And I can access grandmaster books online as well - and it is so easy to use

5) I am able to load a pgn of my games and it automatically built a repertoire tree of my games and openings, that was really impressive - it helps me understand my opening choices better. I am even able to load opponents I will play in club games and get their openings and moves - that is really useful for preparation

6) It gives me automatic access to tablebases online for free with Hiarcs, they say 1,000Gb which is way more than the turbo endgame dvd set Chessbase sold me for nearly as much as the whole Hiarcs product. I guess the DVDs are about 40Gb in total while Hiarcs offers me 1,000Gb for no extra cost at all. That is nice and very good value.

There were lots of other features and many I have not tried yet, the program is really surprising in that it has lots of really neat touches I did not realise. For example I commented on my games and added some diagrams, I then was able to print the game to pdf and load it on my book reader.

I almost forgot to mention I can  search for games containing a position I played much faster than even Chessbase and much more easily. That was a surprise and made me change the way I look at positions as I can quickly see games which played the same position as me which gives me ideas.

Probably the best feature of this new chess program is just how easy it is to use. I found most features just by playing with it although to its credit Hiarcs does have lots of help and a 100+ page manual with lots of diagrams.

There are a couple of features I would like to see, first some way to search for games containing a motif and another to add my fields to a game so I can tag and search games with different information.

Thanks to Hiarcs folks for supporting the Mac with a great GUI when all the other top programs refused to for years.

I'm pretty sure you were hired by Hiarcs to write that.

LOL

Thanks for this review.  Very helpful.

Whats the difference between the normal and the Deep HIARCS?

deep is multi-processor 

Im strongly considering buying the program, im just wondering if it contains puzzles and tactics trainer? 

No. Just database management and playing/analysis.

What a shill. This guy has never even played a game on chess.com. This actually made me reconsider buying Chess Explorer for Mac. I was about to buy it but wanted to read a review first. Now, I'm not so sure. 

The latest version does come with puzzles and a kind of tactics trainer/guess the move feature (basically a "hide the remaining moves" facility).

I have used Chess Explorer for Mac since  2013 and agree 100% with the review. I highly recommend it if you want to use an Apple iMac for competitive chess.

Hi, thanks for the review! I’m considering purchasing Mac Chess Explorer, can you guys tell me if the program can access and write to PGN databases stored in iCloud or Dropbox? Thanks!

Hi, thanks for the reply! I tried ChessX, but it has a problem displaying foreign characters such ü and ß... it's a great alternative though.