Author: Chuck
Date: 04:00:40 08/16/02
I can no longer find the exact text, but as I recall the author of Hiarcs 8 claimed the search algorithm was greatly improved to avoid the "explosion" of the search tree at great depths. This appears to me to be a false claim. I run alot of deep analysis with Junior 7, Fritz 7, Chess Tiger 14, Gambit Tiger 2, Shredder 6, Rebel Century 4, Gandalf 5 and Hiarcs 8. Often I let a program analyze a single position for 2-4 days. All seem to handle this well except Hiarcs, which is completely incapable. It seems there is a certain point where the nps dramatically drops on Hiarcs. All the computers I use are 1.2 - 1.5 GHz with 256-512 MB RAM, and Hiarcs will usually report 150-200 kn/s, but after a day or more this figure will drop dramatically. Right now I'm looking at another computer where it has been analyzing a position for 45:19:56 and it is reporting 23 kn/s! I've seen it drop further, to 10-15 kn/s where I kill it. This may always happen (haven't really tracked it, normally I just give up on Hiarcs after it wastes so much of my time). I used to and would like to still be a Hiarcs fan, but this is a significant problem IMO. It seems to me the tree "explosion" is still a big, big problem and the author's claim was false. My evidence suggests Hiarcs is crippled at deep analysis.
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