Author: Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
Date: 22:24:07 01/01/99
Go up one level in this thread
On January 01, 1999 at 19:43:56, Kerry McDermott wrote:
>On January 01, 1999 at 18:05:19, William Bryant wrote:
>
>>I noted that Hiarcs 7 is now available for Mac. Any comments from anyone?
>>Thanks.
>>
>>William
>
>
>Hi William,
>
>I also have a Mac. I'm sorry I don't have any information for you about Hiarcs
>7 for the Mac. However, I can say that Chessmaster 4000 (engine: The King 2) is
>very strong. I am not really certain how strong though. I'm new to this site
>and am interested in finding out more about Mac chess software - specifically
>how can I set CM4000 to play around 2000 USCF (I'm 1753 and would like to move
>up with practice) and what are the good and inexpensive chess databases out
>there for the Mac. Do you have any ideas or do you know of any resources?
>
>Thanx
>
>Kerry
I have some answers for both of you ...
1) HIARCS 7 Mac -
I beta tested it, but the production copy I ordered hasn't arrived yet.
If you want a very strong chess engine for game postmortems, position
analysis, etc., HIARCS Mac is the program to get - it is far stronger
than any other Mac chess program, and its post-mortem analysis options
are better than its nearest competitor (Chessmaster 4000).
On the other hand, if you are mainly looking for a sparring partner
and tutorial, Chessmaster 4000 and/or the freeware programs
MacChess and Sigma Chess are the software to get.
HIARCS 7 vs HIARCS 6:
The HIARCS 6 Mac features are covered in my review at:
http://www.gambitsoft.com/chess/games/hiar6me.htm
HIARCS 7 Mac improvements over HIARCS 6 Mac are:
- ca. 50 pts Elo strength increase (a little soon to say if that has
really happened, but problem test results and computer-computer
game results do support this claim).
- greatly increased program book size
(the book seems to have grown from 1.1Mb to 3.6 Mb, and the HIARCS
web site says: Enlarged opening books with over 488,000 unique
book positions.)
- more standard PGN output
For more HIARCS info, see the HIARCS web site at:
http://www.acc-ltd.demon.co.uk/
2) Setting CM4000 to ca. 2000 strength ...
I don't know if I can be much help here, but I'd suggest setting up
a new personality, and adjusting the "Randomness" parameter until
you are scoring about 25% against CM4000.
3) Learning more about Mac chess software:
You can start by exploring the web sites linked at:
http://directory.mozilla.org/Games/Board_Games/Chess/Software/Macintosh/
especially the Virgnia Chess software reviews.
4) Inexpensive Mac chess databases
I'd suggest buying ExaChess (you can try out the freeware version,
ExaChess Lite, first - get it from http://www.exachess.com), and
then stopping by La Regence at
http://www.hsv.tis.net/chess/regence/regence.htm
to fill up on games in the openings of interest of you.
Alternatively, you can buy Essentia Mac as well, and load its database
into ExaChess.
Both ExaChess and Essentia Mac are reviewed at:
http://www.vachess.org/reviews.htm#software
Regards,
Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
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