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.
HIARCS
stands for Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System.
In
the early years Mark concentrated on computer-computer competition, but since
1994 Mark and HIARCS have successfully turned their attention to their toughest
adversary – Mankind!
Now in 2007 HIARCS
is again turning its attention to the computer chess competition with the aim to
set new standards of chess excellence in defeating all human and computer
opposition.
The
key milestone achievements of HIARCS are:
 |
1991
World Amateur Microcomputer Chess Champion, Vancouver, Canada. |
|
1993
World Computer Chess Olympiad Champion, London, England. |
|
1993
World Microcomputer Chess Software Champion, Munich, Germany |
|
1995
Top placed computer, Man-Machine AEGON tournament, The Hague,
The Netherlands, achieving a Grandmaster performance and defeating top US GM
Yasser Seirawan.
|
|
1997
First microcomputer chess program in history to defeat a FIDE
International Master in match play when HIARCS defeated IM Deen Hergott 4-2
in Ottawa, Canada.
|
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1997
Garry Kasparov specifically requested HIARCS as his training partner for his
second match with IBM’s Deep Blue. He later said on record “HIARCS
is much better positionally than Deep Blue”.
|
|
2002
HIARCS defeats top Russian GM Boris Gulko 1½-½ in
Internet Man-Machine
chess challenge match.
|
|
2003
HIARCS draws chess match 2-2
with World top 10 Super GM Evgeny Bareev,
Maastricht, The Netherlands.
|
|
2005
HIARCS on a Palm PDA becomes the first handheld chess computer in
history to defeat a GM in a match when it defeated top German
GM Jan Gustafsson 3-1 in a Man-Machine Internet match achieving a higher
performance rating than Garry Kasparov. Palm HIARCS also
defeated GM Sergey Volkov 3-1 and
GM Piotr Bobras 3-1 in two four game
matches. |
|
2006 HIARCS for Palm PDA 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. |
|
2007 HIARCS wins
Internet Chess Club CCT9 Blitz
tournament for the second year running and breaks the 3000 Elo barrier. |
|
2007 HIARCS wins
17th International Paderborn computer chess tournament in Germany ahead of a
world class field including other World Computer Chess Champions.. |
|
2008 HIARCS wins 17th International Thüringer Computer
Chess Championship in Germany ahead of all major competitors. |
|
2008 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. |
|
2008 HIARCS is top single-computer in 16th World Computer Chess
Championship in Beijing, China. |
|
2008 HIARCS is top single-computer in
28th Dutch Open Computer Chess
Championship in Leiden, The Netherlands. |
|
2009 HIARCS wins
9th International CSVN Tournament
in
Leiden, The Netherlands |
|
2009 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! |
For a fuller chronological list of HIARCS'
achievements click here.
We are running a series of articles in which Mark Uniacke author of HIARCS
details where HIARCS began and its evolution and rise through the ranks to
become World Chess Software Champion and onwards to its present position
offering World Class Chess Software on multiple platforms.
These articles will provide not only details of HIARCS history but will
explain various algorithms and ideas used in the HIARCS chess software and key
games in its evolution.
Begin with our "Where it all began"
article.
Undecided? - please read our "Why Choose
HIARCS?" page.
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