World Championship winning computer chess
software program & downloads for chess database, analysis & play on PC, Mac and
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Resurrect HIARCS and win Prizes!The source code from the early HIARCS versions from 1981 and 1983 are now available on our website. You can find the scanned in source code here:
I must admit to being intrigued to know if some one could get the source running again on PC or Mac. I am happy to offer the prize of a free HIARCS product or upgrade (for existing customers) to the first person who can provide me with a running version of either HIARCS 0.3 or 0.5 from the source code on PC or Mac. Being written in the interpretive Basic+ of 1980 it should be possible to get these oldies working. If we get a fully working version of either HIARCS chess program we will try
and arrange a match on the PlayChess server with some very early chess
challengers from the late 1970s. If you need clarification on part of the
listing because the scanned image is not clear, please email Mark Uniacke on
Brand new Novag Citrine dedicated chess computer Prize!
This fantastic prize is offered by Steve Blincoe for the first person to provide working versions of HIARCS 0.3 AND HIARCS 0.5 which can run on PC or Mac. We hope to use these versions in the oldie software v dedicated Chess Challenge. The Novag Citrine pictured above is a top level dedicated chess computer costing £249.95 or nearly $500! A big thank you to Steve for such a generous offer! Steve is a collector of old dedicated chess computers. He has a fantastic collection which you can view here: Chess Computer Collection Working versions of HIARCS 0.3 and 0.5 including source should be emailed to
Mark Uniacke on
Mark will decide if any of the prizes have been won based on him being able to run the software on his PC or Mac and check the source code matches the originals. The winners will receive free license keys for the HIARCS product of their choice (or upgrade to the next version for existing customers) and the overall winner will get a new Novag Citrine posted by Eric Hallsworth of Countrywide Computer courtesy of Steve Blincoe directly to them free of charge!
Challenge Solved - we have a winner!And the winner is: Alain Zanchetta - Congratulations! Alain successfully ported both the 1981 and 1983 versions. The 1981 version was complicated because the listing was slightly out of date with the execution runs as listings were rarely allowed in those "old days". Alain not only ported the Hiarcs 0.3 1981 version but also found and fixed a couple of bugs. I found a later set of listings from 1981 in our loft and managed to augment Alain's port so that it could take part in the first stage of the match of the century against Chess Challenger 3 from 1978! These oldies will do battle on the Playchess server on Sunday 13th May 2007. Although the 1983 version was not much longer than the 1981 version, it was significantly more complicated. Alain did an excellent job again of porting this Hiarcs 0.5 1983 version to Visual Basic and had to translate a number of gosubs into VB subroutines and handle the goto issues. We have enhanced both versions so they can be run by anyone as a text console application on PCs. The resurrected old versions will be available to download, install and play against soon. Please check our free chess software download page for details. Alain has won two free HIARCS products, he has kindly declined the Novag Citrine prize and with Steve Blincoe's kind agreement we will be putting it into a future prize challenge here at www.hiarcs.com! A big thank you to Alain for his hard work and excellent port, and of course Steve for making this challenge all the more interesting with the Novag Citrine prize and challenge match against Chess Challenger 3 which was so much fun. THANK YOU! |
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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 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.
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