Hiarcs Opening Book update

[Michael Blake]

Hi,
Sorry for being a bit dim about this but I constantly struggle to understand the Hiarcs book subscription I get. I think the latest book is always available via the tournament book option in HCE but that requires me to be online.

I am using a Mac so have stored the hcs file in my Books folder within Hiarcs documents. If I open the book file it shows the same number of games as the previous version, that looks a little odd. For example 1.e4 is

What purpose does the book file (.hcs) serve and how do I use it in HCE? Does it replace the 'Local' book within HCE or is it basically useless to me unless I run it outside of HCE in say another chess program. Or perhaps I am paying for the online update to the Tournament Book whilst the downloadable hcs file is just something for me to collect but not use Sorry for not being able to grasp this.

Thanks,
Mickey

[Mark Uniacke]

The HCS book is for the HIARCS engine to use, it does not contain statistics like the HCE books.

If you save the latest book in the HIARCS Chess/Books folder, when the HIARCS engine is loaded it will pick up the latest book.

If the engine is already loaded it will not pick up the new book. You will need to either restart HCE or change engines, e.g. if you have HIARCS 14 loaded, change to another engine, then change back, that will cause the engine to look for the book again when it starts up.

[Michael Blake]

Thanks Mark,
It must be because I don't see anything that I fail to grasp what the book is actually giving me.

Kind Regards,
Mickey