Maximizing HIARCS 11.2's playing strength on Mac

[Jack Clark]

I'm running Sigma Chess 6.1.5 HIARCS 11.2 MP UCI on a MacBook with 2 GB RAM and lots of available hard drive. Th program gives its estimated maximum Elo with this set up as 2890. Is anybody getting a stronger Elo than that with this set up? If so, I'd like to compare settings with you. (I'm not at all unhappy with 2890--just checking.)

(And if you're not getting 2890 with this set up, maybe you'd want to know my settings.)

Thanks. -Jack

[HFaber]

Hi,
if you tell me how to get off these bloody SigmaLite restrictions I let my iMac tell his strength. And please don't tell me to spend another 20 bucks.

[Tord Romstad]

Hi,
if you tell me how to get off these bloody SigmaLite restrictions I let my iMac tell his strength. And please don't tell me to spend another 20 bucks.

No need to spend any money, or to remove the Sigma Chess Light restrictions. Just run Hiarcs from the command line, type "uci", and read the maximum Elo from the UCI_Elo parameter:

Code: Select all

Visenya:~/Applications/Hiarcs11 tord$ ./Hiarcs11.1MPUCI
HIARCS by Mark John Uniacke
Copyright (c) 1992-2007 Mark Uniacke, Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. All rights reserved.
uci
id name HIARCS 11.1 MP
id author Mark John Uniacke
option name Ponder type check default true
option name Licensed To type combo default Tord Romstad var Tord Romstad
option name Core Threads type spin min 1 max 2 default 2
option name OwnBook type check default true
option name Book File type string default H11Book2.hcs
option name Book Status type string default Loaded OK
option name Book Positions type combo default 691458 var 691458
option name Book Style type combo default Tournament var Wild var Wide var Varied var Tournament
option name Book Learning type check default true
option name Position Learning type check default true
option name Hash type spin min 1 max 2048 default 16
option name Clear Hash type button
option name Retain Hash type check default true
option name Use Tablebases type check default true
option name Tablebase Depth type spin min 0 max 7 default 2
option name NalimovCache type spin min 1 max 256 default 1
option name NalimovPath type string default /tbs
option name Hiarcs Draw Value type spin min -100 max 100 default 0
option name Playing Style type combo default Normal var Normal var Aggressive var Solid
option name Selectivity type spin min 0 max 7 default 7
option name Forward Pruning type spin min 0 max 15 default 10
option name Threat Depth type spin min 0 max 7 default 5
option name Smart Search type check default true
option name Futility type check default true
option name Steady Search type check default false
option name Combinations type check default false
option name Hyper-Modern Play type check default true
option name Swindle type check default true
option name GUI Time Lag type check default false
option name Verbose UCI type check default false
option name AutoSave PGN type check default false
option name UCI_Elo type spin min 1250 max 2851 default 2270
option name UCI_LimitStrength type check default false
option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
option name MultiPV type spin min 1 max 127 default 1
option name UCI_EngineAbout type string default HIARCS 11.1 MP is activated. Copyright (c) 2007 Applied Computer Concepts Ltd.  All rights reserved. Visit www.hiarcs.com for updates.
registration checking
registration ok
uciok

On my machine (an iMac Core Duo 2 GHz), the maximum is 2851, as you can see above.

Tord