New User Questions

[SirMaru]

I just obtained Hiarcs 11.2 MP today. I have some questions. I use a Dell XPS 600 with an Intel Dual Processor.

When I set Hiarcs to Limited ELO with 1570 specified, I started a game with it with myself. I notice that the Fritz10 GUI only offered me a 1640 lowest ELO to play against. Does the Fritz10 GUI control the ELO thus making it irrelevant to even set a Hiarcs ELO?

Also, when I played Hiarcs 11.2 MP against Fritz 10 in a 4 game match, I notice it operated substantially slower than Fritz in 5 minute games. I then turned off Permanent Brain for another match and also turned on GUI Time Lag. Verbose UCI was off in both cases. Then it seemed to use the same time as Fritz10.

In either case, I notice it lost both matches to Fritz. I presume Fritz is simply stronger. Is that the case or are there some other settings I should use. I left Opening Book off in the Fritz GUI to enable Hiarcs to use its own Opening Book.

[Mark Uniacke]

I just obtained Hiarcs 11.2 MP today. I have some questions. I use a Dell XPS 600 with an Intel Dual Processor.

When I set Hiarcs to Limited ELO with 1570 specified, I started a game with it with myself. I notice that the Fritz10 GUI only offered me a 1640 lowest ELO to play against. Does the Fritz10 GUI control the ELO thus making it irrelevant to even set a Hiarcs ELO?

Also, when I played Hiarcs 11.2 MP against Fritz 10 in a 4 game match, I notice it operated substantially slower than Fritz in 5 minute games. I then turned off Permanent Brain for another match and also turned on GUI Time Lag. Verbose UCI was off in both cases. Then it seemed to use the same time as Fritz10.

In either case, I notice it lost both matches to Fritz. I presume Fritz is simply stronger. Is that the case or are there some other settings I should use. I left Opening Book off in the Fritz GUI to enable Hiarcs to use its own Opening Book.

The HIARCS limited strength feature is operated from the engine parameters within the Fritz GUI. You should set UCI_LimitStrength ON and the UCI_Elo to the Elo value you wish Hiarcs to approximately play at.

You should not simultaneously use any of the Fritz handicap/friend/sparring modes as the Fritz 10 GUI will override the HIARCS limited strength features.

When playing direct engine-engine matches/games be sure to turn the limited strength feature OFF or Hiarcs will play slower deliberately!

Depending on your hardware Hiarcs should be searching in hundreds of K positions/nodes per second or even a million+ positions per second.

In general the Fritz 10 engine searches more moves per second than Hiarcs but that does NOT mean its play is better, it can just mean it is looking up more blind alleys!

Most rating lists have HIARCS 11.2 a little stronger than Fritz 10.

[SirMaru]

You should not simultaneously use any of the Fritz handicap/friend/sparring modes as the Fritz 10 GUI will override the HIARCS limited strength features.

When playing direct engine-engine matches/games be sure to turn the limited strength feature OFF or Hiarcs will play slower deliberately!

Most rating lists have HIARCS 11.2 a little stronger than Fritz 10.

Mark,

Thanks for a great program and the prompt response. However, I am playing a Rated Trournament Game within the Fritz10 GUI against Hiarcs 11.2 MP. I set Hiarcs parameters to UCI_LimitStrength On and at 1570. In the Fritz10 Tournament setup screen, the Fritz GUI only allows me to drop the slider to 1640. I presume it has overridden the Hiarcs setting.

Finally, I believe that in the 5 minute Engine vs. Engine games between Hiarcs and Fritz I a may not have the Hiarcs paramters set correctly. On the GUI setup screen for the Tournament, should I have Permanent Brain and Use Tablebases On? In the Hiarcs Parameter Screen I do have UCI_LimitStrength unchecked (off). I have Verbose UCI unchecked (off). The big question is: what should be my setting for GUI Time Lag?
Also, should any other settings be altered from the default?

[Harvey Williamson]

You should not simultaneously use any of the Fritz handicap/friend/sparring modes as the Fritz 10 GUI will override the HIARCS limited strength features.

When playing direct engine-engine matches/games be sure to turn the limited strength feature OFF or Hiarcs will play slower deliberately!

Most rating lists have HIARCS 11.2 a little stronger than Fritz 10.

Mark,

Thanks for a great program and the prompt response. However, I am playing a Rated Trournament Game within the Fritz10 GUI against Hiarcs 11.2 MP. I set Hiarcs parameters to UCI_LimitStrength On and at 1570. In the Fritz10 Tournament setup screen, the Fritz GUI only allows me to drop the slider to 1640. I presume it has overridden the Hiarcs setting.

Finally, I believe that in the 5 minute Engine vs. Engine games between Hiarcs and Fritz I a may not have the Hiarcs paramters set correctly. On the GUI setup screen for the Tournament, should I have Permanent Brain and Use Tablebases On? In the Hiarcs Parameter Screen I do have UCI_LimitStrength unchecked (off). I have Verbose UCI unchecked (off). The big question is: what should be my setting for GUI Time Lag?
Also, should any other settings be altered from the default?

Hi,

As Mark said if you set the ELO in the engine parameters there is no need to set it in the GUI as well - I do not know what effect that might have. I would not touch the slider in the GUI.

I would use default parameters. I presume you are playing on a single CPU machine with Hiarcs and Fritz. If this is so leave Permanent Brain off. If you have tablebases on the machine then use them! Leave the GUI lag parameter off(default)

I hope that helps?

Harvey

[SirMaru]

Hi,

As Mark said if you set the ELO in the engine parameters there is no need to set it in the GUI as well - I do not know what effect that might have. I would not touch the slider in the GUI.

I would use default parameters. I presume you are playing on a single CPU machine with Hiarcs and Fritz. If this is so leave Permanent Brain off. If you have tablebases on the machine then use them! Leave the GUI lag parameter off(default)

I hope that helps?

Harvey

Harvey,

When I start a Rated Tournament game against Hiarcs, the GUI shows a slider. I had already set Hiarcs to 1570. However, the slider comes up set to 1640. That ELO number is used to calculate my own rating after the game.

I have a Dual CPU. When I set the GUI Lag Paramter Off, my 5 minute games resulted in Hiarcs losing 2 games on Time out of 5 against Fritz. When I set it On, Hiarcs did not lose on Time but it lost 3 out of 4 games against Fritz. It did maintain time equality with Fritz10 however. I did have Hiarcs playing at full strength with the ELO Limit Parameter turned off.

I am using all the default paramters with Opening Book turned off in the GUI for Hiarcs so it can its own opening book. However, something appears wrong since in these 5 minute games Fritz appears to have a big advantage. Perhaps, the Fritz GUI always gives Fritz10 the edge regardless of opposing Engine. Its also possible that in longer games Hiarcs does better than Fritz but in 5 minute games Fritz has the advantage due to the GUI ignoring transmission time from Fritz to the GUI but counting that time for other engines.

[SirMaru]

I tried a 4 game match between Hiarcs 11.2 MP versus Fritz10 with 10 minutes per side, Permanent Brain off, all Hiarcs defaults. This time Hiarcs won 1 game and tied the other 3. Hiarcs was just slightly slower than Fritz but did not lose on time. It played ahead positionally in every game.

It looks like 5 minutes per side is just too slow for Hiarcs. At 10 minutes per side Hiarcs shows its superiority.

I also like the variable ELO setup in playing Hiarcs. The Fritz GUI adjusts it in Rated Tournament games but it still stays low enough for my skill level to provide a good challenge. The lowest Fritz10 will play me is at ELO 1940 which means I will be slaughtered. The lowest Fritz10 GUI allows me to play Hiarcs is at 1690 no matter how low I set the Hiarcs parameters for that.

[Harvey Williamson]

Hi,

I am glad you have it working. You should take a look at some of the rating lists that are published in our tournaments section. Many 1000's of games are played to get an accurate picture at various time controls.

You asked before about Permanent Brain. It sounds like you have a dual core machine and you are running just the Single Processor versions of Hiarcs and Fritz - is this correct? If it is and each engine is only taking 1 CPU then you can turn permanent brain on and play with ponder. If you are using the MP Hiarcs or Deep Fritz leave it off.

Best Wishes,

Harvey