HIARS Chess Explorer is intended for chess player, both beginners and experts. The application is powered by the popular HIARS Chess Engine and allows not only playing but also maintaining a database and analyzing games. Moreover, it can be adjusted for different difficulty levels, from Beginner to World Chess Championship. Even though it has a very straightforward interface, its in-depth user manual as well as various tutorial videos are most welcomed.
There are multiple benefits you can get from using this app. Good news is that it supports any UCI compatible Mac chess engine, which lets you analyze games, moves and positions from different perspectives. Moreover, it supports opening various databases, with the possibility to search, sort and filter data by multiple criteria, including game, openings and positions and ECO classification. Likewise, you can use it to study games by different players, in order to get acquainted with their strategies and favorite openings. Besides, you can keep statistics of your own performances.
As part of your practice, mainly if you are a beginner, you can benefit from an integrated coach, which provides feedback about your good moves and mistakes. In this respect, you can even get hints if you desire. Similarly, it is possible to practice with specific chess openings. Moreover, the application supports practically every type of game notation. For instance, you can view or edit variations, annotations and diagrams. What is more, you can easily print such material from within the app.
The virtual chess board looks quite realistic; however, I would understand if you preferred to enjoy the real experience instead. In this respect, it is excellent news that the app supports connecting to a real Millennium ChessLink chess board via USB.
All in all, HIARS Chess Explorer is undoubtedly among the best options for learning and practicing chess. The product is available in two versions. Regrettably, this one is not the most powerful mainly because it uses the single-core version of World Champion HIARCS 14. So, just in case you are interested in the other more sophisticated (and more expensive) version, its name its Deep HIARCS Chess Explorer. Unfortunately, neither of them is free.
v1.9 [Aug 27, 2016]
Support for Millennium Electronic Chess Board (EBoard) using the ChessLink module via Bluetooth (Mac) or USB serial (Mac & PC Windows)
connect to the Electronic board using a Millennium ChessLink module and associate any view tab to use the chess board
can be used with databases and game play modes/tabs
play games against the computer using the Millennium ChessLink and electronic chess board
enter games and analysis using the EBoard
set up positions using the EBoard
supports sliding the chess pieces in a natural way at any speed
take back moves or adjust board position to go directly to another position in game notation
supports move adjustment and natural recaptures in one action as you would on a normal chess board
Supports https live game PGN URLs
Improvements to auto saving large PGNs
Fix issue with some Cmd shortcuts
Fix issue with deleting games from a sorted database
Improved look and feel on macOS and for 4K and 5K displays
Improved handling of non standard formats in PGN files
Numerous minor improvements
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