Palm Hiarcs : Effects of "combinations" on Hiarcs

[1vfr899]

Hello,

Here is a game played by Zinar who said that Hiarcs 9.6 has a weak level in his game test, especially in King defense.

The game from Zinar :
--------------------------

Zinar Vs Palm Hiarcs 9.6

1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Bc5
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. d3 d6
5. f4 Ng4
6. f5 Nf2
7. Qh5 g6
8. Qh6 Nxh1
9. Bg5 f6
10. fxg6 fxg5
11. g7 Rg8
12. Bxg8 Bf2+
13. Kd2 Kd7
14. Qe6+ Kc6
15. Qd5+ Kd7
16. Be6+

white won 1-0

I believe that Zinar saying : "I don't understand Hiarcs is not so strong, I beat him in 15 moves..." is not so fair as.... he played a nice - anti computer - game who is very difficult for all the computers to defend. No especially Hiarcs but for ALL the computers.

To me, i think that the "Combinations" options ON make Hiarcs weaker in defense against Mat attacks. In the Zinar games, Hiarcs loose badly with 11 ... Rg8 so i tested Hiarcs on my Zire 72.

On my Zire 72, Hiarcs 9.6 switches from 11 ... Rg8 to 11 ... Kd7 in 20 s in "Solid Style" with "Combinations" OFF.

In "Normal Style", 38s whith the "Combinaisons" options OFF and 62s with the "Combinaisons" options ON.

In "Agressive Style", the result are less good that in "Normal Style" for this position.

What do you think about it ?

[Mark Uniacke]

Hello,

Here is a game played by Zinar who said that Hiarcs 9.6 has a weak level in his game test, especially in King defense.

The game from Zinar :
--------------------------

Zinar Vs Palm Hiarcs 9.6

1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Bc5
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. d3 d6
5. f4 Ng4
6. f5 Nf2
7. Qh5 g6
8. Qh6 Nxh1
9. Bg5 f6
10. fxg6 fxg5
11. g7 Rg8
12. Bxg8 Bf2+
13. Kd2 Kd7
14. Qe6+ Kc6
15. Qd5+ Kd7
16. Be6+

white won 1-0

I believe that Zinar saying : "I don't understand Hiarcs is not so strong, I beat him in 15 moves..." is not so fair as.... he played a nice - anti computer - game who is very difficult for all the computers to defend. No especially Hiarcs but for ALL the computers.

To me, i think that the "Combinations" options ON make Hiarcs weaker in defense against Mat attacks. In the Zinar games, Hiarcs loose badly with 11 ... Rg8 so i tested Hiarcs on my Zire 72.

On my Zire 72, Hiarcs 9.6 switches from 11 ... Rg8 to 11 ... Kd7 in 20 s in "Solid Style" with "Combinations" OFF.

In "Normal Style", 38s whith the "Combinaisons" options OFF and 62s with the "Combinaisons" options ON.

In "Agressive Style", the result are less good that in "Normal Style" for this position.

What do you think about it ?

Palm Hiarcs with the large or huge book will not play the 4...d6? move so this was a bit of a set up on Palm Hiarcs to get it into trouble down a known line it would not play anyway. As I recall their was doubt the settings had been optimised anyway. It would also not play Ng4 at move 5.

The fact is that Palm Hiarcs 9.6 defeated a 2609 Elo GM in a 4 match 3-1 with the default settings which means combinations off. These defaults worked well to defeat the other Palm chess software too.

Combinations ON will make Hiarcs look at tactics more but this can slow the search down and hence it can be postive or negative depending on the situation.