                             HIARCS 4.0 README FILE
                             ======================

Last Modified: 8th December 1995

        HIARCS is developed by:

        Applied Computer Concepts Ltd,
        Latton Bush Business Centre,
        Harlow,
        Essex,
        England.

        email: hiarcs@acc-ltd.demon.co.uk

HIARCS is Copyright (c) Applied Computer Concepts Limited 1992-1995.
All Rights Reserved.

Applied Computer Concepts Limited reserves the rights to revise or make changes
to the software and/or materials accompanying the product without incurring any
obligation to notify any person of such changes and revisions whatsoever.

Authors
=======
Mark Uniacke   : Chess Algorithms and Knowledge.
David Hatchett : User Interface.

The HIARCS Development Team draw your attention to the following :-

Acknowledgements
================
We wish to thank the following people for their assistance:

Eric Hallsworth for his extensive contributions to the opening book.
Thorsten Czub and Pia Ridley for the German translation.
Jorge Orellana for the French translation.
Toms Casanovas Martnee for the Spanish translation.
Roger Constantin for his assistance with the French and Spanish translations.
Eric Hallsworth and Thorsten Czub for extensive chess testing and valuable
feedback.

Thank YOU for purchasing HIARCS! Your support is helping us continue to
develop and improve HIARCS. We hope you enjoy using the product.

 
Chess Strength
==============
The chess playing strength of HIARCS has been increased significantly. 
The increase over HIARCS 3.0 is estimated at 55 Elo.

At the time of going into production we believe the optimum settings to be:
Search = Selective.
Style = Aggressive.
Combinations OFF.
Best Play ON.
Hash table ON (extended memory for time controls Game/30 and longer).
Permanent Brain ON.
Max Depth 31 plies.
The Tournament book must be used for all testing.

The Wide book is ONLY for user variety and pleasure.
The Human book is for play in human tournaments.

General
=======
Inmac are our disk suppliers and are not connected with HIARCS or
Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. Any software or disk problems should
be reported to the HIARCS Development Team or your supplier.

Please read this file and the 64 page manual which accompanies this product
before using it.

You cannot use the numeric keypad to enter numbers.

HIARCS conforms to the PGN definition dated 10th February 1994.
An example PGN database containing HIARCS games is included.
HIARCS does not support alternative PGN starting positions i.e. SetUp tag in
PGN files.

ECO references are included in the opening names as a rough guide to the
beginner, they are not intended to pin point an exact ECO code.

The program H3_TO_H4 converts HIARCS 3.0 & 3.01 saved files to version 4.0.
You can specify any number of parameters on the command line, each one being
the path to a specific file or a DOS wild card. Converted files are placed in 
a directory called H4SVBKUP in the directory where the original file was found.
e.g. H3_TO_H4 FRED.HSV C:\HIARCS\GAMES\JOE.HSV
This command when run from the C:\HIARCS directory will create directories 
called H4SVBKUP in the C:\HIARCS and C:\HIARCS\GAMES directories.
The C:\HIARCS\H4SVBKUP directory will contain FRED.HSV in HIARCS 4.0 format.
The C:\HIARCS\GAMES\H4SVBKUP directory will contain JOE.HSV in HIARCS 4.0 
format.
The original file will be left unchanged.
Please note the H3_TO_H4 program does not transfer analysis lines from
HIARCS 3 saved files to HAIRCS 4 saved files.


New features and their options not in the manual
================================================
The following new features and options were introduced after the manual went
to print.


Multi position EPD files
------------------------
HIARCS now allows any number of positions to be stored in a single EPD file.
Thus allowing the user to create databases of positions stored in EPD format.
This has resulted in changes to the Import and Export EPD options and the
addition of a new Delete EPD Position option.

Change Colours
--------------
Menu option is now provided to allow user friendly customisation of screen
colours.

Combinations
------------
This option tells HIARCS to use special extensions to identify chess
combinations. In quiet positions, disabling this option may increase
search speed slightly (about 10%), however, it may very occasionally miss
some tactical opportunities.
For the overall strongest play in games and on test positions we
recommend that this option is left OFF. The default is OFF.

Variations
----------
This option tells HIARCS to analyse N variations in Monitor mode while
analysing any given position. The user can set the value of N to be any value
between 1 and 3 inclusive.

Add Annotation
--------------
This option allows you to add annotations of up to 80 characters which will
be saved in HIARCS save files (HSV), HIARCS listing files (HST) and PGN files.
Annotation will only be restored from HIARCS save files (HSV).
Annotated positions are marked for easy identification and access via the
Next and Previous Mark options on the Analysis menu.
Annotations will be displayed when you reach an annotated position again.

Delete Annotation
-----------------
This option allows you to delete an annotation.


Print = [Moves | Analysis]
--------------------------
This option tells HIARCS to send all moves played from now onwards to the
printer. When invoked HIARCS asks if you wish to print just moves or
moves and analysis.
If you wish to turn the printing off, simply select the option again.
To change what HIARCS is printing, for example if HIARCS is printing moves
and you wish it to print moves and analysis, simply turn the option off, then
on and you will be asked what you wish to be printed.

Game To Printer
---------------
This option prints the moves or moves and analysis (as defined by the
Print option above) in the game so far, to the printer. This option is generally
used to either print all the moves at the end of the game or alternatively to
print the moves in the game so far ready to continue printing with the print
moves option enabled.

Chess232 compatibility
----------------------
HIARCS has the ability to connect to the auto sensory Chess232 board.
Follow the instructions supplied with the Chess232 board on how to use
HIARCS with the board. Please ensure the "Short Algebraic" option is OFF
when using this feature.

Autoplay compatibility
----------------------
HIARCS now detects when it is autoplaying with a compatible autoplay driver
and provides useful feedback on the latest score of the autoplaying session.
For compatibility with older drivers the user can tell HIARCS manually that
it is autoplaying by typing the ^ character when HIARCS is NOT thinking,
ie. once out of book and the opponent is thinking.
HIARCS displays the score in the following format in the Information window: 
+x-y=z ?n
where x is the number of games won by HIARCS
      y is the number of games lost by HIARCS
      z is the number of games drawn
      n is the number of games with an unknown result

Tasc Smartboard compatibility
-----------------------------
HIARCS 4 is now compatible with the TASC Smartboard. Contact TASC for
information on a suitable driver.

New books
---------
HIARCS now comes with 3 opening books: Wide, Human and Tournament. Each book is
increase significantly in size and variety. The Wide book should only be used
for playing pleasure. The Human book is for use when HIARCS is playing against
human opposition. The Tournament book is for use when HIARCS must play at its
absolute best.
The book has over 100,000 unique positions and over 4 million moves known
by transposition.

Restore Settings
----------------
This option allows the user to restore the settings back to their factory values
or reread the user saved preferences.

User Analysis
-------------
While in Monitor mode the user can now move directly to any move displayed in
the move list simply by clicking the mouse on the chosen move.

Show Analysis levels
--------------------
The 3 HIARCS analysis display levels have changed to provide the following
details:
0: No information provided by HIARCS.
1: Only the current evaluation/score is provided
2: HIARCS displays the expected best line and the current evaluation/score
   together with the move it is currently considering.
3: All the information in 2 above plus its analysis while thinking on opponent's
   time.

General UI improvements
-----------------------
When you restore a game from a PGN database HIARCS will now display a
dialogue box listing the values stored in the standard seven tag roster fields.
Select "Continue" to clear this dialogue box.

You can now click with the mouse above and below the scroll bar on any
multi selection dialogue, e.g. Restore Game, to jump up or down by one
scroll bar step.

HIARCS PIF and ICON files for use of HIARCS from Windows 3.1
============================================================
The HIARCS distribution disk contains an icon file (HIARCS.ICO) and
a pif file (HIARCS.PIF). Using these two files you can easily set up
your system so that HIARCS can be invoked via an icon from within 
windows, just like many other applications that are installed on your 
computer.

If you already have a program group from where you want to invoke HIARCS 
you can skip the program group creation instructions below and go straight 
to the HIARCS icon installation instructions.

Creating a HIARCS Program Group
-------------------------------
1. Start up windows as normal, if it is not already running.

2. From the Program Manager open the File menu and select the "New" option.

3. Select "Program Group" and press OK.

4. Enter "HIARCS" in the Description field. 
   You do not need to enter a value in the "Group File" field. 
   Now press OK.

This has now created a HIARCS program group. 

Installing the HIARCS Icon
--------------------------
1. Start up  windows as normal, if it is not already running.

2. Make sure the Program Group from which you want to invoke HIARCS is 
   highlighted. If you have just created a HIARCS Program Group then it 
   will already be highlighted. 
   To highlight a Program Group just point at it with the mouse and click once.

3. From the Program Manager open the File menu and select the "New" option.

4. Select "Program Item" and press OK.

5. Enter "HIARCS4" in the Description field.
   Enter the path to the HIARCS.PIF file in the Command Line field. The 
   HIARCS.PIF file will be located in the directory into which you installed 
   HIARCS from the distribution disk, e.g. C:\HIARCS4\HIARCS.PIF
   Enter the path to the directory into which you installed HIARCS in the 
   Working Directory field, e.g. C:\HIARCS4
   You can leave the Shortcut Key field as None or set up your own short cut 
   key to invoke HIARCS.

6. Press the "Change Icon" button. 
   Remove the warning dialogue by pressing the OK button.
   Enter the path to the HIARCS.ICO file in the File Name field. The 
   HIARCS.ICO file will be located in the directory into which you installed 
   HIARCS from the distribution disk, e.g. C:\HIARCS4\HIARCS.ICO
   Press OK to open the icon file and display the selection of icons available.
   Highlight the required icon (as there is only one this should be very easy).
   Now press OK again to select the required icon.
   You will now be returned to the Program Item Properties dialogue where 
   you should press OK to create the HIARCS4 program item.
   
You can now invoke HIARCS 4 by double clicking on the H icon.


Associated Files
================
Included on the HIARCS 4.0 distribution disk is 1 PGN database and 1 EPD
database containing 3 test positions. These files will not be installed on
your harddisk, but are provided as examples of PGN/EPD type files.


Copy protection
===============
HIARCS is a copy protected piece of software. However, we hope this protection
does not inconvenience you. HIARCS comes with unlimited installation tokens.
However, we strongly recommend you use the deinstallation program to remove
or move HIARCS.

a) The copy protection creates two hidden files (ccontrol.sys and hiarcs4.ccc)
   in a directory in the installed hiarcs directory.

   *** PLEASE DO NOT MOVE, DELETE OR TOUCH THESE FILES IN ANYWAY ***

   Do not backup these files as a subsequent restore will cause the copy
   protection to think the protection is invalid.  To help you, the archive
   bit is NOT set on these files so it may be possible for you to restrict
   the backup of files to those with the archive bit set.

b) The /d+ option of PC-Kwik from Multisoft Corporation is not compatible with
   the installing/deinstalling the copy protection. HyperCache has a similar
   non-standard option for accessing floppy disks. These utilities should be
   temporarily disabled when installing/deinstalling HIARCS.

c) The copy protection is compatible with disks that have been compressed
   with disk compression programs such as SuperStor, Stacker and DoubleSpace.
   However, you should temporarily de-install HIARCS when deinstalling or
   installing any compression system. Failure to do so could cause the copy
   protection system to consider the protection invalid.

d) The copy protection system is compatible with disk defragmenters such as
   Central Point's Compress, Digital Research's Diskopt, Stac's Sdefrag and
   Microsoft's Defrag.

e) It is recommended that you only install/deinstall HIARCS when running 
   only DOS.
   For example, you may encounter some problems when installing/deinstalling
   HIARCS from a DOS prompt within Windows for Workgroups 3.11.


HIARCS tournament highlights
============================
1991 World Amateur Microcomputer Chess Champion, Vancouver, Canada.
1992 World Computer Olympiad Chess Champion, London, England.
1993 International Uniform Platform PC Chess Champion, London, England.
1993 World Amateur Microcomputer Chess Software Champion, Munich, Germany.
1993 World Microcomputer Chess Software Champion, Munich, Germany.
1994 International Uniform Platform PC Chess Championship, runner up, England.
1994 Winner - Bury St. Edmonds Open with 100% score.
1995 Top computer at the International Human-Computer AEGON tournament ahead of
     5 International Grandmasters.


About HIARCS
============
HIARCS is a program developed on a part-time basis by Mark Uniacke who
designed and developed all the chess engine software and David Hatchett
who has designed and developed all the User Interface software.

HIARCS is a 16 bit application using 80386 instructions.

HIARCS performs excellently at all time controls. However, it is tuned
to perform at its peak relative to other programs at longer time controls
such as Game in 30 minutes or longer.

One word of warning: test position (particularly tactical) performance
often has little relevance to a programs true strength when it actually plays
the game! 

Please be aware that ratings based on a small number of games are not reliable.

For blitz games you are recommended to not use extended memory hash tables.

Registration
------------
Please complete the enclosed registration form. Only registered users are
entitled to future upgrades at discounted prices. If a registration form is
missing simply send the following details to the address given at the top of
this readme file:
Name:
Address:
HIARCS distribution disk no:
Date purchased:
Where purchased:

Dealers
-------
Please send all dealer enquiries to the address given at the beginning of this
readme file.

END
