Palm PDA Chess Programs: A Comparison
If you are looking for the strongest and best
Palm chess program you have probably been looking at HIARCS, Chess Tiger and Chess Genius. HIARCS is not only the clear strongest chess program on the Palm,
but it also has the best features. The stronger the Palm PDA chess software, the
better it is able to teach and help you learn and improve your chess.
The following comparison table will help you understand why HIARCS is head
and shoulders above its competitors.
| Feature |
HIARCS for Palm 9.5 |
Chess Genius 2.1 |
Chess Tiger 15.1 |
| T3 Chess Strength (est. SSDF Elo, add 200 for USCF) |
2610 Elo |
2447 Elo* |
2293 Elo* |
| ARM native engine for latest PDAs |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Learns from the games it plays:
Book and positional learning |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Full time controls and playing levels |
Yes (includes Fischer Clock) |
No |
Yes (but no Fischer Clock) |
| Training levels with Elo rating to measure progress |
Yes - Elo 750 to Elo 2600! |
No Elo measurement |
No Elo measurement |
| Built in Coaching |
Yes, on ALL levels |
Yes |
No |
| Aids opening book study & learning |
Yes (with huge choice of books and styles) |
No |
No |
| Analysis including next best moves |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Automatic Mistake Analysis |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Supports Shuffle Chess |
Yes |
No |
No |
| High Res 320x320 colour graphics support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Games Database, Load, Delete, Save |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Supports Extended PGN |
Yes |
No |
No |
*Information from Chess Tiger and Chess Genius own web sites
for chess strength on Palm Tungsten T3
HIARCS for Palm rating based on published test results
of 486 games including many matches against Tiger and Genius.
If you are not familiar with the Elo rating system you might ask what
would happen if HIARCS played Chess Tiger and Chess Genius? You can see the actual results
on our Palm chess results pages.
Here are some example positions which illustrate the power of our Palm Chess
Hiarcs product:
This first position is difficult even for the fastest desktop computers!
HIARCS finds the key move 1. b6+!! in a mere 145 seconds on a Palm Tungsten T3.
The amazing main line found by HIARCS is: 1. b6+!! Kxb6 2. Nd7+ Kc6
3. Qa6+ Kxd7 4. e6+ Ke8 5. Qa8+ Qd8 6. g6!! Qxa8 7. g7
Qf3 8. g8Q+ Qf8 9. Qg2! wins. No other PDA software will come close
to this performance.
This position appears on the Chess Genius website as an example of how fast
Genius is. We compare the performance of Genius 2.1 and HIARCS 9.41 on this
position:
Genius 2.1 on a Tungsten T3 44 seconds
HIARCS 9.41 on a Tungsten T3 4 seconds!
This position illustrates how fast HIARCS is in king attacks. In this position
HIARCS 9.41 finds the key move Rxc3+! in 4 seconds on a Tungsten T3. For
reference Pocket Fritz 2 on a 590Mhz Dell Axim took 30 seconds and Chess Genius
on the same 590Mhz hardware could not see it after 4 minutes!?
This position shows how efficient HIARCS is in taking the initiative by sacrificing
material. HIARCS 9.41 finds the best move 1. Rxd4! in only 14 seconds on a Palm
Tungsten T3.
This position shows HIARCS tactical speed and compares it with some other
programs below:
HIARCS 9.41 on Tungsten
T3 1
second!
Chess Genius 2.1 on Tungsten T3 109 seconds
Chess Tiger 15.1 on Tungsten T3 203 seconds
HIARCS finds the sacrafice 1... Nxf2! for the attack in a mere 8 seconds on a
Palm Tungsten T3.
In this position HIARCS finds the winning key move Nf6+! instantly on a Palm
Tungsten T3.
