Comparison

HIARCS Chess vs Elite Chess Database

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HIARCS Chess

This app offers a powerful chess engine for playing, analyzing, and learning chess. It provides adjustable difficulty levels and coaching features to help players of all abilities improve their game. Analyze professional games and track your progress with an Elo rating.

Highlights
  • World Championship winning chess engine
  • Adjustable playing strengths and styles
  • Advanced coaching features
  • Elo rating tracking
  • PGN database support
  • Large tournament book
  • Multiple playing modes
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

HIARCS is a multiple World Championship winning chess program and the only handheld chess program in the world which has won matches and tournaments with Grandmasters. It twice won the Mercusor Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina ahead of Grandmasters with a performance of 2900 Elo, the best chess performance rating for any handheld device in history. In 1997 the World's strongest ever human chess player, Garry Kasparov, said "HIARCS is much better positionally than Deep Blue" and even the current World champion, Vishy Anand, in a recent interview when asked what chess program he uses to analyse with said "generally I use HIARCS". This power enables your iPhone to play chess like a super Grandmaster, analyse games and chess problems with you, or play at whatever weakened chess strength you want from beginner to GM strength while offering numerous features to help you learn and improve as you play with HIARCS. An advanced set of coaching features helps players of all strengths improve their chess play. HIARCS Chess has a full range of realistic weaker opponent strengths and playing styles catering for players of all abilities from absolute beginners to Grandmasters. On the weaker playing levels HIARCS will make human-like mistakes appropriate to the level of play and this together with the integrated coach advice, assessments and alerts allow you to learn and improve quickly. HIARCS also monitors your chess performance and provides you with an Elo chess rating which tracks your chess ability in every game. It can continuously adjust its playing strength to give you challenging but beatable opponents as you improve. HIARCS Chess will save battery life by using much less energy on the weaker levels, allowing more playing time on long journeys etc. HIARCS Chess supports PGN chess game databases and has all the games between Fischer & Spassky and Kasparov & Karpov for you to play through and enjoy. HIARCS has a large tournament book which is up to date with chess theory with over 235,000 variations. The book moves are displayed on screen with chess symbols and the opening variations are named and ECO coded. Key features: + Strongest chess program on iPhone and iPod Touch, genuine strong GM-level performance + Suitable for all players from absolute beginners to strong Grandmasters with many handicap levels and opponents styles and advanced coaching + Intuitive and friendly user interface with multiple high quality pieces set, colour schemes and icons including high res support for iPhone 4 and 5 retina displays + Multiple playing modes: play white, black, both sides in two player mode, continuous analysis and interactive replay + Fully adjustable Elo strengths, adaptive levels and multiple playing levels and opponents + All levels below maximum are low energy to increase battery life + Rates your chess play and gives you an Elo rating which is updated after each game + Advanced coach can provide move options, give hints, indicate move safety and quality highlights and watch your play and warn about mistakes + Transfer PGN databases to/from HIARCS chess via iTunes file sharing, email games and PGN DBs from HIARCS + Launch HIARCS from PGN email attachments + Load, save or delete games to/from PGN databases + Set up or edit a position to analyse or play from + Advanced game navigation with game move slider and VCR buttons for rapid and precise game navigation + Many selectable preset blitz, incremental and average time clock settings for timed play + Large HIARCS tournament opening book as used by the professionals! + Permanent brain for enhanced playing strength + Numerous chess display functions for showing chess moves, analysis, book moves, coach advice, move quality even legal moves, offer draws or resign + 8 Piece sets and 9 colour schemes + Integrated Html manual and help screens A discount coupon is included with a $10 USD discount on other HIARCS products on Mac and PC from www.hiarcs.com.

About

Elite Chess Database

Explore and analyze vast chess game databases, including games from top-ranked players and annotated matches. Solve puzzles for all skill levels and receive instant verification of your solutions. The app offers extensive customization and beautiful graphics for an engaging experience.

Highlights
  • View and analyze chess game databases
  • Access elite human games (2400+ Elo)
  • Study annotated chess games
  • Solve puzzles with mate challenges
  • Analyze games for best moves and blunders
  • Bookmark and add notes to games
  • Search and filter games by multiple factors
Features
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This app is for viewing, studying, analysing chess game databases and solving puzzles. It comes with some databases: - Elite database: chess games of human very high ranks, from 2400 Elo. All games are checked, and verified to eliminate errors and redundancies. Player names are checked, standardised too - Annotated games: almost all interesting games with annotations on the Internet. We believe it is the largest collection of annotated games so far - Puzzles with mates from 1 to 9: suitable for all players’ levels, for enjoying as well as for practising. Users can try to solve them and then ask the app to verify their solutions Users could analyse any game for computing information, best moves and for finding blunders. The total of all games and puzzles is huge. A typical human can’t watch and/or solve them all in their whole lives. On one hand, the app becomes the source of unlimited fun, keep every time they get new games to study and enjoy, and new puzzles to solve. On another hand, a huge number of games challenge users to use them efficiently and enjoyably. To help users deal with that huge number of games/puzzles, the app provides redundant ways, from auto-mark visited games, to bookmarking and adding notes to games. Users can search, filter games by many factors, and watch opening trees. It also provides a lot of statistics with many links/buttons to access them conveniently. Our app is very easy to use. Almost all functions are straightforward, users can use them without needing help. Functions are tested carefully for bugs and logical and convenient use. Features are redundant. The whole app is highly customisable. The graphics are very beautiful too.

Screenshots

HIARCS Chess4 screens
Elite Chess Database4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Elite Chess Database at Free against HIARCS Chess's $9.99. HIARCS Chess's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 1.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Elite Chess Database is free to download; HIARCS Chess costs $9.99 up front. Elite Chess Database sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. HIARCS Chess asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HIARCS Chess holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HIARCS Chess has 200 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of HIARCS Chess's written reviews are positive against 50% of Elite Chess Database's.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
HIARCS Chess versus Elite Chess Database: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHIARCS ChessElite Chess Database
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (200 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews75.9% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings200 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 months—
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#195 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB423 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperApplied Computer Concepts Ltd.Nguyen Pham

Customer experience

HIARCS Chess

All ratings200 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.0%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews220 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.9%
Negative18.2%

Elite Chess Database

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

HIARCS Chess

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on certain iOS versions
  • Discount codes not working
  • Issues with hotspot mode

Requested features

5 requests
  • PGN import/export functionality
  • Advanced database navigation (next/previous game)
  • Endgame tablebase support
  • Improved UI/UX for modern devices
  • More customization options

Elite Chess Database

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

HIARCS Chess

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Elite Chess Database

One-time1
  • Remove Advertisement$9.99

Questions

Is HIARCS Chess free?
HIARCS Chess costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Elite Chess Database free?
Elite Chess Database is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HIARCS Chess or Elite Chess Database?
HIARCS Chess is rated higher. HIARCS Chess averages 4.8 out of 5 from 200 ratings, while Elite Chess Database averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do HIARCS Chess or Elite Chess Database have ads?
Elite Chess Database shows ads; HIARCS Chess does not.

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