Finally, there is a ChessBase alternative: Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro

I have been using ChessBase products for about 25 years. Every year I buy the updates to Chessbase, Mega Database and the Correspondence database.
Yet I do not like Chessbase:

• The product: the self-inflicted bugs ('regression') in the software drive me crazy
• The service: the lack of response, and if Chessbase eventually replies, they treat you like a moron
• The company policies: FatFritz-gate but also, for instance, collecting your local engine analysis during broadcasts even if you selected to stay disconnected.

The problem was that there was no real alternative! That has now changed with the arrival of Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro. Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro was released this January, and the price of the three versions ranges from 70 euro (single-core) to 150 euro (premium). For this review, I used the premium version, which supports up to 32 cores and comes with access to up to 6 men Nalimov endgame tablebases and several opening books. The Chessbase starter package costs 120 euro and this compares to the standard Hiarcs Pro version of 100 euro. Compared to the Chessbase Starter Package, the Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro version offers the following additional features:

• Database management (Chessbase) and chess playing software (Fritz)
  You can play against Hiarcs and run engine matches to help you understand positions better.
• Access to 6 men Nalimov endgames tablebases
• Opening tree based on top GM games (12 million positions)
• New Deep Hiarcs 15 engine versus Fritz engine
• The software runs on both Windows and Mac (Chessbase only runs on Windows)

Database management in Hiarcs Pro is very fast, and this applies not only to searching for players and positions but also for pawn structures and material. Converting the Mega Database (over 9 million games) to the Hiarcs database format was easy and quick.

I use ChessBase and now Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro for the following functions:

• To write articles for New In Chess Yearbook (analyze novelties from grandmaster games)
• To create Chessable courses (25 total of which six are commercial)
• To prepare for my opponent in OTB tournaments and online tournaments
• To prepare online chess lessons for my students (Steps Method)
• To watch and analyze online chess broadcasts

This probably makes me a relatively heavy user compared to the average club player.

Let's look at how to Prepare against Player function compares.

Chessbase 16:

Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro:

As you can see, the information is very comparable. Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro provides slightly more performance information. In addition, in Hiarcs Pro, you can have more information on one screen, while in Chessbase, you have to toggle tabs to access the same information.
In Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro, you can have multiple opening books open in different tabs, making it for instance possible to compare your repertoire, the Hiarcs opening book with the tree of your opponent's games.
Hiarcs has been selling its opening books for years. It is a subscription model: each year, you receive four updated openings books that you can use In Hiarcs, Chessbase, and the Hiarcs iPad and iPhone apps. The latter makes it very handy to check the best lines in between rounds in rapid tournaments.

The opening book (30 million positions) is unique for the following two reasons:

• It combines correspondence, engine and strong GM games.
• The book makes a recommendation for every position using colour coding and annotations (!, !?, ?)

These two features accelerate your analysis tremendously. The recommended move by the book is an excellent starting point and provide direction. There have been numerous occasions of top GMs playing a spectacular novelty that was just a standard move in the Hiarcs book.

An example from my private Chessable Grünfeld Defence course:

After 7... c6, 8... Ne5 is the most played move but questionable. The best choice is 8.e4; the third played move. The Hiarcs Pro openings book is not just a tree generated from games but a tree with an opinion! Please note that Hiarcs Pro supports multiple engines simultaneously, and you can have the database show in which games this position has occurred.

Live broadcast: you can follow live tournaments if you have the web address of the pgn.
An example of the Tata Steel Masters Group:

Position from Giri – Mamedyarov: the Hiarcs opening book suggests 9... Bb7.
In a human game, only 9... b4 was played.

In conclusion, finally, there is a real alternative for Chessbase on the market. This is good news for all of us, but especially for Mac users who do not want to run Chessbase in Bootcamp or on a virtual machine. Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro is fast and offers more value for money than Chessbase. Hiarcs openings books are unique, accelerate your chess analysis, and provide you with many novelties.

This review is not a user manual but a review from my user perspective. If you have any questions about the product and how it compares to Chessbase, then please leave a comment. Thanks!