On Robots

[sje]

also believe it or not .. many brand new computers today do not ponder
the 2Robot does not ponder..nor do many of the Excalibur's
and i can say that pondering was disabled on some very popular Excalibur models on purpose ..for the reasons i mentioned earlier

Looking through the Excalibur Grandmaster manual, I see that it does ponder as a default.

However, I note that the manual doesn't advertise any capability to recognize a draw by insufficient material.

[Steve B]

also believe it or not .. many brand new computers today do not ponder
the 2Robot does not ponder..nor do many of the Excalibur's
and i can say that pondering was disabled on some very popular Excalibur models on purpose ..for the reasons i mentioned earlier

Looking through the Excalibur Grandmaster manual, I see that it does ponder as a default.

However, I note that the manual doesn't advertise any capability to recognize a draw by insufficient material.

Yes the GM and the Mirage Robots(same program as GM) do ponder and this is one of the reasons why they are the strongest Excalibur's ever sold
i believe it does recognize Ins. Mat. draws but i dont remember exactly
havent played them for some time

Pondering Off Regards
Steve

[fern]

Today I bought a new pent drive at 3 bucks Should I open a full portal to talk of me and my adquisition?

Waiting your advice regards
Fern

[Steve B]

Today I bought a new pent drive at 3 bucks Should I open a full portal to talk of me and my adquisition?

Waiting your advice regards
Fern

you in particular will enjoy my next match
the 2Robot will play 3 games at 30/sec per move against a chess computer that runs on Solar energy
i know you will be overjoyed to learn that this can save 86 cents on batteries

Penny Wise Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

also believe it or not .. many brand new computers today do not ponder
the 2Robot does not ponder..nor do many of the Excalibur's
and i can say that pondering was disabled on some very popular Excalibur models on purpose ..for the reasons i mentioned earlier

Looking through the Excalibur Grandmaster manual, I see that it does ponder as a default.

However, I note that the manual doesn't advertise any capability to recognize a draw by insufficient material.

Yes the GM and the Mirage Robots(same program as GM) do ponder and this is one of the reasons why they are the strongest Excalibur's ever sold
i believe it does recognize Ins. Mat. draws but i dont remember exactly
havent played them for some time

Pondering Off Regards
Steve

well i just checked the GM and it looks like the manual is correct
no draw by Ins. Material is recognized
in fact..K+B v K is scored at +3.4 to +3.7 depending on where the B is
more towards the center the higher the score
the computer simply plays on until the draw by 50 move rule is reached

Some Grandmaster Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

Clash Of The Mutants

i thought a match between two very unusual computers might be of some interest

the 2Robot is only the second chess computer ever released for sale to have an Arm and the only chess computer with an arm to be released in over 25 years

against this i will be matching the Mephisto Solar King
a somewhat obscure computer..it was touch sensory and one of only two chess computer's ever sold to run on Solar Energy(in addition to batteries)..the other computer was the Mephisto Solar Star which is simply a portable peg sensory version of the Solar King
there is not much information known about the Solar King
i have seen guesstimated ratings for it from between 800-1000 Elo
i do know it runs at 4 Mhz

Below is a photo of the Solar panels which need to be in direct Sunlight(or a very strong constant light source)



A best of 3 Game match at 30 sec per move

Game one was played in brilliant sunshine and started out with the Solar as White winning a pawn .Sadly the storm clouds gathered overhead blocking out the sunlight which perhaps accounted for the Solar Kings grotesque blunder at move 39
the game ended with the 2Robot check mating the Solar as darkness fell...

[White "Mephisto Solar King"]
[Black "Novag 2Robot"]
[Round "1"]
[Time Control "30 Sec Avg."Sec
[Result "0-1"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 c6 3.Bf4 Nf6 4.Bxb8 Rxb8 5.Ne5 Qc7 6.e3 Bf5 7.Nc3 Rd8 8.a3 e6 9.Bd3 Ne4 10.Bxe4 dxe4 11.Qh5 g6 12.Qg5 Be7 13.Qh6 Bf8 14.Qh4 Be7 15.Qg3 f6 16.Nc4 Qxg3 17.hxg3 O-O 18.Nd2 e5 19.dxe5 fxe5 20.O-O-O Bg4 21.Rdf1 Be6 22.Ndxe4 Bc8 23.f4 exf4 24.gxf4 Bg4 25.Rh6 Bf5 26.Nd2 Bc5 27.Nc4 Be6 28.b3 Bxc4 29.bxc4 Bxe3+ 30.Kb2 Bxf4 31.Rh4 g5 32.Rh6 g4 33.Rh4 h5 34.Rxh5 g3 35.a4 Rd2 36.Ra5 a6 37.Rg1 Kg7 38.Ne4 Re2 39.Nc5 b6 40.Ne6+ Rxe6 41.Rxa6 Be5+ 42.Kb3 Bd4 43.Rd1 Re3+ 44.Ka2 Rd8 45.a5 bxa5 46.Rxc6 Re2 47.Rc7+ Kf6 48.Rf1+ Rf2 49.Rxf2+ gxf2 50.Rc6+ Kg5 51.c3 f1=Q 52.Kb3 Rb8+ 53.Kc2 Qe2+ 54.Kc1 Be3# 0-1

FINAL POSITION
[D] 1r6/8/2R5/p5k1/2P5/2P1b3/4q1P1/2K5 w - - 0 55

Stormy Weather Regards

[Steve B]

Game two of the Mutant Challenge saw the Solar (as Black) losing the exchange early on ..then battling back valiantly in the middle game to regain the exchange saddled only with a pawn deficit
Sadly.. instead of giving up a Q for a R.. the King marched to the Guillotine head held high and was caught in a mating net


[White "Novag 2Robot"]
[Black "Mephisto Solar King"]
[Round "2"]
[Time Control "30 Sec Avg"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 a6 7.Nf3 Qe7 8.Rb1 b5 9.Be2 Rb8 10.O-O Nh6 11.Bxh6 gxh6 12.Qc1 Rg8 13.Qxh6 Qxa3 14.Qxh7 Rg6 15.Rb3 Qe7 16.h3 Ra8 17.Bd3 Rg5 18.Qh8+ Kd7 19.Nxg5 Qxg5 20.Qh7 Ke8 21.Qh8+ Ke7 22.Rd1 Bb7 23.Qh7 Rg8 24.Bf1 Rg7 25.Qd3 Qf4 26.Be2 Rg8 27.Qe3 Qh4 28.c4 dxc4 29.Bxc4 Na5 30.Bf1 Nxb3 31.cxb3 Be4 32.Qc3 Kd7 33.Rc1 c6 34.Ra1 Ra8 35.Qc5 Qg5 36.Qd6+ Ke8 37.Qc5 a5 38.b4 a4 39.Re1 Bf3 40.Re3 Bd5 41.Rg3 Qf4 42.Rg8+ Kd7 43.Qd6# 1-0

FINAL POSITION
[d]r5R1/3k1p2/2pQp3/1p1bP3/pP1P1q2/7P/5PP1/5BK1 b - - 0 43

2Robot wins Match 2-0
Unwashed Mutant Masses Send Their Regards
Steve

[sje]

against this i will be matching the Mephisto Solar King
a somewhat obscure computer..it was touch sensory and one of only two chess computer's ever sold to run on Solar Energy(in addition to batteries)..the other computer was the Mephisto Solar Star which is simply a portable peg sensory version of the Solar King
there is not much information known about the Solar King
i have seen guesstimated ratings for it from between 800-1000 Elo
i do know it runs at 4 Mhz

With an elo in the 800-1000 range, I'd say that it's a candidate for the lowest strength dedicated unit.

I once had a Fidelity pocket peg set along with its optional upgrade module. Without that module, the unit seemed to play below 1000 elo.

The Commodore dedicated unit incarnation of the 1 KB Microchess program (6502 CPU) was extremely weak as well. Clever coding, though.

[Steve B]

I once had a Fidelity pocket peg set along with its optional upgrade module. Without that module, the unit seemed to play below 1000 elo.

that must be the Mini Sensory..
three modules were released for it..
An upgrade program module ..a book module and a 32 great games module



Slightly too large to fit in your pocket though
unless of course you have very

Deep Pockets Regards
Steve

[sje]

I once had a Fidelity pocket peg set along with its optional upgrade module. Without that module, the unit seemed to play below 1000 elo.

that must be the Mini Sensory..
three modules were released for it..
An upgrade program module ..a book module and a 32 great games module

I didn't know about the other two modules. Perhaps they weren't big sellers. And now that you mention it, it really wasn't a pocket sized unit.

I may still have it someplace. I didn't play against it much because it was too easy to beat and I really don't like the peg format.

I got it many years ago and I recall matching it against an early version of my old program Spector. It was Spector's first game against a commercial unit and my program, then quite weak itself, won easily.