Novag Citrine thoughts

[sje]

when you sit down to play against it.. they will come and rub up against either you or the Citrine
if you play..they will come

My Cookie Cat can be quite persistent with interfering with reading, keyboarding, or any other activity when she needs attention. As with the other cats, my technique is to divert her attention with something like a can of tuna or a laser pointer.

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One minor drawback of using LEDs on a square's vertices is that when two squares that are orthogonally separated by one intervening square are highlighted, then the intervening square also appears highlighted.

It's hard to see why Novag is still using an RS-232 interface when most PCs have gone without for five years or so. (Macs haven't had one in ten years.)

[sje]

My Citrine arrived earlier today.

First impressions:

1) Overall decent workmanship.

2) The pieces are nicely styled, although perhaps about ten percent on the small side. There's no need for a substitute set unless one is very particular on this issue.

3) When executing a capture, the moving piece must be lifted prior to lifting the captured piece. This is the opposite of what I'm used to doing.

4) The side mounted menu button must be pressed and held for activation; a light touch is insufficient. This may be a safety feature, or maybe mine needs some work.

5) The detachable LCD display has only a very short cable. It's certainly possible to make a longer cable, though.

6) The unit's connection ports for the LCD unit and the adaptor plug would have been better positioned so that the two corresponding cords wouldn't cross in normal deployment.

7) The PC interface serial cable terminates with a female DB-9 connector, so it should connect directly to a regular male DB-9 RS-2323/USB converter. I haven't tried this yet.

[sje]

Here's a sample Citrine game played at the machine's default time control level (moves played manually, not via serial interface):

Code: Select all

[Event "Xboard game"]
[Site "At home"]
[Date "2008.10.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Symbolic v2008.05.25"]
[Black "Novag Citrine"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Termination "Black is checkmated"]
[TimeControl "G/300"]
[ECO "B23"]
[Opening "Sicilian: closed"]
[SOC "5389"]

1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 Bb5 Bd6 5 Bxc6 dxc6 6 d4 cxd4 7 Qxd4 f6 8 Be3 e5 9
Qc4 Ne7 10 O-O-O b6 11 Rd2 Bg4 12 Rhd1 b5 13 Qb3 Nc8 14 Bc5 Ke7 15 Bxd6+ Nxd6
16 Qb4 a5 17 Qc5 Kf7 18 Rxd6 Qb8 19 Qxc6 b4 20 Nxe5+ fxe5 21 Rd7+ Bxd7 22 Rxd7+
Kf8 23 Qc5+ Qd6 24 Qxd6+ Kg8 25 Qe7 bxc3 26 Qf7# 1-0

[sje]

Another game, this time with colors reversed. The Citrine actually resigned a few moves before mate but I continued play to see the conclusion.

Code: Select all

[Event "Xboard game"]
[Site "At home"]
[Date "2008.10.11"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Novag Citrine"] 
[Black "Symbolic v2008.05.25"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Termination "White is checkmated"]
[TimeControl "G/300"]
[ECO "B00"]
[Opening "King's pawn opening"]
[SOC "7737"]

1 e4 d6 2 d4 g6 3 Nf3 Bg7 4 Nc3 c6 5 Be2 Bg4 6 O-O Bxf3 7 Bxf3 Qb6 8 Ne2 Nf6 9
Bf4 O-O 10 Qd2 Nbd7 11 c3 e5 12 Be3 Qc7 13 Ng3 h5 14 Bg5 Nh7 15 Be7 Rfe8 16 Bh4
Qa5 17 b4 Qb6 18 Rad1 exd4 19 cxd4 a5 20 a3 axb4 21 axb4 Ra4 22 d5 Ne5 23 dxc6
bxc6 24 Be2 Rxb4 25 Qf4 d5 26 Ra1 dxe4 27 Ra6 e3 28 Ne4 Qd4 29 f3 Rb2 30 Re1 g5
31 Nf6+ Bxf6 32 Qxd4 Nxf3+ 33 Bxf3 Bxd4 34 Bxc6 e2+ 35 Kh1 Re7 36 Bg3 h4 37
Ra8+ Kg7 38 Rb8 Rxb8 39 Bxb8 Bf2 40 Rxe2 Rxe2 41 Be5+ Rxe5 42 g4 h3 43 Be4 Re7
44 Bd3 Re1+ 45 Bf1 Rxf1# 0-1

With its chirps, its flashing lights, and all of its little chessmen, the Citrine is a definite cat magnet.

[sje]

Here's a game at game/60 minutes time control. The Citrine had the misfortune of being out of book at move three in a closed position.

Symbolic offered a classic two rook sacrifice that the Citrine wisely declined. But it was too late anyway, and the Novag resigned at move 33. The position was played to mate just for testing purposes.

Code: Select all

[Event "Xboard game"]
[Site "At home"]
[Date "2008.10.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Symbolic v2008.05.25"]
[Black "Novag Citrine"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Termination "Black is checkmated"]
[TimeControl "G/3600"]
[ECO "B23"]
[Opening "Sicilian: closed"]
[SOC "5392"]

1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Bb4 6 Nb5 Nf6 7 Bf4 O-O 8 Bc7 Bxc3+
9 bxc3 Qe7 10 Bd6 Qd8 11 Bxf8 Qxf8 12 Nd6 Qd8 13 Be2 Qa5 14 Qd3 Ne5 15 Qd2 Ng6
16 Qd4 Nf4 17 Bf3 Qg5 18 g3 Ng6 19 Be2 Qa5 20 f4 Ne7 21 Qb4 Qc7 22 Ne8 Nxe8 23
Qxe7 Nf6 24 e5 Qxc3+ 25 Kf1 h6 26 Qd8+ Kh7 27 Bd3+ g6 28 Qf8 Nd5 29 Qxf7+ Kh8
30 Bxg6 Qf3+ 31 Kg1 Qe3+ 32 Kg2 Nxf4+ 33 gxf4 Qe2+ 34 Kh3 Qe3+ 35 Kh4 Qf2+ 36
Kh5 Qf3+ 37 Kxh6 Qh3+ 38 Bh5 Qxh5+ 39 Qxh5 d5 40 Qe8# 1-0

I've found an undocumented feature on the Citrine; the LCD informational scroll includes what I believe is a nodes per second display. The value hovers around 4,500.

[Steve B]

I've found an undocumented feature on the Citrine; the LCD informational scroll includes what I believe is a nodes per second display. The value hovers around 4,500.

yes thats correct
i also cant stand the piece movement procedure
as to piece sizes..they seem about right to me except for the pawns which are waaay to small
as i posted earlier in this thread there is a long thread on the Hiarcs forum mentioning these and other issues
it should be noted that the Citrine is the only new wooden auto sensory to be released in over 10 years

one thing i am curious about Steve

try giving the Citrine the black pieces
play a game until you are out of book for about 3-4 moves
then take back a move for the Citrine
what happens?
on some of the earlier released versions the computer would lock up or freeze and a reset was necessary

Steve

[sje]

I'll have to try to trigger the (possible) take back bug when I get the automated interface running; manually fiddling with the pieces gets to be tiresome and also can introduce operator errors.

According to posts form a number of sources, Novag has revised the Citrine at least once. Who knows what revision I might have?

I note that the Citrine wooden "board" us actually a decal. But it's a nice decal.

I can get used to the capture movement sequence. I think that the LED flash/non flash order for to-square/from-square should have been reversed.

The LCD unit is easily read -- when placed at the correct angle. I use a bit of folded cardboard as a prop.

There is absolutely no useful mention of the PC interface in the included documentation, although there is some on the Novag web site. I need to do some exploring.

[sje]

In this game, the Citrine had a strong space advantage for about forty moves. Too bad it had to grab a poisoned pawn and walk into a nasty pin on move 45.

Code: Select all

[Event "Xboard game"]
[Site "At home"]
[Date "2008.10.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Citrine"] 
[Black "Symbolic v2008.05.25"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Termination "White is checkmated"]
[TimeControl "G/3600"]
[ECO "E76"]
[Opening "King's Indian: Four pawns attack"]
[SOC "3440"]

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 c5 6 d5 Na6 7 Nf3 Qa5 8 Bd2 Qb6 9 Rb1
O-O 10 Be2 Bd7 11 O-O h5 12 e5 Ng4 13 h3 Nh6 14 Bd3 Nb4 15 Be4 Bf5 16 a3 Bxe4
17 Nxe4 Na6 18 b3 Nc7 19 Rc1 Nf5 20 g3 Na6 21 Rf2 Nc7 22 Bc3 dxe5 23 fxe5 Bh6
24 Bd2 Bg7 25 b4 cxb4 26 axb4 Na6 27 Qe1 Qc7 28 Bf4 Qb6 29 Rb1 Rad8 30 Bg5 Rde8
31 Rb2 Qc7 32 Qc3 Rc8 33 c5 Qd7 34 Qd2 Rfe8 35 Kh2 Kh7 36 Rb1 Nc7 37 Nc3 f6 38
Bf4 Rcd8 39 Rd1 Na6 40 Rb1 Rg8 41 Qa2 Rc8 42 c6 bxc6 43 Qxa6 cxd5 44 Nb5 Rc4 45
Nxa7 Ra8 46 exf6 Bxf6 47 Ra2 Nd4 48 Nd2 Rc3 49 Rba1 Nc2 50 Rxc2 Rxc2 51 Ra3 e5
52 Be3 d4 53 Qd3 Qf5 54 Kg1 Qxd3 55 Rxd3 dxe3 56 Rd7+ Kh6 57 Nb3 Be7 58 Rxe7
Rd8 59 Nd4 Rxd4 60 Rf7 e2 61 Kf2 Rd1 62 Rh7+ Kxh7 63 Kf3 e1=R 64 b5 Rd3# 0-1

Note Symbolic's underpromotion.

When the Citrine resigns, its LCD shows "rESiGn". Seeing this is sweet revenge for all the times Kittinger's earlier program in the Super Constellation kicked my butt.

[Steve B]

if you really want the sweet taste of revenge

lets see a game where YOU are playing Le Citrine


2048 Elo Regards
Steve

[sje]

if you really want the sweet taste of revenge

lets see a game where YOU are playing Le Citrine

Alas, the Citrine will be so busy with automated competition that it won't have time to battle with me.