Today Marty Hirsch, programmer of famous Mchess, is 70. Send him wishes.

[mclane]

Send Marty Hirsch wishes to his 70 birthday.

This is Marty Hirsch:
Marty Hirsch - Chessprogramming wiki https://share.google/0SnpdHoqCZECxO479

Please with name , and if you are chess programmer, with engine .

I remember how Mark Uniacke, programmer of HIARCS told me that Marty Hirsch was his idol.

IMO no chess programmer should be without our community.

We are ONE.

This is from Marty Hirsch, today 70 years, for you:



Never forget:

[Werewolf]

MChess was an incredible program. I remember the blue A4 booklet that came with it, the floppy disk, and an engine that could really play a challenging game!

[glav]

man...mchess was great..at that time I was truly convinced that it was really shining on my 386!

[mclane]

It was a very good engine. Only the development was not continued.
But i remember that the XT and AT and 386 etc. even in the pentium days mchess was a cool engine.

[towforce]

The world championship winning game - the playoff against Chess Genius in 1995:


[pgn][Event "WMCCC 1995"]
[Site "Paderborn, Germany"]
[Date "1995.10.15"]
[Round "12 (playoff)"]
[White "MChess Pro"]
[Black "Chess Genius"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O c6 8.Re1 Nbd7
9.h3 Bd6 10.Bd2 Qc7 11.Nh4 Bg6 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.Qf3 O-O-O 14.a3 Nb6 15.Bf1 Rh4
16.g3 Rh5 17.Ne4 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 Rdh8 19.c4 Bxg3 20.fxg3 Qxg3+ 21.Qg2 Rxh3 22.Qxg3
Rxg3+ 23.Kf2 Rb3 24.Bc1 Rh4 25.Re3 Rxe3 26.Kxe3 c5 27.dxc5 Nxc4+ 28.Kf2 f6 29.b4
g5 30.Bg2 Ne5 31.Bd2 Rc4 32.Ra2 Kc7 33.Bh3 Kd7 34.Bf1 Rh4 35.Bg2 Kc7 36.Ra1 Rc4
37.Ke2 Rc2 38.Be4 Rb2 39.Kd1 Rb3 40.Ke2 Rh3 41.Rh1 Rxh1 42.Bxh1 Nc4 43.Bc1 g4
44.Bg2 b6 45.Kd3 Ne5+ 46.Ke4 Ng6 47.Bf4+ e5 48.Bg3 bxc5 49.bxc5 Ne7 50.Bf1 Kc6
51.Bf2 g3 52.Bg1 g6 53.a4 a5 54.Bb5+ Kc7 55.Kf3 Nf5 56.Bd3 Ne7 57.Kxg3 Kc6
58.Be4+ Kd7 59.Ba8 Ke6 60.Kg4 Nd5 61.Bb7 Nb4 62.Be3 Kd7 63.Bd2 Nc6 64.Ba6 Nb4
65.Bb5+ Ke7 66.Bxb4 axb4 67.a5 Kd8 68.a6 Kc7 69.Bc4 f5+ 70.Kg5 f4 71.Bd5 b3
72.Bxb3 f3 73.Bc4 f2 74.Bb5 e4 75.Kf4 g5+ 76.Kxe4 Kb8 77.c6 Kc7 1-0 [/pgn]

Key move: 19... Bxg3. A great sacrifice by Genius - but then didn't quite manage to then finish MChess off.

[Peter Berger]

Key move: 19... Bxg3. A great sacrifice by Genius - but then didn't quite manage to then finish MChess off.

This is bullshit as everyone and his cell phone can verify in less than a second.

It is fun to look at these old games. I feel that Bruce Moreland +really+ had very bad luck to not get any major titles in two Paderborns.

[Ajedrecista]

Hello:

The world championship winning game - the playoff against Chess Genius in 1995:


[pgn][Event "WMCCC 1995"]
[Site "Paderborn, Germany"]
[Date "1995.10.15"]
[Round "12 (playoff)"]
[White "MChess Pro"]
[Black "Chess Genius"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O c6 8.Re1 Nbd7
9.h3 Bd6 10.Bd2 Qc7 11.Nh4 Bg6 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.Qf3 O-O-O 14.a3 Nb6 15.Bf1 Rh4
16.g3 Rh5 17.Ne4 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 Rdh8 19.c4 Bxg3 20.fxg3 Qxg3+ 21.Qg2 Rxh3 22.Qxg3
Rxg3+ 23.Kf2 Rb3 24.Bc1 Rh4 25.Re3 Rxe3 26.Kxe3 c5 27.dxc5 Nxc4+ 28.Kf2 f6 29.b4
g5 30.Bg2 Ne5 31.Bd2 Rc4 32.Ra2 Kc7 33.Bh3 Kd7 34.Bf1 Rh4 35.Bg2 Kc7 36.Ra1 Rc4
37.Ke2 Rc2 38.Be4 Rb2 39.Kd1 Rb3 40.Ke2 Rh3 41.Rh1 Rxh1 42.Bxh1 Nc4 43.Bc1 g4
44.Bg2 b6 45.Kd3 Ne5+ 46.Ke4 Ng6 47.Bf4+ e5 48.Bg3 bxc5 49.bxc5 Ne7 50.Bf1 Kc6
51.Bf2 g3 52.Bg1 g6 53.a4 a5 54.Bb5+ Kc7 55.Kf3 Nf5 56.Bd3 Ne7 57.Kxg3 Kc6
58.Be4+ Kd7 59.Ba8 Ke6 60.Kg4 Nd5 61.Bb7 Nb4 62.Be3 Kd7 63.Bd2 Nc6 64.Ba6 Nb4
65.Bb5+ Ke7 66.Bxb4 axb4 67.a5 Kd8 68.a6 Kc7 69.Bc4 f5+ 70.Kg5 f4 71.Bd5 b3
72.Bxb3 f3 73.Bc4 f2 74.Bb5 e4 75.Kf4 g5+ 76.Kxe4 Kb8 77.c6 Kc7 1-0 [/pgn]

Key move: 19... Bxg3. A great sacrifice by Genius - but then didn't quite manage to then finish MChess off.

It can not be for real... the position after 77.- c6 is:

[d]1k6/8/P1P5/1B4p1/4K3/8/5p2/8 b - - 0 77

And the pattern that I wrote about only two weeks ago arises when black plays 77.- ..., Kc7:

Fortress here? Plus a bonus zugzwang.

[...]

I add a bonus zugzwang of other game that I played today, this time easily won by me (something like K vs. K+4P, with me being black). I discovered a curious pattern that I wanted to share with a made-up example: white to play and draw or black to play and lose:

6k1/8/5P1P/8/8/6p1/6Pb/7K w - - 0 1
6k1/8/5P1P/8/8/6p1/6Pb/7K b - - 0 1

White to move can only move f7+ or h7+, with the black king capturing that pawn; then white advances the other pawn, black king moves to g7; white promotes or underpromotes and black captures, ending in a stalemate.

Black to move unveils the pattern and lose. Focusing on the black king's rook corner:

Code: Select all

▓▓▓ Square covered by white f-pawn.
░░░ Square covered by white h-pawn.

 1.- ..., Kf7           1.- ..., Kh7
 2.-  h7                2.-  f7

  f   g   h              f   g   h
+---+---+---+          +---+---+---+
|   |░░░|   | 8        |   |▓▓▓|   | 8
+---+---+---+          +---+---+---+
| k |▓▓▓| P | 7        | P |░░░| k | 7
+---+---+---+          +---+---+---+
| P |   |   | 6        |   |   | P | 6
+---+---+---+          +---+---+---+

With either sequence, the black king can not return to the g-file to stop white queening! I am sure I did not discover anything new, just discovered it by myself, but looked curious to me and wanted to share; [...]

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[towforce]

Key move: 19... Bxg3. A great sacrifice by Genius - but then didn't quite manage to then finish MChess off.

This is bullshit as everyone and his cell phone can verify in less than a second.

As you are a much stronger player than myself, it would be good etiquette to explain rather than just calling bs.

[Peter Berger]

As you are a much stronger player than myself, it would be good etiquette to explain rather than just calling bs.

This is a misunderstanding, I didn't mean to offend you here, my apologies. It is just that I expect people in this scene to check their chess analysis for like 1 second on their cell phone, given that chess engines have become so strong and easy to use. Bxg3 apparently leads to equality and actually feels pretty obvious to me. Btw, what did MChess like about c4? Even assuming very low depths, I completely fail to understand this move.

[Robert Flesher]

Thank-you for sharing this, it sure brings me back. I purchased all the Mchess versions. Not that long ago I reached out to Marty, asking if he could make his program available for others to perhaps port to something beyond DOS. ( I know there is DOSBOX, etc, etc). He did respond to me very quickly and if I remember correctly. He told me he had no versions of his engine in his possession,but I cannot remember if he stated why? To this day, many years later, I really enjoy playing Mchess. It has an active attacking style with a fantastic opening book. It plays many openings not seen by modern theory, and therein it often claims human scalps rather quickly. A masterpiece of its era, and perhaps to some ( me included ) even today. Thanks, Marty!