mclure@SRI-Unix (02/18/83)
Date: 17 Feb 1983 1431-EST From: RTILLSON.MERRILL at DEC-MARLBORO To: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: chess micro trivia Message-ID: <"MS10(2055)+GLXLIB1(1056)" 11896832227.33.615.11788 at DEC-MARLBORO> Received: from Dec-Marlboro.arpa by SRI-Unix.arpa with TCP; 17 Feb 83 11:34-PST Please forward this to the CHESS mailing list. The local mailer is dying waiting for FTP signals. Thx. ========================================================================== Subject: micros vs. human "postal" play A friend of mine became bored with his Fidelity Chess Challenger and loaned it to me to play with. I've beaten it in recorded games at Q odds with the lower levels of play. All higher modes take much too long to play a serious game, so I devised a way of playing it at its highest levels that mostly resemble a postal chess game. I make my move, go to sleep, and maybe play another move in the morning, or else go to work, and have another move ready at night. This Fidelity had a 24 hr mode of play that was touted as playing very well. It was very easy to beat both of these levels and I was spending about an average of 5-10 min. of thought on my replies, not counting the time it spent thinking. My own rating is not exceptionally high (Cat. I), so I'm really not certain on what it is evaluating during these long periods. Hopefully, some of the newer models can do better. I think this was a Challenger X. How many people on this list own or have friends that own a micro chess player? What are your results? Do you tend to find better lines than other people by using your knowledge of the computers limitations? By the way, there is a way to crash that particular model. If someone has a later edition, I would be interested if it was fixed. Otherwise you have to power it down to reset the machine. /Brad Merrill RTILLSON.MERRILL@DEC-MARLBORO -------- [Sounds like that's one of the old, very weak models. The only micros today that could give you a run for your money at normal tournament time controls are the Fidelity top-of-the-line Prestige and its predecessor Elite. These are weak class A / strong class B players at 3 mins / move. At one or two days per move (see my last message for a sample of such games), they are undoubtedly of expert caliber since they are usually able to complete full 8 ply searches, and sometimes a bit deeper. There are some fairly impressive combinations in those game listings I sent earlier. --Stuart]