| Computer Chess Reports Vol. 4 No. 2 $10.00 ‘he Dedicated Chess Computer Comeback With software taking front stage, some new offerings, albeit more ex- pensive, from stand- alone manufacturers are making quite asplash.... (Pictured Above) The New TASC R-30 Version 2.2THIS ISSUE Winter '94 Review.. 1993 World Microcomputer Championship Aegon 1994.. The 4th Harvard Cup. Oviedo Tournament Welser Excalibur Review... Mephisto Review. Novag Review Saitek Review Tasc Review. Personal View SSDF Ratings List. Tasc Evaluation PC SOfWAFE essere Opening Power For Your Genius 2.0 Teaching PC Software .. PC Program Ratings .. PC Speed Adjustment Chart... Rating the Commercial Computers ... CCR Ratings List .. The Louguet Set Revisited The One-Hour CCR Test.. The Relative Value of the Pleces.. Bits & Pieces. Definitions The End Is Here. SSRSRRR The Computer Chess Reports is brought to you by: Senior Editor: Larry Kaufman, Stoll Editors: Ricardo Alcos, Froncesca *Chess" Levy, Steve Schwartz, Bob Sostock Design Tear Leader: Poul DeStefano Design Team Apprentice: Mark Schneider Product Coordinators: Phiip Kiet, loseph Aiello Electronic Transmissions Consultent: Bob Marzano Subscriptions: Geri Emon, Printing: George Dunlop Printing, Peter Carlucci consultant Publisher: Computer Chess Digest Incorporated All Materiol ©1994 Computer Chess Digest We welcome letters, comments, criicisms, ideas, aries, cheesecake recipes, tournament results or anything you would care to send us. Send oll material to: CCR Bits & Pieces c/o ICD, 21 Walt Whitman Rood, Huntinglon Staton, NY 11746 USA. No text or graphics within this publication may be reproduced by any means without the writen consent of the editors, ‘excep! for excerpis used in reviews. Computer Chess Reports i in no way connected to the United Stotes Chess Federation, Chess life, Chess Digest Inc. or ony of the companies producing product reviewed within Winter ‘94 Review by Larry Kaufman, International Master The big news since our last review is the takeover by Saitek of Hegener & Glaser, the manufacturers of Mephis- to and Fidelity models. This creates a situation in which ‘one large company dominates the dedicated chess com- puter market, with smaller companies (Novag, Excalibur, TASC) competing in certain segments of the market. Since dedicated chess computers can no tonger claim to be superior in playing strength to top PC software on fast PCs, sales are now limited primarily to those players who simply prefer to play on a real chessboard instead of on a screen and 10 those who have no real use for PCs outside of chess. The takeover seems to have halted the flood of new ‘models by all ofthe companies involved, but atleast sore ofthe models mentioned as planned in the last issue have made their appearance in the U.S. Models of particular interest at this time include the TASC R30, the Mephisto Berlin 68020 Professional, Saltek GK2000, Travel Champ, the Novag Emerald and Ruby, and the Excalibur Krypton ‘and Comet. {As for tournaments, the top computer at Harvard Cup was Socrates, the top computer at Welser, Austria was Mephisto Genius 2, and the World Microcomputer Cham- plonship also went to Mephisto Genius 2. Hiarcs 2.1 won the World Microcomputer software division. The ACM International Computer Chess Championship was postponed until June at last word. While new versions of some of the leading pe programs have come to market, no totaly new programs have madea splash since our last review, Genius 2s stil ‘generally rated as the top pe program, and ChessMaster 4000 seems to be the top program running under Win- dows. Al of the new versions of the leading programs seem to be somewhat stronger than their predecessors, but Genius 2 and Hiarcs 2.1 seem to show the best improvement. Because pe software has come to dominate the com- puter chess market, the emphasis in CCR needs to shift more in that direction. Since | am now the co-author of several pc programs (Rex, Socrates, Kasparov's Gambit) ‘and continue to develop new ones, itis not really ap- propriate for meto continue to review pe software, nor do have time to do justice to the many pe programs, and ‘80 | plan to relinquish the pc software portion of CCR to another writer, USCF Master Nick Schoonmaker. Nick is rated over 2300, plays regularly in tournaments in the Orlando, Florida area and has considerable experience playing against chess programs. | think he will be able to, do more in- depth reviews of individual programs than | have been able to do when trying to cover everything on the market each issue. | plan to continue to write for CCR, about dedicated machines (since this does not pose a conflict for me) and other special articles. As for this Issue, | am stil the author of all articles not otherwise attributed. ‘As usual, our apologies for the lateness of this issue, but interesting late news always tempts me to hold up Publication. in order to both solve the lateness issue and the readers’ desire to have the most up-to-date informa tion, weare going to.a quarterly or bi-monthly format, We believe that such a new format will be beneficial for everyone, 1993 World Microcomputer Championship ‘The World Microcomputer Championship was con- tested in two divisions last fallin Munich, Germany. Only three dedicated machines played in the Manufacturers Group, each playing eight games with each of the other two. In contrast, the software division was well attended, with some 28 programs contesting a 9 round Swiss. The Manufacturers Group was virtually just a match between Mephisto Genius 2 running on a very fast (est. 80 MHz) 486 and the TASC "R30" (actually an R40 as it ran at 40 MHz), since the third entrant, Saitek RISC 2500, ran on much slower hardware than the other two. Mephisto Genius just nosed out the TASC RaQ by 1/2 point (MG scored 10 1/2, TASC 10) while the RISC 2500 was left in the dust at 31/2. Since the TASC and Saitek entrants both Used similar programs by Johann de Koning, the huge disparity between their results shows the value of fast hardware. Although Genius outscored TASC, the clear Implication for the commercial market is that the commer- cial TASC R30 is stronger than the commercial Mephisto Genius 68030, since in this event the R90 was only sped Up bya.4103 ratio, while the Mephisto machine ran about 7 to 3 faster than the 68030 model. The Software section was won by Hiarcs (later released as Hiates 2.1) with 7 1/2 points, running on a 36 MHz SPARC chip, followed by The King at 7, cunning on a 150 MHz (!) DEC Alpha chip. Third at 6 were Genius 2 ‘on a Pentium 69 MHz chip and the amateur Austrian program Nimzo on a 486/80. It is thought that the SPARC chip used by Hiarcs was roughly equivalent in speed to the Pentiums in the event but far below the speed of the DEC Alpha chip used by The King. Next at 5 1/2 were Gideon on a Pentium 60, Pandix, Quest (=Fritz), andKallisto all on 486/66, and MChess Pro on a Pentium 60. ‘At 5 were Bobby2 and Mirage on 486/66 and Ulysses 1 ona SPARC 41 MHz. At 4 1/2 were Saitek Sparc on a 50 MHz SPARC, and Ecume, Now, Greif, and Nightmare, all (0n 486/66. At4 were the Russian program Centaur, SOS, and Magellan, all on 486/66. At3 1/2 came Gandalf (486), Breakthrough (Sparc), Experimental (Pentium), and Diogenes (486). At’ were Viktor 2 (486) and Chess Brain 1.0 {Pentium 66). The tallenders were BB at 2 and Pachach at 1/2, both on 486/68. Clearly Hiarcs had the ‘most to brag about in this section, The event concluded with a playoff between Mephis- to Genius and Hiares (both by British programmers), with Mephisto winning the match 1 1/2 to 1/2 to take the ‘Absolute Championship. It seems to me that Lang (Mephisto), de Koning (TASC), and Mark Uniacke (Hiarcs) all have good reasons to be proud oftheir results inthis event. It also seems to me that there is not much Point to making the distinction between dedicated machines and software anymore; the line is just too fuzzy. The same program can easily run inside a box or ona pe, as both Mephisto and TASC did in this event, so why bother with two divisions? Aegon IS94 ‘The Sth annual Aegon tournamentin the Netherlands. was won by Grandmasters Larry Christiansen and John ‘Nunn with § 1/2 outof 6 points, followed by Grandmaster David Bronstein and PeeWee van Voorthuijsen at §. The top computer program at 4 1/2 was Gideon 2, the As- ‘sembly language upgrade of Gideon Pro. As the results Just arrived on deadline day, | don't have many details yet; | presume that most if not all of the pe programs ran fon Pentium machines. The tournament matches 38 computer programs against 38 human players in a six Found Swiss-system match; five of the humans are grandmasters, the others are mostly of U.S. master strength or stronger. The total score this year was exact- ly tied; 114-114. Considering that the computers won last year (98 1/2 - 93 1/2), this has to be abit of a surprise in view of the improved hardware each year. Perhaps the average rating of the humans was higher this time (the results don't list the ratings of the players) . although thelist of players does not look so different fromlast year. Pethaps the human players are learning how to combat, computer strengths. Games were at 40/2. ‘The programs scoring 4 points were TASC R30, Hiares, The King, Mephisto Genius, Hitech, Fritz 2, Joker, Quest, and Zarkov 3.0. At3 1/2 were TASC R40, Chess Genius 2, Mephisto Berlin, Check Check, and Nightmare. 4 ‘At3 were MChess Pro, Mephisto RISC WK, Chessmaster 4000, Complete Chess System x, Ecume, Kallisto, L- Chess, and. At 2 1/2 came Gandalf, Goldbar, Greif, Now, Pandix, Saitek Brute Force, Saitek Sparo, Schach 3.0, and Socrates exp. Then, at2 points we find Anance, Isichess, Mirage, Nimzo-Guernica, and Saitek RISC 2500, The tall enders were Milobarus at 1 1/2 and Dappet at 1. ‘The TASC R30 performed especially well. Its four points include wins over two grandmasters, David Bronstein and Roberto Cifuentes Parada, The Bronstein ‘game appears below. | regret that other details are not available in time for this issue, but we will cover them in the next issue, White: TASC R90 Black: Grandmaster David Bronstein, former World ‘Champion finalist (He tied a ttle match with Botvinnik back in 1951.) 1.04 06 2.4415 3Nc3 NIG 4.03 Bb4 5 NIS 0-0 6 Bd2 b6 7 Bd3 Bb7 80-085 9.43 Bxc3 10 Bxc3 Ned 11 Act d6 12 Qe2Nd7 13 b3 Qe7 14Bb2c5 15 Ret Racs 16 Qc2 Ndi6 17 RA QI7 18 Nd2 Qhs 19 f3 Ng5 20 bél? axb4 21 axb4 oxb4 22 Qa4 e5 23 Oxb4 e4 24 Be? ext3 25 NxfS Ng4 26 Qxd6 {4 27 he (I's hard to believe that white survived this attack and won!) Ne4 28 Gxbé Ng3 29 Rice! Nxes (Black could probably have won simply by Not sacrificing the bishop) 30 Qxb7 R8 31 Qa7 Axb2 32 Ritz Kh8? (why not 92...Ng4) 33 Bd3 Abbé 34 Ra2 Ride ‘95 Qc7 Qg4 36 Qb7 Rb 37 Qa7 Rbe8 38 Qc5 Ros 39 Qg5 Qd7 40 Rxe3 tke3 41 Oxg3 RieB 42 Qg5 Ros 43 NeS Qxd4 44 Nxc6 Qxd3. 45 Ra7 Qd1+ 46 Kh2 Qd6+ 47 Ne5 96 48Qh6 Gxe5 + 49g30b2+ 50Kh3 and black resigned. The 4th Harvard Cup The 1993 Harvard Cup was played on November 6 at the Computer Museum in Boston. The format is that a team of top U.S. grandmasters (four in the first two cups, then five, and this time six) plays against a team of top ‘computer programs (all the programs after the first cup have been commercial or prototypes of commercial programs, running on microprocessors) at game/25'. Each grandmaster plays one game with each program. The grandmasters are competing for cash prizes ($1,000 first, $500 second this time), the computers for favorable publicity. This year the chief sponsor was Intel, which provided Pentium based 60 MHz PCs to the four programs that ran on PCs. For the third straight year, a program entered by Heuristic Software and authored by Don Dailey and myself was the winner of the top computer prize. Socrates Experimental scored 3 out of 6, bringing our total score against the grandmasters over the last three Cups to 8 out of 15, a plus score! Moreover, we were quite unlucky, since against former World Junior Cham- pion llya Gurevich we were about to queen a pawn when ur flag fell after 100 moves (we stil got a draw as he had ‘only bare king); we were two pawns up against former Soviet Champion Boris Gulko but allowed him to reach a drawn rook ending; and we had an easy win against the reigning U.S. Champion Patrick Wott butthe program got too greedy, snatching a pawn instead of simplitying to an ‘exchange up ending. Socrates did deteat last year's Harvard Cup winner Michael Rohde as well as Grand Prix ‘Champion Alexander Ivanov, and lost to Joel Benjamin, who won the Cup this year with a perfect 6-0 score. Second place among the computers went to the TASC R30, which scored an impressive 2 1/2 out of stx. ‘Aithough the processor in the R30!s very fast, roughly like ‘486/68, itis notin the class with the Pentium, so the R30 was in that sense handicapped relative to all the other programs but the SPARC. Third place was attie between MChess Pro v. 3.42 and —Battlechess 4000!!! Bat- techess has never been known for strength, only for its (graphics and animation, butit seems thatit was complete- Iy revised to be a strong program as well. Since it has never competed or been tested independently everyone expected it to get shut out, but It was not so Weak and. perhaps the GMs underestimated it. Fit place went to Saitek Sparc, which managed only a single draw, and Kasparov's Gambit was shut out with 0 points, though it ‘would probably have beaten Joel Benjamin if the com- puters were given a couple seconds per move operator time (its interface Is slower to operate than the programs written for tournament players, 80 itost on time) Overall the computers scored 9/36, or 25%, the same percentage as in 1991 and slightly below the 28% of 1992 (they only scored 9% the first year, even though Deep ‘Thought and HiTech were playing). In view of the use of the Pentium machines this time, this was a real disap- ointment to computer fans. Part of the problem was that ‘some of the best programs were absent (Chess Genlus2 ‘most notably), but some observers felt that what has happened is that the grandmasters are learning how to play effectively against computers. Most oral ofthe GMs have by now had substantial experience playing against computers, both in the Harvard Cups and elsewhere, and, they no longer take their opponents so lightly. Assuming that the top programs all participate nexttime, and assum- ing that the Pentiums will then run at 90 MHz or more, perhaps the next match wil be a much closer one. Since Intel would like to see the computers win, Its likely that they will do what is necessary to insure that the strongest programs do participate and that the fastest possible hardware is available. AAs for the human participants, lvanov took second at 5, Gulko, Wolff, and Gurevich all made 4 1/2, and Rohde, said to be out of practice, scored only 2 1/2. LL. GUREVICH (ELO 2575) TASC R30 1, 04 €5 2. NI3 Nc6 3, BbS a6 4, Bad Ni6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Ret bS 7. Bb3 0-0 8 d4 Nxd4 9. Nxd4 exd4 10. 5 Ne8 11. 68 dxc3 12. Nxo3 Bb7 13. Nd5 d6 14. e615 15. Bla NIG 16. Nxe7 Qxe7 17. Ret Raed 18. Qd4 Ned 19. Qa7 05 20. xed fxed 21. Bxd6 Qxd6 22. 67 + 4.23. exi8Q+ Pxf8.24. d1 Qi6 25.Bc2 Qxb2 26. Bbt c3 (see below) 27. Qc5 Qe2 28. RY Qd2 29. Qe5 c2 30. Qe6+ Kh8 31. Bxc2 Qxc? 32. Qe7 Qc8 33. h3 BdS 34. a3 O15 35. Qa7 Bod 36. Rdt Bd3 37. Ret QI6 38. Qe3 a5 39. Rc7 b4 40. axb axb4 41. Rb7 Qc3 42, Qb6 Qat + 43. Kh2 Qe5+ 44. Kgt Qc3 45. Kha. 6 46, h4 Qe5 + 47. Kg! Re8 48. g3 Qat + 49.Kh2 Act 50, Kha Rht 51. Kg Qes 0-1 TASC R30 PATRICK WOLFF (2585) 1. e4 65 2. ¢3 NIG 3. 05 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 d6 6. Nig No6 7. Nc3 dxe5 8. dxe5 Nxc3 9. Qxd8+ Nxd8 10. bxc3 Bd7 11. Bd3 @6 12. 0-0 Rc8 13, Bd2 hé 14. Rfet BcS 16. Nd4 0-0 16, Nb3 Be7 17. Bad Nc6 18. f4 Rfd8 19, Be3 Bo8 20. BI2 Ki8 21. Re3 bé 22. Rh3 Nbé 23. Bd4 Bad 24. 15 oxf5 25. Bxi5 Bd7 26. RIG Kg8 27. Bxd7 Axd7 28. Ret Nc6 (see bottom of last page) 29. Fxt7 Nxd4 30. Nxd4 Kxd7 31. 06+ Ke8 32. exd7 + Kxd7 33. Rd1 BI6 34. NbS + Ke6 35. Nxa7 Rxc3 36. NbS Ro6 37. Ret + Kd5 38. Rd1 + Kod 99. Ret + Kd5 40, Rd1 + Kod 41. a4 Ke3 42. Ret + kd3 43. kf2 Ke2 44. Ki3 Kb3 45. Red Rod 46. Rxc4 Kxod 47. Nc7 Kb4 48. Nd5+ KaS 49. Ked Bd8 50. No3 Kod 51 Kd kbs 52. g3 Be7 53. Nd5 Bc5 54. No3 Bb4 55. Nd5 Bab ‘56. Ne7hS 57. Nd Kxad 58. Nid bS 59. NxhS Ka 60. Nxg7_ 4 61. NIS b3 62. Ne3 Bc7 63. Nd5 b2 64. Kc2 Ka2 65. Ne3 + Kat 1/2-1/2 White: Grandmaster Michael Rohde Black; Socrates Experimental on Pentium 60 MHz 11NIS NIG 2.04 b6 3 Nc3 Bb7 4.d4 dS (| think this line does not give black full equality) 5 cxd5 Nxd5 6 Qc2 e6 7 @4Nxc3 8 bxc3 Nd7 9 Bd3 Be7 100-00-0 11 Bid cS | 1205 exdS 13 exd5 Bxd5 14 Bxh7+ Kh8 15 BIS Bxi3 16 5(p49 Bg5 17 Bd6 Be7 18 Bg3 NIG 19 Afe1?! (I think that white should have played 19 Radi first, since this move ‘order allows black to avald getting pinned on the e fl. Despite white's awful pawn structure, his dominant piece placement and bishop pair in open position would have given him the edge.) Rg8 20 Radi Qf6 21 Qe2 eB 22 Bo2?! (22 Qa6!?) Bds 23 Qt Rxet 24 Qxet Bxg3 25 xg?! (hoping for a chance to check on the h-fle, but 25, ‘hig would heve kept the game fairly balanced) QaB 26 Qe7 Oxi3 27 Ret? Qxc3 28 Bb1 Rab 29Rd1 Reb RSE Oct + 31 Kg2Rxd8 32 Qxd8 + Ngé 33 Bed Qh6 34 BdS ‘Qhs 35 Qd7 Ni6 36 Qc8-+ Kh7 37 BIS Qe5 38.Qb7 Qe6 39 Qxa7 c4 40.a4¢3 41 Qc7 Qb3 42 Qc8? (42 Qf! would prolong the game) c2 43 Qh3 + Kg6 44 Qc8 Qb2 45 Be2 eQ) 46 Bd3+ KgS 47 QI + Khé 48 Qho-+ Nhs 49 f5 Qf6 and white resigned. This game iiustrates how dificult is to outplay a strong computer in an open middlegame position. OVIEDO TOURNAMENT December 1993, Oviedo Spain, in one of the largest chess tournaments in the world, the Chess Machine (R- 30) with the King 2.0 program (an earlier, weaker version of the new 2.2), Genius 2.0, and $57 human participants fought for victory. More than 0 grandmasters competed in the tournament. The Chess Machine (R-30) gained an ‘overwhelming 1Sth rank behind 13 Grandmasters and 1 International Master. The King 2.0 program beat 4 grandmasters- GM Salov, WGM Galliamova, GM Strikovick, and GM Makarickev. King also drew against two Grandmasters and two International Masters- GM Conquest, GM Svesnikov, IM Gomez, and IM Wells. Here are a few of the games from the Oviedo Tour- nament: THE KING ‘GM VALERY SALOV (ELO 2685) 1.04 NI6 2. d4 e6 3. NIB Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe? 5. 93 NOS 6. Bg2 Bxd2 + 7. Noxd2 d6 8. 0-0 €5 9, d5 Nb8 10. Qa + Nbd7 11. Qc2 a5 12. Ng5 Nc5 13. Nde4 Nixed 14. Nxed 6 15. Nxc5 bxo5 16. Bes g6 17. Bg2 0-0 18. e4 Rb8 19. 3 Bd7 20. Qo3 a4 21. bxad Rb4 22, a5 RaB 23. 14 RxaS 24. a Rbad 25. raz RaB 26. Qd3 R4a6 27. Qed 16 26. 15 195 29. Act RD6 30. Qd3 Qd8 31. Abt QbE.S2. Rubs Oxdé 33. hd gxh4 34. gxh4 Kh8 35. R2 Rg896. Kh2 Ba4 97. Qd2 ‘Qbs 38. Qhé Qd8 39. Rb2 Rg7 40. Ges Rod 41. Kho Ris 42, BIG Qa8 43. Qd3 Kg7 44. Rg2+ Kh8 45. Rg3 Qbs 46. (Qe2 QI6 47. h5 06 48. Qd3 oxds 49. Qxd5 Bc2 50. Ka? h4 51. Kgt QbB 1-0 THE KING GM SERGEY MAKARICHEV (ELO 2540) 4, dé @6 2. e4 d5 3. Nod NI6 4. 65 NId7 5. 14 05 6. NB No6 7. Bed cxd4 8, Nxd4 Bc5 9. Od2 Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Bxd4 11. Qxd4 Qb6 12. Qxb6 Nxbé 19. NDS Ke7 14. Kd2 Bd7 15. Nd4 Rac8 16. b3 15 (see digram #1) 17. exi6ep+ gxi6 18. Ret Kd6 19. Bd3 @6 20. NIS+ BxfS 24, Bxf6 Re7 22, 03 NCB 23. fxe5 + fxe5 24. Rh RI7 25, Bg Rg7 26. Bh3 Re8 27. 93 Kc7 28. AIS Age? 29. RhS NOG (600 diagram #2) 30. Bg2 Kc6 31. 04 KoS 92. Bxd5 bs 33, Ko3 a5 94. a4 ba + 35. Kd3 NcB 36, Ko2 Nd6 97. Bg2 Kb6 98. Rd1 Re6 39, Ad5 Ko7 40. Axh7 + 1-0 IM PETER WELLS (Elo 2455) THE KING 1. NG d5 2. d4 NIG 3. c4 06 4. BGS h6 5. Bxi6 Qxf6 6. {Qb3 06 7. No3 aS 8. 63 Nd7 9, Bd3 dxc4 10. Gxos Bas 11. 0-0 0-0 12. Nes Qe7 13. Nxd6 Qxd6 14, Qc2 b6 18. Ract BD? 16, Aidt Rac8 17, a4 QbB 19. BbS cxd4 20. Qxd4 Nos 21, Qd6 Bd 22. Qxb8 Rxb8 23. Nd4 RidB 24. 13 2625: Nos Bxc6 26. Bxo6 Nb3 27. bt Nd? 28. Rbct Nb3 29. Abt Nd2.90. Rlsct Nb3 1/2-1/2 Welser ‘The 1994 Welser tournament in Austria was a round robin played at 60 moves in 2 1/2 hours among 12 strong programs. Seven ofthe programs ran on 486 computers, two on RISC computers, one on a 68090, and two on Pentium 60 MHz machines. Oddly enough, the two Pen- tium entrants finished in the last two places. Since they ‘were the only amateur entrants, perhaps they ran on Pentiums in an attempt to equalize the contest a bit. Richard Lang's "Mephisto Genius 2" on 486/66 won the event, scoring 8.5 out of 11. Hiarcs 2.1 on same was second at 7.5, and the TASC ASO took third at 7. Next came MChess Pro 3.5 on 486/66 at 6.5, then Mephisto Vancouver 68030 at 6, and then tied at 5.5 were Chess- Master 4000 (on 486/33) and Gideon Pro (on 486/68). ‘Socrates 3 on 486/50 was next at 5, followed by Saitek ‘SPARC and Fritz 2 (on 486/33) at 4.5. The talenders on Pentiums were Nimzo X with 3 and Milobarus X with 2.5. ‘The results agreed with other recent events which suggest that given equal hardware, Genius 2 is the top program, with Hiares 2.1, TASC R90, and MCHess Pro 3.5 battling it out for the recognition as the second best Program. White: MChess Pro 3.5 on 486/66 Black: Hiares 2.1 on 486/66 1 eb eS 2Bo4 Ni6 3.04 exd4 4NiS dS. (Both this, move and acceptance of the pawn sav by 4..Nixe ara considered good enough for equality according to ECO) 5 exd5 Bb4+ 6 Bd2 (The book lings 6 c3 Qe7 + 7Kgt dxc3 BNXC3 0-0 = ) Bxd2+ 7Nbxd20-0 80-0Nxd5 SNxd4 NDE 10 €3 65 11 Nd4-b3 Nxo# 12 Nxc4 Bob 13 Ne3 Na6?! 14 Rel Rb8 15 Qh5 157! 16 Radi Qee 17 Qg5 GI7 18 Rd2 RbeB 19Redi hé 20.014 Bxbs 21 axbs Qxb3 22 Nx15 Qe6 23 94 RI7 24 Qad Refs 25 Rd7 Kh7 26 R7d6 Qe2 27 Rid2 QeS 28 Qc4 Qet+ 29 Kg2 Ges 30 Ro Qa8 31 Kg1 Nc7 32 Re3 b6 33 Ne7 96 34 Rd7 NeB 35 Qd3 N‘6 36 Qxg6-+ Kh8 37 Qxhé-+ Nh7 3614 4 3915 a6 4016 Rg8 41 No6 + Rxg6 42 Qxg6 Rxd7 43 Re 8+ and black soon resigned. Excalibur Review Excalibur is the spiritual descendant of Fidelity, as its president, Shane Samule, is the son of Fidelty’s founder and many of the employees at Excalibur have been former Fidelity employees. Moreover, Excalibur is based In Miami, as was Fidelity. However, Excalibur, unlike Fidelity, has sa far only marketed inexpensive chess computers. The only models ofinterest to most CCR readers are the Expert level machines utiizing the h-8 processor and programmed by David Levy and associates. These include the hand-held sensory Accolade and peg-sensory Comet (above), the table-top sensory Legend II (left) and Krypton Challenge. The Comet EBand Krypton Challenge have ewer and presumably stronger programs than the other two, though none of these models has been rated by any rating list or agency ex- cept for the Accolade, the oldest model of the four. itwas ‘ated 2065 in Action Chess (game/30) by the C.R.A., and received an astonishingly high blitz (gamel8) rating of 2344 from the W.B.C.A. Allowing for the overrating of computers at fast levels, the C.R.A. result suggests a tournament rating of around 2000 for the Accolade while the W.B.C.A. rating suggests a tournament rating of over £2100, 80 perhaps a rating in the low 2000s Is nearest the truth at 40/2. | don't have much data to say how much improved the other models are, but probably the new ones are in the mid-Expert range. The Krypton Challenge ‘seems to be more reliable than Legend Il. As between the Accolade and the Comet, the Comet has a cover while the ‘Accolade does not; on the other hand, the Accolade works Con battery or AC while the Comet requires batteries. Mephisto Review The big news here is the takeover of Hegener & Glaser, the manufacturers of Mephisto and Fidality chess computers, by its archrival Saitek. So far the two com- panies have maintained their separate identities, and not much is being said about future plans, 50 we will have to ignore this major event unt the next issue and review the two companies independently. Clearly this takeover will reduce the element of competition in computer chess, but at least Saitek will stil have compettion, atthe high end from TASC, in the mid-range from Novag, and in the lower price range from Excalibur. The root cause of the disap- pearance of Hegener & Glaser as an independent com- anys probably the trend towards pc software and away from dedicated chess computers, which in tunis primari- ly due to the phenomenal increase in power in personal ‘computers over the last few years. While some newdedicated chess computers (Le. Mephisto Nigel Short) stil use the same old 6502 processor as was used in ‘Novag and Fidelity chess computers circa 1982 (and at only around doutle the MHz speed), pc processors have accelerated by about a hundred to one over that period! Now fast RISC processors have kept the dedicated com- puters in the ballgame, but they no longer can be sold on the basis of superior strength over pc programs, so @ ‘good chunk of their market is gone. This appears to be what crippled Mephisto. ‘Anyway, some of the prospective models ‘written about in the last Issue have made thelr appearance, though their continued production appears to be In doubt at this writing. The Mephisto Genius 68030 in the Exclusive board (left) has arrived in the US., and sells for about '6200-$900 less than the TASC R90. Its indeed a very powerful chess computer with excellent features, but itis not competitive with the TASC R30 due to the 2-1 superiority of Its RISC processor over the 68030 used by Mephisto. For anyone ‘who wants a Senior Master level machine in a quality ‘wood autosensory board, the Genius 68090 and TASC R90 both fil the bil, with the tradeoff of perhaps 35 rating points and piece recognition in the R90 for the $300 extra. Perhaps more interesting tothe average readers the Mephisto Berlin 68020 (right), which appears to have no rival in tts price range (under $800). Mephisto apparently decided to put the Genius program (or a very similar version) into the Berlin 68020, so its chess is essentially like the 68030 model but runs about 2/3 the speed (the (68030 at 33 MHz is about equal to a 68020 at 38 MHz, but the Berlin 68020 runs at between 24 and 25 MHz). The difference in strength between the models should be about 35 rating points. This should put it in the mid- 2400s, a huge gain over the Berlin 68000 and ahead ofall rivals except is “big brother" 68030 and the TASC R30. If 1s available, it deserves a "best buy" tag in terms of maximuin strength per dollar, but it s a plastic pressure board, not a wood autosensory like the 030 and the R90. ‘The revised "Louguet" test puts the new Berlin at USCF 2432 and the 68030 at USCF 2471, both of which are probably conservative figures based on extrapolation from the ratings of the pe version of Genlus2. ‘Most of the other Mephisto models are elther out of production or are not available in the U.S. at prices which ‘would be competitive with other companies’ models. ‘The Mephisto Nigel Short is essentially an upgraded program for the Mephisto Milano (righ). On my newest problem test it rated 2240, and in early testing by CONS it's at USCF 2253, but | doubt that the ratings wil remain that high, since "Nigel Short" Is only a software upgrade from the Expert rated Milano. If it holds the ‘master rating and can be purchased for under $300, it might be a decent buy. Novag Review ‘Although nonew Novag products rave reached market since ourlastissue, some informationis now avaiable about fone planned new model. The "Sapphire" wil reportedly be ‘an upgrade of the hand-held Ruby (righ). Its sald to have twice the program ROM, a much larger’ ‘opening book (64,000 plies), and enough RAM (128k) forhashtablos. ‘While no data Is available yet on playing strength, these specs should produce at least a hundred point improve- ‘ment, perhaps enough to putthe Sapphire into the Master lass, even allowing for the fact that the Ruby gota much lower "Piy" rating than expected from early results. It Is expected to sell for just around $200. If allthis is correct, it ‘may be the first hand-held Master level program, and the only Master level machine currently available for around ‘$200. Like all other Novag models, the Sapphire will probab- ly be even stronger (relative to other companies’ models) at {aster time limits like Action chess than at standard touma- ‘ment level (40/2). Since hand-held models are normally Used for faster games, this is a plus for Sapphire. Delivery dates & prices are unavalable at the time of this writing. Novag also plans a new table model called "Diamond, but ack information on it at this time. Despite the drop in rating from our last issue, the Emerald remains a good buy for those interested in Expert level table top models around $150. Although the Saltek GK 2000 Is now rated a bit higher and is also around $150, the Emerald is recommended for those players who demand a reasonably large opening book. ‘As for whether one should spend the extra $40 for the hand-held Ruby over the competing Saitek Travel Cham- pion, again the need for a large opening book would be the deciding factor. Saitek Review The main news here is the takeover of Mephisto by Saitek, discussed elsewhere. No new Saitek models have come out since our last Issue, although Saltek has ‘announced plans for several new ones in 1995, The Sparc module in the Renaissance board, al- though of (iow) Senior Master strength, Is more than a hundred points below the TASC R30 in strength, and is not even in production now, while the RISC 2500 has been surpassed by the Mephisto Berfin 68020 and has been plagued by production proslems and retums. So at the moment, Saitek is relying on its takeover of Mephisto for mastor level machines. The less expensive models have already been fully reviewed in past CCR issues. The GK 2000 (above) has been marked down to around $160 and the Travel Cham- pion (left) to under $100, at which prices they are both excellent buys. At these ices, they are probably the best values in their respective categories, namely Expert level table top and hand-held machines. ‘The current COR rating list puts the competing Novag machines (Emerald and Ruby) in betwee.) the Travel Champ and the GK 2UW0. The GK 2000 thus offers a slightly higher rating and more features than the Emerald {for around $10 more, while the Travel Champ is nearly as strong as the Ruby and quite a bit less expensive. These Saitek models are extremely strong intactical play, surely ‘of master strength in that arene, but the opening book is small and the endgame knowledge Is somewhat limited. TASC Revi iew Since our last review, the only new development is that the TASC ChessSystem R20 is now available in the US. with the new version 2.2 of the Koning program, which appears to be somewhat stronger than the original 2.0 version, at least according to problom tests, | have been ableto get a unitfor evaluation, and | fecl confident In calling it the best dedicated chess computer on the market today, considering both strength and all other aspects. Itis.a bt unusual inthat the processor, memory, and all the keys and information displays are housed ina ‘separate module, so that the chess board itself is just that ~ an elegant wood board (about midway in size between the Mephisto Munich and Exclusive boards) with no dis tractions other than the lights on all 81 intersections used to communicate the computer's move. One advantage of this separation of module from board is that i allows for 2 huge display window, large enough to allow all relevant data to be shown at once, large enough for a display of the entire chess position, and large enough to display simulated “real" (meaning analog, not digital) chess clocks. The R90 Incorporates automatic piece recognition, ‘making it possible to set-up problems in a fraction of the time of any machine without this feature. Just select position’ from the menu, set up the problem on the board, land press ‘enter’. {f all computers had this feature, one could use much larger problem sets to test them in a reasonable time. ‘As for playing strength, the R90 was listed at 2505 in the last CCR, but those results were nearly all from the older 2.0 program. The current figure comparably calcu- lated would be 2513, stil including the 2.0 results. Ifthe results for 2.2 were segregated, they would probably be inthe 2520 -2530 range. Results from problem tests show an even greater increase from 2.0 to 2.2 than the 20 point ‘gain indicated here. These numbers look about right, because the Saltek RISC "2500" uses an older (pre 2.0) Koning program at 14 MHz with less RAM, and was rated 2422 in the last CCR. The increase to 30 MHz (the R30 speed) should add 65 points, the larger RAM (512k for hash tables + 128k vs. 128k total) another 20, and the program improvements perhaps another 25 for atotal gain of 110. Considering all ofthis, a rating of 2530 USCF looks to be realistic. The R30 performed very well in both the \iorid Microcomputer Championships and in the Harvard (Cup, and just defeated the legendary grandmaster David Bronstein at the Aegon tourney within this past week. How does the R30 compare in strength to its only rival in the dedicated market, the Mephisto Genius 68030? ‘Although both Lang and Koning have superb programs, most observers, including myself, stil consider Lang's programs to be the best, even if only by a small margin, Moreover, the Genius runs at 33 MHz vs. "only" 30 for the 90. Despite these points, I consider the R30 to beclearly stronger than the Genius 68030, for the simple reason that the "ARM2" RISC processor in the R90 is roughly twice as fast as a 68030 at the same MHz. Even allowing for the Genius program having some edge over the Koning pro- ‘gram, the 68090 would probably have to run about 50% ‘aster than It does for Mephisto Genius to equal the R30 instrength. Asitis, the R90 should enjoy about a 35 point toad over the Mephisto model. Since the R30 also offers a slighty larger board (than the Exclusive board inwhich the Genius is now sold), automatic piece recognition, and a much larger display, and costs only alittle more, it seemsthat the R90 is clearly the better buy of the two at current prices, The R30 is available from I.C.D. on an installment plan basis, with $699 down and a year to pay off the balance. ‘As for the future, an EPROM upgrade of the program is expected in September, and willbe sent ree toall those who purchased the A30 version 2.2 from I.C.D. & PC interface is also planned. Personal View SS by Mark Schneider Having been in this weird chess computer business for over 16 years, we get jaded when it comes to new product releases, Afterall, every manufacturer prociaims its products as the "best, fastest’, "most wonderful" chess ‘computer to ever see the light of day. However, after a short time, those of us who play these machines realize that hyperbole Is a strong polnt for most manufacturers. Etther the computer Is poorly made, leading to a plethora of dissatisfied customer phone calls, or the program is not up to snuff (what does that mean, anyway?) The program that was promised to be “a challenge to Kasparov’ tums out to be less of @ challenge and more of a joke. ‘The Tase Opertor Module. Here is where all the think ing of the Tasc R-30 takes place. Well, we must admit that this new TASC R-30 Version 2.2haslived upto every promise made. Not only isit solld ‘asa rock (we have not hada single computer malfunction in the first four shipments), but the program Is out- rageously tough. | do not think that Kasparov's attention would be kept by the R-30 in anything but speed chess, ‘and even then, the computer would not come out on top ‘very often, i at all, but any “typical” international Master or Grandmaster would more than likely fearn a thing or two fram this computerized beast. Besides, TASC has never made any such claims, and that Is refreshing The Oviedo Tourrament and the Harvard Cup are both proof that the TASC R-20 can hold its own against the best players in the world, and there is not a stand- alone chess computer that can touch it, regardless of price. Proof ofthis superiority comes from Sweden whare computers are played against other computers in large numbers under tournament conditions. The following results show Just how strong the Version 2.0 Is... One can imagine Just how incredible the upgraded 22s! Results of the 2.2 will be coming in n the near future, but right now, It Is too new. But, since most of us pawn- pushers would never ever beat the R-30 at tournament levels, ts stil nice to know that you can drag a mid-2500 rated player out ofthe closet anytime youtthirstto get Your chass ego deftated. ‘The playing strength and blazing speed are only one part of the equation, The TASC R30 Version 2.2 Is a joy to play. The wood board Is Just the right size as are the ‘wood places, and there is nothing on the board todistract the player -all of the electronic wizardry s inthe Operator ‘Module which can remain away from the playing action yousodesire, The computer indicates tsmove by lighting up tiny LEDs on the comers of each square, and these lights are practically invisible when unlit, once again aliminating the distractions that accompany Just about ‘every other stand-alone chess computer. ‘However, if ft Is information you are after, the Operator Module is about as helpful as an opponent could possibly get. if you want tt, the Module supplies cchess clocks, position evaluation, recommended line of play, and just about any other piace of data that one might ‘want to know about a game that you are more than likely to lose (and lose badly, at that!) ‘The program is upgradeable (although we always ‘caution against purchasing a chess computer simply because tt is “upgradeable, this machine instil @ con- fidence that TASC does things right - let's hope s0.) APC interface is promised by TASC by the end of the year; then ‘you should be able to print outall the games that you lose ‘and heaven knows what else. For those of you with plenty of problems - chess problems, thatis..the plece recognition board isthe best ‘chess-related time saver since the advent of speed chess. ‘Just imagine, that mate in 9 with 27 pleces stil on the ‘board that your 1200 rated friend (former fiend) surprised you with in the last tournament... Well, you can set it up Con the R20 Version 2.2 in tess than a minute without ‘making an input error like you used to on all your other chess computers. And the R-20 2.2 will solve the problem In less time than all those other machines put together - maybe less time than your sandbagging former friend. Piece recognition, when it works properly, and it works 10 property on the R-30, Is glorious. TASC even offers addl- tional pleces for sale for those of you who routinely need fourknights, three bishops, tworooks, and seven queens. I you can find & real human to play (s0 that you can win a bit more often than against the R30), you can play right on the R- 30's chess board and use the clocks and plungers on the Operator Module as a real chess clock. ‘And since the computer remembers the game you are playing, when It is all over, you and the computer can ‘analyse each and every move made! Over the course of time, Just think of the money you will save by not having to hire an International Master to analyse your games (or laugh at your games). ‘The TASC R-20 Is not cheap (elther moneywise or _qualitywise} but fou use it as often as the average chess Player, the cost per game and analysis is relatively small, land aside from some kinky, questionable activities, you will not get more enjoyment for your dollar wth any other product that you will purchase. We LOVE this chess computer. It is everything that we have asked for, and it's everything that our customers, have asked for (aside, again, from some kinky, ques- tionable activities). f the $2000 neighborhood for a chess ‘computer is not your idea of a sick joke, Pigrim, your search has ended, The electronic coils that contain the piece-recognition ‘wizardry are hidden below the felt of the pieces Results - SSDF Ratings Ust 4/23/94 36690 Games layed by lel computers ersion Program vs. vs. ChessMachine Schrosder3.1- 115-85 vs, Gideon 49680 1907 V8. M Chess Pro. 3.1 48683 11 vs. Hiarcs 2.0 496/93 135 © 65 vs. Fritz 48693 14555 vs, Hlares 1.0 49603 178 vs, Roma 68020 18515 vs. CCS 49603 18515 vs, Polgar 5 MHz ie 2 vs. M Chess Pro. 3.8 406/50 12 8 vs. M Chess Pro. 3.1 48650 125 75 vs. Mephisto RISC 1 MB 195 65 vs. Vancouver 68020 15 88 vs. Lyon 68000 65 118 vs, Mach IV 455 148 vs. Brute Force a3 vs. Mach Il 198 05 vs. Milano 518 vs. Chess Genius 1 49650 14 6 vs. Chess Genius 1 48683 135 65 vs. RISC 2500 75 28 vs. Socrates 3 49503 1604 vs. Vancouver 68000 ae vs. Zarkov 3.0 49683 19°07 vs. Diablo 68000 55 08 vs. Mephisto MMS 2 ° vs. Super Expert C 34 The TASC R-30 An Evaluation Reprinted from Selective Search Magazine, England. Progress, in chess computers as in any other field, is reckoned to be a combination of small tweaks and evolu- tionary development, interspersed with the occasional “great leap forward’. If that is so, the new R30 from Tasc sits securely in the second category. Only last issue Selective Search reported on what " readers would like in an ideal, money-no-objact choss‘computer in the year 2000. After @ couple of weeks of testing the R30, we are starting to think it has already arrived. When the first rumours of the R30 went around, it Was thought the price was going to be at or around $2000, so of course we were expecting something Pretty good. Even so, when we took the first one out of its box, we were genuinely taken aback by the sheer class of the thing. Whatever else people may or may not think about RG9, surely no-one Is going to deny that this is the bast-ooking chess computer ever made. No buttons, knobs, or bug-eyed LCDs popping out at you, just a beautifully made tournament size inlaid wood chess board , put together to a higher standard than any of us can remember seeing before. Only when you pest at it closely do you notice the 81 tiny LEDs, one on the ‘corner of each square. The board is less than an inch high (1), making it only halt as thick as Saitek’s Renals- sance, Mephisto's Munchen and Exclusive, or Novag's Diablo. ‘As the German magazine Schach & Spiele pointed ‘out in their extremely positive and enthusiastic review. this makes it possible, even in a normal siting position, to play just as you would in a tournament - no lifting of the elbow on every move! Apparently the R-30 has won a design award in Germany for the quality ofits wood- working, and we can well believe it. Next out of the wrapping comes the operating cansole; an object 8" x 6° which wouldn't look out of place in the dashboard of a Jaguar, being cased in what, looks to me tke walnut or burr. The fee!’ of the solitary eight buttons that do everything, is also in the luxury car class. In the centre of his is the actual display panel in green. At 5" x 1.5", (or truly gigantic’ as Schach & Spiele desoribe it) this makes it at least six times blggor than the display of any other CC. It therefore comes 2s no surprise that this makes everything six times easier 10 follow, and that it can display about six times more information simultaneously! Link it all up though, and the fun really begins. Up come the analogue (clockface) clocks on the right and left of the screen (which remain on view throughout al! the following options), with a big space in between that shows: a) Best move found so far; b) Evaluation; c) Depth of search, brute force and selective; d) Time on current move; e) Move under consideration at that instant; ) Ranking of currently considered move on the ‘move list and total number of possible moves; g) Node Counter (number of positions analyzed, which in- creases by 3000-6,000 per second). Or, if you prefer, Brute and Selective search depth; Evaluation; the ex- pected line of play ahead -generally 8-10 halfmoves deep. Another press and the last seven moves of the game appear. One more scroll-hrough and the screen shows a complete chessboard in miniature, showing the position of all the pieces in figurines. Al the while, the clocks show the minute-hand and hour-hand, and afso a digital countdown ofthe seconds in that minute ~ very useful for Blitz! Press the ‘Enter’ key at any time though, and the 830 gives the cur- Tentlast move time and total time for both sides in digital form instead, while to the right and left ofthis, you can have any two of the above options displaying simultaneously ~ complete flexibility in other words; quite unique, quite superb, Because the screen is so big, operating the menu system Is absurdly easy as the main menu, the sub- menu, and the selections within it, all show at one and the same time. This allows one to verify everything, to change anything, in a few seconds flat. Indeed, the manual that comes with the R30, good though Its, is haraly necessary (although, ike all such translations into English, It Is @ Aighly entertaining reau...). For example, just pressing 'Menu' and scroll. ing down io 'Settings' Is enough to show you that Its defaull settings are: Strength - Expert, Style - Normal, Easy - Off, Hash - On, Search - Selective, Book - Aandom, The same goes for all the other Main Menu catagories of ‘Play’, ‘Game’, ‘System’, ‘Board’, and ‘Special Actually playing on the R30 is the next totally new experience. Never, ever, have | been forced to drop a piece down from a great height to make a move register, nor take the move back and do it again, nar had arguments with blinking lights that don't want to go out. Put the piece down on the outer timits of the equare, and stil your move will be accepted. You can chop pieces ott in any way you choose, and generally need make no concessions:to your normal style of play, Put simply, the R80 seems more like a magic chessboard than a chess computer. There is not even a sound of reed switches switch- ing, and if lashing lights have always irfilated you, you can turn them off completely, and read the R30's moves from the screen instead. Otherwise, the computer shows its choice by ‘ighting up the LCDs for all four comers of both the ‘from’ and to’ squares, with the resuit that one need never again peer into @ forest af back-rank wood to see what piece is being trundled out to vex you. In case you think we are being overly enthustastic, perhaps we should quote Schach & Spiel one toggle of the four cursor keys then takes you to: again: "This design does not spoil the optical impres- 2 ‘sion with the ‘deep holes' in the squares, and it allows one to seeat least three LEDs from faity every angle... Playing on the board does indeed turn out to be a real pleasure. ‘Swiftly and clearly moves are recognized - even when the piece is not placed accurately or when the move was made very fast." The ‘magical’ quality is even more in evidence when you want to use thé R30 for analysis (usually the Game you just lost to it). Using the on-screen chessboard, you just scroll back and forth around the game, with na need to move the pieces on the board unless you want to. This Is because the board’ menu allows you to make the display module (which is also the ‘brain’ of the R30) temporarily independent of the playing surtace. Find Out what the R30 would have done, and what its ‘assessment is, and then move onto another key mo- Ment of the game at will Setting up positions has traditionally been ane of the most tiresome parts of operating a chess computer. The cumbersome process of pressing Piece Keys, get- ting it wrong, then finally getting the position right but @ piece colour mixed up or the wrong side to move... This Is something we have all done, and | am sure | am ‘nat alone in hardly ever bothering to try because of it This is a pity, becase it tends to reduce a computer to the role of an apponent only, rather than a tutor as well; ff you would have bought an International Master of Infinite patience, it would make sense to get him to ‘actively improve your chess, and the same goes for a ‘computer! For my own part, | can truthfully say that J have learned more about the game (or at least, been ‘more interested or involved) in the past few weeks than in the past few years, as the R30 positively invites experiments, what-ifs, and back-tracks, as well as book study generally, Setting up a position on the R30 requires youto put the pieces where you want them on the board. That's it! Undemeath the felted base of every piece is an electronic circut that tells the computer whether It is a white knight, a black pawn, and so on. ‘Analysis’ mode provides instant line-ahead and ‘evaluation which goes progressivly deeper the longer You feave it, a fa the '2play’ mode of some Mephistos. The key difference is that with piece recognition, you No longer have to ‘sequence’ back and forth - whenever You change the position, in whatever way, the R90 will Jnstantly start analyzing whatever you have set up. ‘Apart from its obvious benifits in ordinary use, this Piece Recognition System is a boon to tournament Organisers, since given a PC and the necessary TVs either in the tourrament hall, or anywhere in the ‘orid. The R30 has already been used in this way at the Melody Amber event in Monaco, and the Walzer tourna. ment in Vienna, The technical specifications of the Rao are impras- sive, being those of the top-line Chessiachine. This Means a 32 Bit ARM 2 Risc processor running at 30Mhz, giving a performance of 24 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) no wait states. Memory is '512Kb static RAM (20ns) with 256Kb ROM and 128Kb with battery back-up. The opening book contains an oceanic 200,000 ‘moves (not the paltry 55,000 moves indicated in the ™anuall). It will shortly be Possible 10 Jink up the R30 to aPC if desired, extending the flexibility stil further although precise details are not available yet. Under the ‘System’ menu, the R30 describes itself, saying it uses (The King Program) by Johan de Koning, So, that only leaves the chess. Afterall, and to bend @ phrase from Dr. Tarrasch, ‘it is not enough to be a ‘good chess player, it must also play well.’ Fortunately, the R30 plays rather well indeed, and goss strait tothe top of the class in our Dedicated list, just as its Chess- Machine cousin heads the PC programs. Time has precluded a full en-game Head-to-Head at 40 move in 2 hours time scale. In fact | have only played nine games eligible for the S/S rating list (min\- mum of a whole game in 60 minutes), the results being: ¥. Mephisto Risc 1Mb; +2,-1, =: v. Saitek 2500, 1 1/2 + 1/2: v.Berlin 4 1/2 - 1/2. Adding a draw v. the Van- cotver 32 gives the R30 a temporary grading of BCF 227 (2644 USCF] (!);too high yes, but even so, itis safe to say that it's rating will settle down to break the 220 [2569 USCF]barrier in the S/S list, and that therfore the 30 wit become the first CC that can be considered true International Master class. Against both the Berlin and the Saitek 2500 the R 30 drew with black after very hard fought games. With white though, the Taso produced the following ans niilating attacks, in each case ripping the kingside bare before mugging a defenceless king with its queen. In the Saitek game, both machines played from book to move 17. Just twelve moves later the 2500 had to resign. The Berlin game was also effec. tively over before move 30! (See Next Page For Games and Rest of Article) software, games can be relayed direct to screens or 13TASC R-30 Games Tasc R30 Saitek 2500 1. NIS NIG 2. d4.d5 3. 4 06 4. No3 dxc4 5. a4 BIS 6. 63 66 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. 0-0 0-0 9. Nhd Bgé 10. £3 Nd5 11. fxg4 Qxh4 12. Qfg Nd7 13. Bd2 hs 14. gxh5 Ne5 18. dxe5 xc4 16. hé Bxc3 (Here both computers ran ‘out of book) 17. bxo3 15 18. ex'6 Nxf6 19. hxg7 Kxg7 20. Rabi Nd7 21. Qg3+ Kh8 22. e4b5 23. Oh3 + KB 24. Qg4+ Kh8 25. Bed bxa4 26. QhS + Kg8 27. Qg6+ Khe 28, Rid1 Ne5 29. Qh5 + 1-0 Tasc R90 Mephisto Berlin 4, ef 06 2. NIG 157! (The Latvian Gambit-not perhaps the wisest choice against the R30, but to be fair, all the computers were permanently set to Ran- dom Book) 3. Nxe5 Qf6 4. d4 8 5. Nod fxe4 6. Ned Nc6 7. d5 Nes 8. Be2 Qf7 9. Nd2 Nf6 10. c4 Be7 11. 0-0.0-0 12. f4 (12. f3 Is book, so the Berlin had to look ut for itself from here on) 12...exF3 13. Nxf3 Qg6 14. Nh4 Qes 15, NhfS Bd7 16, Qd4 Khe 17. Bd2 Ng® 18. Nxe7 Qxe7 19. Rxf8 Qxf8 20. Aft Qe8 21. c5 Qg6 22. Qb4 bé 23. o6 Qc8 24. Qh4 Ni6 (Both computers acknowledged that white has a slight edge here, but the next move is a Howitzer...) 25. BS! Qd3 26. Rxf6! gxf6 27. Oxt6-+ Kg8 28. Qd8 + kg7 29. Qg5+ KiB 90. Bc3 Gbi+ 31. Ki2 h6 92. Qd8 + Kg7 33. Oxc7 + Kg8 34. Qd8 + Kh7 35. Qe7 + Kh8 36. Qxd6 and mate in 7: (96...Qe4 97. Bxe5 + Qxe5 38. Qxe5 + Kh7 39. Qe7+ Kge 40. QI7 + Khe 41, Bg6) 1-0 Given that nothing is ever perfect, what faults can we pick in tis extraordinary chess computer? Genuine fal- ‘ngs number zeco so far, leaving only quibbles. Even here, my own shortlist only ran to three, and has now gotten shorter stil, since the Tasc have quashed one of them! Firstly, | thought that the pieces. although simple and attractive, should be leaded. Since my move them- selves generally carry very litte weight, at least | like my pleces to do as a substitute, But ike every chess computer set ever made,the bits lack a heavy metal backbone. Howeverto my chagrin, Tasc have informed Us that in fact the dise-shaped coils that do the pieces own favorite set perhaps. Quibble No. 2is that the clocks can not be set to one time allowance for the owner and ‘anather for the RO, and it a shame they did not pinch this excellent and unique abilty trom the Saitek 2500. Itis also a pity they did not carry over the 2500's feature of naming the opening being played. However, the name ‘and quantity ofthe playing styles available (Active, Defen- sive, Normal, Solid, and Offensive) have all been bor- rowed from this other De Koning product, as have the strength settings (Expert, Strong, Moderate, and Novice). ‘The third and last improvment | can think of would be for the R30 to retain all the evaluations, so that they ‘could be displayed alongside the moves when replay- ing the game. This would give an excellent reference fas to what key positions you should look at in the post-mortem. Given the long recession, it is not surprising that ‘manufactutrers. have, in the main, been concentrating ‘on producing mass-market models in the past few years. All the more refreshing then, to have something ‘exotic to report on now. The R30 has certainly ved up to all the promises Tasc were making before its arrival. ‘in most areas, awning ‘the best’ is open to argument, Isa Cartier watch ‘better’ than a Rolex? Is aPorshe better than a Mercedes? Comparing cake with cheese in this way Is pointless, but at least in our sphere of intrest the angwer is now unequivocal - the R90 is clearly the best chess computer available, and by quite some consider- able margin ven that the main competitive fight between the makes will generally take place much further down the ladder, the R90's, in our view, likley to remain ‘the best” for the forseeable future. What makes it so different from other machines that have, in their day, been the best one could buy, lies in kind, not degree. In other words, other machines have been ‘the best’ because they were slightly stronger than the computer it deposed, of because as well as this, they offered some intresting new feature. With the R30 though, only the first part applies; itis stronger than any rival in the normal, developmental way. It is In the sheer pleasure it gives to own and use that the R30 breaks completely new ground. 2,000 is not cheap, but although this may sound silly at first, when you take into account what it offers, itis actually very, very good value. If you are serious about your chess, and are fortunate enough to be able to afford it, you have a treat in store... recognising can be fitted into any wood pieces - your, “4 PC Software Since our last review there have been some new versions of strong programs and more data on the ones released just before ourlast issue, so here's how itlooks now. Mephisto Genius 2 by Richard Lang is clearly the strongest pc software at this time. Itturned outto be even ‘more of an improvement over Genius 1 than the 33 points predicted by problem tests in the last CCR. Our current list shows the gain to be 58 points, much of which is due {0 Genius 2 using much farger hash tables than Genius 1, which only used 640k of RAM. The evidence suggests that Genius 2 plays at about the USCF 2550 level on 486 ch2 66 MHz machines and at about USCF 2600 on Pentium 68 MHz machines. This means that on faster Pentiums (90 MHz Is already announced) Genius 2 should be competitive with the typical International Grandmaster under tournament conditions, and should bbe competitive with strong Grandmasters at faster levels like Action chess. These estimates do seem to be credible in view of the good results of Genius 2's predecessors against GMs inthe Aegon toumaments and ‘elsewhere, Geniusis especially strong at fast chess; Ply’ ‘magazine's Bitz rating fori is nearly 200 points above its nearest software rivals (MChessPro and Fritz 2). | believe that Genius 2 on a Pentium 90 is probably among the world's top five blitz players, and might even be a worthy rival for Gary Kasparov. Genius excels in all aspects of chess, but itis probably most noteworthy for its excellent ‘endgame play as compared to other chess programs. Next we come to MChess Prov. 3.5. Ourlist shows ‘tobe 36 points above the early versions of MChess Pro, quitea healthy gain butstil leaving it about 40 points back from Genius 2. MChess used to win most of the computer ‘events in which itwas entered, but recently it has not been 80 successful due to the proliferation of other strong Programs. Although it did not score well in the 1993 Harvard Cup and ACM toumeys, and finished fourth at Wels 1994, it stil has a good claim to being the best rogram after Genius 2, and new versions do show decent progress each year. Although MChess used to Jag behind others in terms of appearance and features, ‘Good progress has been made in these areas aswell. The large opening book with 3.5 is noteworthy. MChess Pro also has to its credit the advantage of gaining more speed ‘rom the Pentium than any other commercial program, 50 is relative standing versus other programs will improve slightly once testing on the Pentium becomes the norm. Next comes Hiares 2.1. Hiares, a British program, is Perhaps the most rapidly improving one. The jump from ¥. 1.0 t0 2.0 (which won the 1993 Uniform Platform Tour- ament bya huge3.5 point margin over MChess Pro) was. nearly a hundred and ity points on ourlist, and2.1 seems to be clearly better stil, in view ofits victory in the 1963, World Micra Software section, and its second place finish (behind Genius 2) in the very strong Wels tournament. While there is no rating data yet on 2.1, itis probably in the same bracket with the other top programs after Genius2. The search is rather selective, and the program {is quite willing to sacrifice material for positional con- sideration. Hiarcs is loaded with features, easy to use, ‘and works together with "BOOKUP 8.1.1", Now for Mephisto Gideon Pro, by Ed Schroder. His programs are consistently among the best (he wrote the ‘ChessMachine Gideon program, and Mephisto Nigel Short, which has probably the strongest @ bit chess rogram ever). Because Gideon Pro is written in °C" language instead of Assembly, itis not quite as strong as Genius 2 or MChess Pro 3.5, but an Assembly language version is expected soon that is expected to be 30-40% faster, which should bring itup to the level of MChess Pro, [ind Gideon Pro to be very easy to use, except for the Setup mode which operates in an unusual way. Good positional play Is the strong point of Gideon. The endgame'is also excellent. ‘Chessmaster 4000 for Windows is the only top level program now running under Windows, and is also the only Senior Master level program available for under $50. The program Is not an upgrade of Chessmaster 3000 but 1s totaly different program by a different author, Johann de Koning. He Is also the author of the strongest dedi- cated chess computer, the TASC R30, as well as the powerful Saitek RISC 2500. Many people have been surprised by the high rating of CM 4000, competitive with the top tew programs after Genius 2, but it makes sense when you consider that the hardware in the TASC R30 is roughly equal to a 486 66 MHz. If de Koning wrote both programs in assembly language at about the same time, the TASC R30 would stil be a bit faster (=stronger) due to the overhead of Windows, graphics, etc. on a pe, but these factors should not add up to more than 20 points oF $0. Like the TASC R90, Chessmaster 4000 is most noteworthy for its tactical strength. CM 4000 is loaded with features, but when a program has too many features it becomes more difficut to use than a simpler program with only the most useful functions. At last word, a DOS Version of CM 4000 was planned but not ready for release. Fritz 2 goes all out for speed at the expense of knowledge, so tis quite strong in tactical problem tests and in blitz chess, but at tournament levels itis well below the levels of all of the above programs, though stil near the USCF 2400 level on 486/66. Because the positional 15‘and endgame play are so deficient, itis dificult to recom mend this program. There is a rumor that Fritz 3 will feature an unrelated program by a different author than Franz Morsch, Socrates 3.0 Is also rated around USCF 2409 on the rating lists, but the Socrates programs (of which | am co-author with Don Dalley) have enjoyed an incredible run of successes In major tournaments, winning the com- puter prize in three straight Harvard Cups (scoring 8 out of 15 against Grandmasters} and winning the 1893 ACM tournament with 4 1/2 out of ahead of Cray Blitz, HiTech, Gideon, MChessPro and other top programs. I can'tfully explain wity it has done 80 much better in formal com- petition than on the Swedish and British rating lists, but tone factor seems to be that its style and opening book are both better suited for play against humans than against computers (though this does not help to explain the ACM victory). Zarkov 3.0 Is a clear improvement on 2.5 and 2.6 according to automated testing, but late word from ‘Sweden has it rated less than expected, at USCF 2269 on 486/25-93 MHz, which implies around 2315 or so on 4486/66, far below other top programs. Finally, the ChessMachine (both the affordable 15 MHz version and the expensive 30 MHz version) remains cof interest to owners of 386 and older machines, since ft ‘comes with its own processor and memory and thus rates fully as highly on a 286 as on a Pentium, The hardware Cn the two models is roughly equivalent to 486/25 and 486 dx50 or dx2 66 respectively. The program by Ed ‘Schroder is very similar to Gideon Pro. Opening, Power For Your ienius 2.0 For thase of you who have been fortunate enough to, have purchased the Genius 2.0 program (or who are Planning to do so sometime in the future), a new adition has just been authorized by the Chess Genius folks... itis called Power Books for Genius 2.0. (Over the years, one major complaint about chess Playing devices was that they simply did not incorporate ‘ehough chess opening knowiedge. Well, M-Chess Professional's answer was to include over 250,000 posi tions in its opening repertoire and Hiarcs chose to gothe database route with Bookup and the opening disks that may be purchased separately. Genius selected another route... include 170,000 positions, and make avaliable Power Books with about 2,000,000 positions as an extra, The entire set of Power Books for Genius 2.0 (five in all) sells for about $150 (Which comes out to $.000075 per position - quite bargain!) or you can purchase them one ata time for about $40 each ($.00013 per position -not as (good a bargain, but not bad.) Each of the five disks (books) is based on thousands of games from Master players and consists of hundreds of thousands of positions from last year’s tournament praxis, and they ate fled according to the Chess Inform- ants classification system. ‘APawer Book is loaded as a Genius 2 user book. One can always s2@ the stored moves displayed on the screen. ‘The stored moves can always be seen on the screen, and ‘one can modify and expand the book without limitations. The Genius 2 opening editor allows convenient manipulations of the Power Books. One has the ability to delete moves, add new lines, modify how often certain moves ate played from the program, and more! ‘The Power Books make Genius 2 an ideal partner to study openings. You may play your favorite openings against Genius 2 or make Genius 2 show you the opening lines just by clicking the mouse. Even where the Power Books end, the outrageous playing strength of Genius 2 will take over. Of course, Genius 2 recognizes al kinds of transpositions and even reversed colors (ff you start a game with 1.€3e5 2.64, Genius 2 will be in "book" and ‘continue as if the opening moves were 1.e4e8). Contents of the Power Books: Power Book A: All moves except 1.22-04 and 1.d2- 4; 1.4244 eithout 1..47-05; 1.d2-d4 Ng816 202-04 without 2..07-26 and 2...97-96, Size: 470,000 postions in 23,000 lines. Power Book B: 1.62-0¢ without 1..27-25 and 1,.67- 6, Size: 570,000 positions in 25,000 lines. Power Book C: 1.02-04 87-05 and 1...07-06, Size: 320,000 positions in 14,700 lines. Power Book D: 1.d2-d4 d7-d5 and 1..Ng846 2.02.04 97-g6 with 3...d7-45 Size: 300,000 positions in 14,600 lines. Power Book E: 1.02-d4 NgB6 2.02-04 @7-06 and 2...97-96 with d7- d6, Size: 345,000 posttions in 16,500 lines. Total Size: ca. 2,000,000 positions in 190,000 lines, cost option. 16 M-CHESS Professional 35 by Marty Hirsch Estmated Rating (486/50): 2500-2550 Best at: Long term analysis Openings » 250,000+ moves » Unlimited user-programmable opening books » Print out created opening books » Displays nams of opening and variation » Recognizes transpositions » Analysis - shows the book moves for both sides » Choose from multiple style books Levels » Infinite - Will analyze until manually stopped » Correspondence Level - Searches 12 hours or more for ‘each position » Fixed Depth - limits how deeply into the position the ‘computer analyzes » Sudden death - Game in X time » Mate In- Find the shortest possible mate inthe provided ‘number of moves » Preset or programmable time controls (X moves in Y time) for infinite variety Features » Automatic analysis of entire game to disk or printer » Three Playing Styles: Cautious, Aggressive, Normal Automatically analyze saved games Autoplay, human vs, human, or human vs. computer » Gan be used with Windows or 008 » Next Best move option Scan forward or back in the game » Savelrestore game with directory sorting » print game to the printer or disk (no diagrams) » Upto 10 meg. of hash tables for better endgame » View what the computer is thinking » Evaluates score from previous moves » Clocks - stopped, hidden, quiet, or normal » Mchess will grade your moves » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, change colors, sound option, change language, position set-up, displays expected mainline, thinks on opponent's time Copy Protected. Must be installed to hard disk (Ginstalis) Mouse supported. May use keyboard. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM 386 or better or compatible. fae floppy drive lard Drive (3 available sf eons ooemion ean IGA GENIUS 20 by Richard Lang Estmated Rating (486/50): 2500-2550 Best at: Speed | Action chess Ogenings » 170,000+ moves » User-programmable opening book » Choose opening book: Human, Gambit, Classic, Modern, Bitz » Choose randomized opening book for widest reper- toire of openings » On-screen display of opening moves Levels » Infinite - Will analyze until manually stopped » Easy - Blunders intentionally » Mate In- Find the shortast possible mate in the provided number of moves » Fixed Depth - limits how deeply into the position the ‘computer analyzes » Programmable time controls (X moves in Y time) for infinite variety » Operatar Time - to allow human to make moves on an actual board Features » Automatically analyze saved games » Upto32 megabytes of hash tables for better endgame » Next Best move option » Savelrestore game, replay game » Automatically saves game on exit » Search for a move by notation » Resigns » Randomize play » Thinks on opponent's time » Contempt - determines whether or not to play fora win ora draw » Print the current game » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, change colors, sound option, change language, position set-up, displays expected mainline, ‘hinks on opponent's time Cony Protected. Runs from hard oF floppy isk (2 installs) Mouse supported. May use keyboard. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM 386 or better or compatible 3.5" 1.44M floppy drive Hard Drive (Optional) 1. MEG RAM VGA 17HIARCS 21 PROFESSIONAL by Mark Uniacke Estmated Rating (486/50): 2500-2550 Best at: Tournament chess Winner: 1993 World Microcomputer Chess Championships, Munich, Germany Openings 100,000 + opening moves Works with BookUp 8.1 openings data base Choose Tournament, Random, or No book Names opening played Levels » Instant - moves instantly (no look ahead) > Average Response- you set the average time for the moves » Adaptive - adapts to the time it takes you to make a move » Sudden death - Game in X time » Preset Time controls (x moves in ¥ time) > Infinite - Will analyze until manually stopped » Operator Time - to allow human to make moves on an actual board Features: » Save and restore game » Offer draw and resign » Autoplay, human vs. human, or human vs. computer ‘Automateally analyzes entire game Go to move by number » Selective search or brute force Rates your chess playing ability in ELO rating points » Choose playing style: Solid, Normal, Aggressive » Resigns and offers draws » Randomize move » Alter 50 move rule » Hash Tables for better endgame » Contempt factor » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, sound option, change language, posi- tion set-up, displays expected main line, thinks on ‘opponent's time Copy Protected. Runs from hard or floppy disk (2 installs) ‘Wouse supported. May use keyboard. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM 286 or better or compatible 3,5" 1.44M floppy drive 640K RAM Hard Drive (optional) VGA SOCRATES 3.0 by Larry Kaufman/Don Dailey Estmated Rating (486/50): 2450-2500 Best at: Defeating GMs (Action Chess) Winner: 1993 Harvard Cup, Cambridge Massachusetts Openings » 150,000+ openings » Select Variety Book for general purpose playing » Choose Tournament Book that contains only Socrates’ favorites Levels Instant - moves Instartly (no look ahead) » Average Response- you set the average time for the moves ‘Sudden death - Game in X time Preset Time controls (X moves in Y time) Infinite - Wil analyze until manually stopped ‘By Rating - set the rating that you wish Socratesto play at » Operator Time - to allow human to make moves on an actual board Features ‘Autoplay, human vs. human, or human vs. computer ‘Automatically analyzes entire game (On screen analysis Export the analysis notation to text or word processor ‘30 you may view, edit, or print Choose brute force or selective search Print the game score ‘Save and restore games ‘Option to shut off display window to give Socrates maximum playing capablity and avoid temptation for human to “cheat” » Hash tables for better endgame » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, sound option, postion set-up, displays expected main line, thinks on opponent's time Copy protected. Must be installed to hard disk, requires floppy to run, Mouse supported. May use keyboard, MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM PC or compatible 3.5" 1.44M floppy drive 2MEG RAM Hard drive (2 meg. available space) VGA 18 GIDEON PROFESSIONAL by Ed Schroeder Estmated Rating (486/50) ‘Best at: All around play and graphics Openings 100,000+ move opening book » Choose alternate opening moves Levels » Sudden death - Game in X time » Preset Time controls (X moves in ¥ time) » Fixed Depth - limits how deeply into the position the ‘computer analyzes Mate In- Find the shortest possible mate in the provided ‘number of moves: » Adaptive - adapts to the time it takes you to make a move Handicap - Give more/less time to human or computer » Infinite - Will analyze until manually stopped 450-2500 Features » Shows names of players & clocks » Shows ten previous moves made using long algebraic notation Resigns ‘Allows search for move by notation Hash Tables for better endgame ‘Save and restore games Go to move by number Place user comments up to 222 characters for each move to be stored and displayed during replay ‘Autoplay, human vs, human, of human vs. computer » Choose from 2 different sets of pieces » Playing styles - Brute force, Combinational, Aggres- » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, position set-up, displays expected main line, change language, thinks on opponent's time, change colors Copy protected. Must be installed to hard disk, (2 installs). Mouse supported. May use keyboard. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: {BM 286 or beter or compatible ‘5° 1.44M floppy drive 1 MEG RAM Hard drive VGA 19 REXCHESS 23 by Larry Kaufman/Don Dalley Estmated Rating (486/50): 2300-2350 Best at: Ratings points for the dollar Openings. » 25,000+ opening moves » Programmable opening book Lovela » Fixed Depth - limits how deeply Into the position the ‘computer analyzes » Sudden death - Game in X time » Tournament » Infinite - Will analyze until manually stopped » Preset Time controls (x moves in Y time) Features » Autoplay, human vs. human, or human vs. computer » Look forward or scan back through the game » Display autoplay score » Rates your game based on the previous games that you played in Championship mode » Weak mode » Position evaluation » Championship mode - disallows take backs and main- line viewing » Choose brute force or selective search » Set separate levels for black and white » Choose algebraic or descriptive notation » Randomize move » Offers draws » Tells what rating itis playing at » Selective mode or brute force mode » Save and restore games » Print games » Hash tables for better endgame » More: Offers hints, take back moves, plays black from top or bottom, sound option, position set-up, displays expected main tine, thinks on opponent's time » Rexchess 2.3 contains several minor bugs which do not affect its playing capability No copy protection. Runs from hard disk or floppy. ‘Mouse not supported. Must use keyboard, MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM PC or compatible 360k floppy drive Hard Drive (Optional) 512k RAM CGA, VGA, or Hercules video adapterFinally, Great Chess Teaching | PC Software ——— ‘The TASC -30 Version 2.2 can be wickedly strong put t also has easlar levels for those of us who need rare of a handicap. However, there is another way for US humans to improve our chess - short of (or in addition to) ning our own personal chess trainer or buying @ ‘chess computer, and, loand behold, TASCIs behind that tool This new system of earning chess Is called the Chess ‘Tutor, and unlike many books, this PC program is user- friendly and interactive. It allows the learner to take part Inthe chess learning experience and guides him/her step by step while righting wrongs and testing chess irnowisdige as it goas along. Additionally, the animation, toa, and color all combine to Keep even the most inatten~ tive learner mesmerized ‘A book accompanias the Chess Tutor software, This book serves atthe beginning simply as a manual for the ‘computer tutor. Ater going through all ofthe material in the book, the tests given therein round out the course. ‘The positions are siiar to the diagrams shown on the PC, but they are mixed. All of the topies on winning eters for Instance, are placed together, and the de- gree of compleity of the problems Increases gradually within each lesson. Since over 90 pasitions are different jrom those shawn on the PC, itis impossible to give answers simply from memory. “There are five steps involved: Step #1 - Rules and ‘aacle Skils - This step 1s superb at teaching the true beginner or advanced beginner who wants to brush Up on some rusty skills. Step #2 - Basle Combinations and Opaning Strategy - This step covers al three phases of the choss game: opening (lessons about the activation of pieces and golden rues), middlegame (double altars, Fin, elimination ofthe defense, and the fist principles of rComibinations, and endgame (randy tips for mating into jmoves and checkmating with the rook) Step #3 Defense and Planning - this step deals with the strategy: purposes, and aim of various openings. Attention is aver athodiscovered atack, doubleattack, Xray check.and Xray attack as well as the defense against same. Also ‘covered are key squares and periect command of the ‘endgame with few pawns on the board. Step #4 - King ‘attack and Advanced Combinations - In the first three stops all basic combinations have been treated. In the fourth step it I time for the real work. The double attack: and possible preparatory moves get lots of attention. Luring, eliminating the defense, chasing, sighting and ‘leaving are the names of preparatory moves. The ad- tional play are aiso covered. Step #6 - Tactics, Strategy, ‘ant! Endgames - This final step takes the chess player in smooth transition from al ofthe lessons prior to a truly ‘dvanoed state. In this step the last combinations are treated. All basic knowledge that is necessary to succeed in instituting combinations is dealt with. The preparatory moves for the pin and the discovered attack are the tactical topics. The king's attack section discusses the ‘classical bishop sacrifice (the Greek Git) on h7. Strategy pays an important part with lessons about the 7th rank the open fle and the sttong point. Endgames complete thalist of topics. Five fullleseons are devoted to endings: sreakthrough, rook against pawn, rook endings, and the wrong colored bishop. Review lessons cover materials from previous steps. This Step incorporates 16 lessons ‘and over 440 positions. PC Program Ratings As inthe last issue, pe programs are rated here on 406.66 MHz dx2 or 50 MHz ex computers. These proces: ore are nearly equal in speed for chess programs, be: cause the dx2 runs internally at 8 MHz end externally at ‘38, while the dx always runs at 60, 50 they average out bout the same, The new dxS 75 MHz should also be “about the same, because itruns only 25 externally and 80 Should average around 50. For most programs the faster processor is at east few percent faster, presumably because the processor spends more time in ts own cache than In the extemal cache. In cases where a published "Ply rating Is not avalable for @ program ex Sept at 33 MHz, | have added 35 points to both the Ply fendi CONS ratings (which rely heavy on the "Ply* data) to correct for this, and enclosed the rating in Q. For programs tested only on 386 25/93 MHz machines, | have eded +10, All programs gain afalramount onaPentium, tut tne gain varies widely from program to program. | have found the following adjustments to be indicated vuhven comparing eay Pentium 66 MHz toa 486 dc 50 Mhz, Using the rule that double spaed = 00 points, Fritz 2 ‘gained 34 points, Gideon Pro gained 46, MChess Pro 3.5 (alined 68, Sovrates gained 56, Rexchess2. gained 60, Genius 2 gained 56, and our latest experimental version of Socrates gained 65, 'As always, CNS ratings are boosted by one hundred points and Ply ratings by 200 for USCF equivalence. All"Pl'ratings are based on a minimum of “00 games. Programs marked with "" come with their ‘wn processorand memory, 80thelr strengths unrelated to the hardware onwhich they are run. vantage of pawn sacrifices, endgame strategy, and Post 20 Pro PC Adj ram Mean CCNS Ply Ss justment Chart Mephisto Genius 2.0 25092852848, For = eae t ‘computers other than 486/66 or dx 50, as shown ‘einen a. . perc race obec vere ee, 0 tr be 5 jjustments, {ts assumed that 486 machines have I — ase ‘cache, 386 machines have 64k cache, and 386 $x OMe ss 2527 machines have no cache. "Fast" and "Slow” refer 2509 2513 2505 absence or ae Mores presence of one "walt state’. For 2491 2495 (2487 ‘that use mor rata He cance pa = aaa re than 640k RAM, it is assumed that 4 Mag Sherer 0 ao se 2487 is available. Note that most of the new, strong MChess Pro 3.1-3.12 2474 2469 a Procecto a aiustmen 72 “ChessMach Schrode : noo me? fer 3.0 fem a= ’entium 90 MHz. plus 75 2473, 2466 2479 Pentium 65 Mliz Hires 20@21lenetytras) 2404 (2478) (252) enenan Mie Fs 40 MChess 1.1 - oi a a minus 35 4 wae oe so, aoe [SESRE Ree Fritz - nee eons (2388) | 386 dx 40 MHz cour 2 *ChessMachine King 1.0 a aes oe ite rin oes 2 x 25 MHz mins 120 sie 792967 2990 | 386825 MHz minus 140 Grandmaster Chess a oo ea see = is he rns 18 a ono tsa) ate) | Zabiest 6 Wie minus 160 eae S 2311) (2099) | 206 ast 12 MHZ minus 203, tare 2318 (2819) (2322)} 286 slow 12 Wiz cums 220 sae 2309 2309, eee 286 slow 10 MHz alias on a 2295 2295 eee 286 sic dgae Sara = low 8 MHz minus 265, a (2299) (2256) | 8088 10 MHz minus 320 keeps 2259 059 nese | (8088 8 MHz minus 240, eure eee (eons, | 9088 4.77 MHz minus 385 mplet sss System ©2226 (2212) ; (2239) Chose Champion 2078 gtay21ay Sere Please keep in mind that the ratings systems not an exact science, so please allow room for some ror. Rating the Commercial Chess Computers CCR has not made any major changes in i methodology einen ourlastlssue, Wo lit fourveings 7 each computer, plus the average of the four, listed first under "Mean. CCA30" is based on Action chess games between computers by CCR testers (48 games mini- rum), CONS isthe lis from the British "Computer Chess News Sheet” with 100 points added for USCF equivalence, and Ply is the list from the Swedish "Ply" magazine, with 200 points added for USCF equivalence. ‘CNS ratings are based on both computer vs. computer {games and computer vs. human games ata minimum of 1" per move, while Ply ratings are based solely on com- at puter ve. computer games at 3’ per beeu on @ minivam e100 games po eompua “CRA*" ratings are based on the CRA tests by the USCF, except that | have lowered all ratings based on Action chess (game/30) by 70 points (| used 60 last issue, but my latest data points to 70 as most accurate) to make them comparatieto 40/2 ratings. Such adjusted ratings are enclosedin[). la mode! has been rated at diffrent, MHz than the one listed, | adjust the rating by the formula, log base 10 of the speed ratio, times 200. This cor- responds to saying that doubling the speed is worth 60 rating points. Ratings adjusted for processor speed are enclosed in 0. Finally, n some cases the CRA tating was vc rete cmt roid in which cases the rat and enclosed in {}. a‘Computer ‘TASC R90 King 2.2 ‘MephistoGenius 68030 Mephisto Vane 68030 Mephisto Lyon 68030 Mephisto Bertin 68020 Saitek Spare Mephisto Port 68030 Saltek RISC 2500 128k Mephisto RISC 1 Mb Fid Elite v.10 68040 Mephisto Vane 68020 Mephisto Lyon 68020 Fid Elite v.9 68030 id Premier Van 68000 Mephisto Bern 68000 Mephisto Vane 68000 Mephisto Lyon 68000 Mephisto Port 68020 Fid Mach IV 68020 ‘Meph Almeria 68020 Fid Ete v.5 dual Meph Nigel Short 6502 Mephisto Port 68000 ‘Mephisto Polgar 6502 Saitek Brute Force hé ‘Mephisto Roma 68020 Novag Diablo/Scorpio Mephisto Dallas 68020 ‘Meph Almeria 68000 Fid Mach Ill 68000 Mephisto Polgar 6502 CCR Ratings list Dedicated Models SS MHz 30 33 36 36 a 20 cy 14 4 25 12 12 92 16 12 2 ory 2 20 2 16 5 12 10 19. 14 16 “ 12 16 5 Mean 2526 2489 2465 2463 2452 2426 2416 2a3 2406 2395 2373 2356 2349 2330 2322 2314 2307 2301 2293 2291 2256 2253 2242 2294 2228 2AT 2214 zat 2207 2172 cCRSO" 2239 (2251) 2283 2212 2233 2220 2208 2191 CRAY ((2s01)) 2370 (318) (2430) (tes02)) (2378) [2385] (i230) (2943)) (e267) 2028 (2306) (2218) [2239] (2208) 2268 cCNS 2521 (2492) 2498 2450 (2485) 2a6 2440 2410 2494 244 2368 2945 219 (2318) 218 2903 2300 2318 2258 2228 2253 2263 2ait 2227 2210 2193 2195 2195 2161 2150 PLY 2530 (2485) 25 2488 ema) 2408 2438 2418 2418 (2980) 2068 2040 2328 (2319) m2 2304 2004 2328 2278 2288 2235 2287 2241 2223 2200 2209 2220 2219 2197 2173 Computer ‘Meph Mondial 68000 Mophisto MMS 6502 Novag Super Expert © ‘Mephisto Roma 68000 Mephisto Dallas 68000 Mephisto Milano 6502 Meph Amsterdam 68000 Novag Super Expert B Mephisto Academy 6502 Fid Mach lle 68000 Mephisto Mega IV 6502 Novag Expert Turbokit Sallok Maestro D 6502 Saltek GK-2000 h8 Novag Super Expert A Mephisto Mis 6602 ‘Meph College/MCario 4 (XG Sphinx Galaxy 6502 ‘Mephisto Modena 6502 Novag Ruby/emerakd he ‘Saltek Travel Cham he Novag Super Expert A Fid Travel Master hi Fid Excel 68000 B ‘Saltek TurboKing I ‘Corona Il 6502 Saitek Stratos 6502 Fid Par Excel/Des 2100) Chesster/Phantom Novag Expert 6502 ‘Sait Simultano/Corona Fidelity Avant Garde Mephisto Rebell 6502 Novag Forte B 6502 Novag Expert 6502 MHz 12 eaaanaon Mean 2168 2161 2160 2151 2147 2142 2196 2196 2132 2113 2109 2106 2105 2106 2103 2102 2101 2086 2078 2072 2071 2070 2037 2036 2033 2033 2021 2017 2013 2010 2005 2004 cCRa0" 2194 2146 2182 2158 2129 2122 2201 2ia2 2185 2113 2108 2140 2128 2145 2139 2103 2047 1995 2091 2073 CRAY 2184 (2138) {2176} (2093) (2106) (2105) 2164 (e087) ony (2148) [1992 2045 {2076} ‘CCN 2135 2166 2149 2128 2148 2143 2108 2101 2118 2092 2099 (2104) 2094 2106 2061 2076 2073 2041 2079 2085 2073 2012 2083 2010 2097 1989 1994 2019 1973 1993 1998 1996 2001 PLY (2187) 2180 2186 2166 aim 2161 2124 2107 2196 2119 2116 2107 2114 2102 (2047) 2102 (2097) 2079 (2090) (2070) 2031 2103 2054 2067 2018 2030 (2022) 2032 2023 2014 (2006)Computer MHz Mean Meph Super Mondial 4 1998 Novag Forte A 6502 5 1998 Excal Legend/Accolade 10 1995 Fid Designer 2000 3 1989 Saitek TurboKing 6502 5 1981 Fid Excellence 6502 4 1979 Radio Shack 2160 6502 3 1973 Novag Expert 6502 4 1973 Fid Elegance 6502 1956 ssaltek Turbostar Kasp. 4 1955 Novag Super Const 6502 4 1950 Mephisto MM2 8502 a7 1949 Saitek Turbostar 6502 4 1945 Fed Excallence 6502 3 1939 Sait Prisma/Bittz he 10 1929 Novag Super Nova 630116 1915 Radio Shack 2150L h8 8 1910 Fid Little Chesster/ Radio Sh Talking Chess 2 1904 Mephisto Blitz 6502 37 1899 Novag Super VIP 6301 10 1896 Fid Elite A/S 6502 32 1065 Mephisto Europa/Marco PololUSCF Academy 8 1359 Fid Prestige 6502 4 1957 Fid Sensory 12 6502 1846 Novag Quattro 6502 4 1820 Novag Primo 6301 8 1834 Novag Const 6502 38 1892 Novag Const 6502 2 176 Excalibur Adv. Siar 4752 Fid Sensory 9 6502 15 1732 Saitek Astral/Cavaller 1688 Saitek Galileo (no module) 1669 Saltek Turbo $ 16k 1661 Novag Mentor 16/Amigo 1660 24 ‘

You might also like

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  

  From Everand

  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  Mark Manson

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (5820)
• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  

  From Everand

  The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  Brené Brown

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (1093)
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  

  From Everand

  Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  Chris Voss

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (852)
• • Magazines
  • Podcasts
  • Sheet music
• Principles: Life and Work

  

  From Everand

  Principles: Life and Work

  Ray Dalio

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (609)
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  

  From Everand

  The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  Jeannette Walls

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (1717)
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  

  From Everand

  Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  Angela Duckworth

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (590)
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  

  From Everand

  Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  Margot Lee Shetterly

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (898)
• Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  Jesmyn Ward

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (1104)
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  

  From Everand

  Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  Phil Knight

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (540)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  

  From Everand

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Stephen Chbosky

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (2104)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  

  From Everand

  The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  Ben Horowitz

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (349)
• Bad Feminist: Essays

  

  From Everand

  Bad Feminist: Essays

  Roxane Gay

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (1018)
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  

  From Everand

  Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  Ashlee Vance

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (474)
• The Outsider: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  The Outsider: A Novel

  Stephen King

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (1867)
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  

  From Everand

  Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  Carmen Maria Machado

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (822)
• The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  

  From Everand

  The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  Viet Thanh Nguyen

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (122)
• Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  

  From Everand

  Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  Frank McCourt

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (441)
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  

  From Everand

  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  Siddhartha Mukherjee

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (271)
• Brooklyn: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  Brooklyn: A Novel

  Colm Tóibín

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (1947)
• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  

  From Everand

  The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  Meik Wiking

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (403)
• A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  Fredrik Backman

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (4771)
• The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  

  From Everand

  The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  Thomas L. Friedman

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (2259)
• Steve Jobs

  

  From Everand

  Steve Jobs

  Walter Isaacson

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (808)
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  

  From Everand

  Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  Gilbert King

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (266)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  Garth Stein

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (4208)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  

  From Everand

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  Betty Smith

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (1929)
• The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  

  From Everand

  The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  Sarah M. Broom

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (98)
• A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  

  From Everand

  A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  Dave Eggers

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (231)
• Yes Please

  

  From Everand

  Yes Please

  Amy Poehler

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (1903)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  

  From Everand

  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (234)
• The Woman in Cabin 10

  

  From Everand

  The Woman in Cabin 10

  Ruth Ware

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (2522)
• Fear: Trump in the White House

  

  From Everand

  Fear: Trump in the White House

  Bob Woodward

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (738)
• Wolf Hall: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  Wolf Hall: A Novel

  Hilary Mantel

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (3973)
• John Adams

  

  From Everand

  John Adams

  David McCullough

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (2409)
• On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  

  From Everand

  On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  Naomi Klein

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (74)
• The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  M.L. Stedman

  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

  4.5/5 (789)
• Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  Jennifer Egan

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (792)
• The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  

  From Everand

  The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  John le Carré

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (104)
• Susan Polgar - Chess-Tactics-for-Champions PDF

  

  Document360 pages

  Susan Polgar - Chess-Tactics-for-Champions PDF

  Enzo Binotto

  83% (12)
• The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  

  From Everand

  The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  George Packer

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (45)
• Anatoly Karpov - My Best Games

  

  Document180 pages

  Anatoly Karpov - My Best Games

  api-19511870

  100% (7)
• The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics PDF

  

  Document176 pages

  The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics PDF

  Enzo Binotto

  No ratings yet
• Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  

  From Everand

  Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  Jay Sekulow

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

  3.5/5 (137)
• Little Women

  

  From Everand

  Little Women

  Louisa May Alcott

  Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

  4/5 (105)
• Novag Diablo PDF

  

  Document2 pages

  Novag Diablo PDF

  Enzo Binotto

  No ratings yet
• The Penguin Book of Chess Positions PDF

  

  Document86 pages

  The Penguin Book of Chess Positions PDF

  Chunka Omar

  100% (1)
• Computer Chess Reports 1994 01

  

  Document21 pages

  Computer Chess Reports 1994 01

  Enzo Binotto

  No ratings yet
• The Penguin Book of Chess Positions PDF

  

  Document86 pages

  The Penguin Book of Chess Positions PDF

  Chunka Omar

  100% (1)
• Fidelity EAG Manual

  

  Document59 pages

  Fidelity EAG Manual

  Enzo Binotto

  No ratings yet