Author: Karsten Bauermeister
Date: 07:37:48 01/18/99
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On January 18, 1999 at 10:20:57, Charlie GOLD wrote: > > Sid Samole started Fidelity back in 1976/7 with the Chess Challenger I. It >was a plastic unit with wood pieces and a "wood" border. Input was key-in. They >were produced with a flaw...the coordinates were reversed; a-h going up and 1-8 >sidewise. It had one level of play and no other features. It only operated on >the mains. It was the FIRST commercial micro chess computer on the market. > In 1977 the company came out with the Chess Challenger III ( I don't know >of a two) which was the same physically, had the same features, plus 3 levels of >play, monitor mode, position verification, and the coordinates corrected. It, >also, ran on mains only. > In 1978/9 they came out with the CC7-the same as the first two but the >pieces were now plastic. It had all the features of the 3 plus 7 levels of play >(interchangeable during play), set-up mode, mate in 2, sound control, change >sides, and a small opening book. It still only ran on mains. > Stay tuned for more exciting?! news about Chess Challengers... Hi Charlie! Some minor correction/additions to your small historie of the first chess challengers. The first Chess Challenger was not called Challenger 1. This name was given to it later because it was the first one and had only one level. when it came out, it was named only "Chess Challenger". It was programmed by Ron Nelson, like the other models you told about. Therefore there were never a model called Chess Challenger "2". Because the classification-numbers werde given for the number of levels. So Chess Challenger 3 was the second model. Chess Challenger 7 had not only plastic pieces, but the wodden frame of Chess Challenger 1 and 3 was missed too. Therefore it was much cheaper than his predecessors. I don't know the exact prices in the USA, but I heard the Chess Challenger 1 should have cost $600. In Germany the Chess Challenger 3 cost 698,- DM (about US ยง400) and the CC7 only 298,- DM (about US $170). Karsten
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