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Subject: Re: Estimated playing strength of Novag Diamond

Author: stuart taylor

Date: 18:14:37 09/20/00

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On September 20, 2000 at 13:11:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On September 20, 2000 at 10:56:33, Peter Hegger wrote:
>
>>On September 20, 2000 at 09:46:43, Gerald Grimsley wrote:
>>
>>>Hello, I have a chance to buy a "used" Novag Diamond.  Is this a decent playing
>>>machine?  What would be the estimated USCF rating at slower time controls?  Is
>>>the newer Novag Diamond II significantly better than the original Diamond?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance,
>>>Gerald
>>
>>Hello Gerald,
>>I used to own a Novag Diamond. It was a fun little machine to play against.
>>You can choose different playing styles, do analysis with it and choose between
>>easy and difficult levels. It loves to attack (often at the expense of king
>>safety) and is very tactical. After playing hundreds of games against it I would
>>estimate its strength at around 2000 USCF. The Novag Diamond II is a little
>>stronger (perhaps 30 to 50 points)which to me does not justify the extra
>>expense.
>>By the way, I hope there is an owners manual supplied with the Novag you are
>>thinking of purchasing. Otherwise it may be very difficult to figure out all the
>>features, levels etc...
>>I hope this helps you some.
>>Regards,
>>Peter
>
>
>I still have a diamond here.  It is probably around 2000 overall, although it
>does have a few positional weaknesses.  It is very aggressive.  And for a
>simple comparison, crafty on an old P6/200 (pentium pro 200mhz) would rip it
>pretty badly.  Of course I think it is only a 16mhz processor so to be fair,
>it was getting way over-powered with the P6/200.
>
>It didn't seem (to me) to be as strong as my old Mach III.

I have its (diamond 1's) immediate predscessor, Scorpio. I think it is slightly
stronger than Diamond 1(it was certainly more expensive). I don't know if that
would apply to Diamond 2.   The much lower rated turbo king won more games than
losses against the Scorpio. I think the TK was rather clever positionally.
S.Taylor



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