Author: Will Singleton
Date: 02:40:48 12/27/03
Blincoe got me thinking about the old machines, so being Christmas and all, I got out the old Boris and CompuChess. I knew Boris worked, but hadn't tried CompuChess in the last 20 years or so. It made all kinds of odd displays after power-on, but after much wiggling of the switches, it finally started working. (!) Reading the manuals is fun. CompuChess has 6 levels, the 6th being for "high-quality correspondence games." The 5th is for mates-in-two, and other difficult problems, with thinking times up to 10 hours. :) Of the two, Boris has more features and is easier to use, so I started a game between Amateur (1 sec/move) and Boris (1 min/move). But I had forgotten the woeful state of electronic chess pre-1980, and the game was over in a few moves. The position in which Boris had trouble appears below. Since both machines allow for board positions to be set up, I figured I'd see which machine could solve the position fastest. [d]r2qkb1r/ppp1pppp/2n1bn2/8/Q1pPP3/2N2N2/PP3PPP/R1B1KB1R b KQkq - CompuChess, level 5 (up to 10 hours) Boris, time set to 8 hours Now, for the insignificant questions to pursue: What move(s) will they select? Which machine will get it right? How much time will the solution take? Will
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