Author: Steve B
Date: 05:50:29 01/22/05
While it is true that Ron Nelson invented and programmed the first commercially available chess computer in 1977,Sid Samole the President of Fidelity is usually the name mentioned in connection with the Chess Challenger Samole was however a marketing genius and the combination of Nelson and Samole sparked the dedicated computer industry from its infancy in 1977 to become a major business into the early 1990's an example of Samoles marketing savy was the notion of a Limited Edition or Custom Made computer the first company to offer this in a dedicated computer ,Fidelity was able to breathe new life into a model that was close to its last grasp the Fidelity Sensory Champion was the winner of the first Micro World Championship held in 1980 it was a huge seller for Fidelity and was programmed by the Spracklen team it ran at 2Mhz and was rated about 1550-1575 Elo in 1981 Samole with a factory still full of Sensory Champion units thought up the idea of issuing a Limited Edition Sensory Champion which he named .. The Elite Sensory Champion he doubled the clock speed to 4 Mhz and a slightly larger opening book only 500 units would be made with the original owners name engraved on a gold plaque in the front of the unit an engraving machine was bought for this purpose and 500 names were hammered out special quality control certificates and certificates of authenticity were also issued for each unit testifying to the owners name and unit number each member of the production team would sign off including Ron Nelson it sold out within weeks of final production at close to $1000 each in addition, it spurred on further sales of the now old Sensory Champion the Elite Champion is a highly valued computer by Collector's Worldwide shown here is one of my two Elite Champions .. NO.399(i am not the original owner) my other Elite is NO. 17 and oddly enough has an un inscribed plaque(blank plaque) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=1c0e.jpg&.src=ph here is a photo of the quality control and authenticity certificates if you can enlarge the photo Ron Nelson's signature can been seen on the Blue Certificate of Authenticity ..second from the top line http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=ec05.jpg&.src=ph Limited Regards Steve
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