Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Collectors Corner: remarkable Champion Challenger

Author: Ernst Walet

Date: 23:47:20 03/01/06

Go up one level in this thread


On March 01, 2006 at 14:37:31, JNoomen wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Today I played a game with my Fidelity Champion Challenger - a good old
>dedicated unit of the 1980's - against Gadget. Now what on earth is 'Gadget' I
>hear you ask? Well, it is a PC program in basic, written by a friend of mine.

Miauwwwwww :)


On
>a fast Pentium it can make 5 through 7 plies in a 20 minute countdown game.
>
>Gadget has played once in the Dutch Open tournament, where it scored 1 point out
>of 11 games. My friend joked in the Dutch computer chess magazine, after an
>unexpected win, that his main goal 'scoring 0 out of 11' was already not
>possible anymore :-).
>
>Anyway, Gadget is a simple program, doesn't know Q-search and all the nice stuff
>todays progs are equipped with. From time to time I let my old dedicated
>machines play a game against Gadget to see who is best. Sofar Gadget is not
>scoring badly: 4-2 against Mephisto III, around 3-3 against Fidelity Sensory 9
>and a 5-3 lead against the Conchess Ambassador.
>
>Before I forget: please don't ask me whether Gadget is going to be available, it
>is not! My friend tried to convince the ChessBase people that his unique program
>should be available for the masses, but alas: no reply.....


They just won't recognize truly exceptional engines :))



>
>So tonight Gadget had its first meeting with the Champion Sensory Challenger of
>Fidelity. I love the old Spracklen Fidelity programs and it was my first game
>with it. As I didn't know yet how to give it the white pieces, we decided Gadget
>was going to play on the white side. Here is the game:
>
>Gadget PIV 2.4 GHz - Fidelity Champion Challenger
>-------------------------------------------------
>1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3
>a6 9. e4 c5 10. e5 cxd4 11. Nxb5 axb5 12. exf6
>
>Ah, a very topical line, even in 2006! Gadget's last move threw the Champion out
>of book, after which it went for a 2 minute think. To my big surprise and horror
>it came up with a real lemon:
>
>12... Qxf6??
>
>Yuck! That's going to lose the queen in a couple of moves.... And indeed after
>some hesitation (Black still has the troublesome Bb4+ that has to be calculated)
>Gadget indeed found the winning move.
>
>13. Bg5!
>
>I vaguely considered to put my brandnew Champion on e-Bay right away, when to my
>astonishment it found a way out! You don't believe it? You can't imagine that
>black can save its queen? No, really? Take a look....  After only 30 seconds
>thought the Champion came with the hammer blow:
>
>13... Qa7?!?!?!?
>
>Ugh! I don't think you have found that one, have you!? Instead of losing the
>queen the Champ makes an illegal move to put it to safety. Bravo!
>
>Of course I stopped the game, laughing and laughing out loud. Poor Gadget didn't
>accept the reply, so we rated the game 1-0.
>
>Now my question is of course: do other Champion Challengers repeat this move, or
>is my version a bit rusty!? Replies from the great collectors at CCC are highly
>welcome!
>
>Jeroen


Ernst.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.