Author: eric guttenberg
Date: 23:40:31 09/08/99
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I don't believe you will find any stand-alones that can play at over 2400 USCF. Dedicated chess computers aren't produced anymore with an eye towards increasing playing strength. I have a Berlin 68020 that was advertised as the strongest stand-alone available for less than $1000 when I got it back around 1993. It runs on a 25mhz processor and at that time most home PC's were only 33 or 50mhz and the best software programs were only marginally stronger than Berlin and many were weaker. But then PC's began to get faster and faster and software programmers began to put more effort into their products and the software programs left the stand-alones in the dust. My Berlin probably plays about 2350 USCF and after all these years is probably still as strong or stronger than any of the current stand-alones. I think that since the producers of stand-alones know that they simply cannot compete with any top program on fast hardware in playing strength, they will not even try. Instead they will emphasize making the package as attractive as possible to those users who just like to play with an actual, 3-dimensional chess set. Actually, my favorite dedicated chess computer is not the Berlin, but the Fidelity Premier Elite, which is a full-size, wood, auto-sensory piece of furniture. It is a delight to play, strong enough to win an easy majority of the games I play but is probably only about 2250 USCF. Berlin is stronger but I think Premier is better in user enjoyment. It does seem odd that only about 1992 the question in the Computer Chess Reports was whether software programs on home PC's would ever be as strong as the best stand-alones. This year I matched the Berlin Pro 68020 at g/30 against Genius 5, Hiarcs 7.32, CM6000, and Fritz 5.32 on my Celeron 333mhz and got respectively 16-0, 4 draws; 17-0, 3 draws; 18-0, 2 draws; and 27-0, 3 draws. The only reason I played so many games was that I wanted to see if Berlin would ever win one. I finally gave up. eric
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