Asri-unix.140 net.chess utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!mclure Wed Nov 25 14:44:49 1981 survey of leading micros Here is a list of the best chess programs on the market, ordered by estimated rating in decreasing level of skill along with the current price. 1900+ $799 Fidelity Elite This is, by far, the strongest of all commercial chess programs, but it is available only through one outlet: Institutional Computer Development Corp (see ads in Chess Life magazine). The Elite is the latest in the line of Spracklen programs, which originated with the famous Sargon series. The secret of the Elite's strength is its cpu: a 4 mhz 6502! In order to pull off this trick, Fidelity cannot produce the Elite in mass quantites, and requires special orders which deliver it direct from the factory. They sift through thousands of 6502's to find one that runs a bit fast, attach a heat sink, and then turn up the clock rate. The Elite is a limited production model and Fidelity plans to make only 500. The Elite has the sensor technology wherein moving a piece automatically communicates the move to the processor. It responds by lighting the squares of its move. Elite crushes all other micro opposition. The other programs are lucky if they win or draw one game in a multi-game match with it. Against humans, it provides extremely tough, relentless tactical chess that offers challenges to anyone below 2000. The opening book is 16K. Typically, Elite looks a full ply deeper than the other programs (about 5 in the middlegame, increasing as pieces are swapped off). Elite is the World Micro Champion. (Comment from an 1850 player, familiar with computer chess: "I have a very rough time with it.") Two things have greatly impressed me about the Elite: 1) it is extremely aggressive, 2) it seems to have an uncanny knack for pushing passed pawns at the right times. 1825 $610 Master Chess Trio Commonly known as the Gruenfeld/Morphy/Capablanca machine from Applied Concepts. A very good player with a 12K opening book. Its disadvantage is that moves must be keyed in, which can be quite a distraction for the player used to concentrating on the game. The Capablanca endgame cartridge is somewhat of a software breakthrough for computer chess. It plays much better in the endgame than all the other micro programs, and better than most mainframe programs! It alone boosts the playing strength quite a bit. So, if you're used to beating machines because of their weak endgame knowledge, be careful with this one. It can probably hold its own. The exchangable cartridges offer chances for upgrades without purchasing entirely new machines. In a 5 game match against Elite at tournament time control, MCT scored only one win and four losses. 1800 $400 SciSys Mark V Attractively designed and a pretty good player. In the 3-game playoff for the World Micro Championship in 1981, the Mark V lost all three games to Elite. 1771 $375 Fidelity Champion Sensory Challenger Practically identical to Elite, but running at only 2 mhz. According to Ken Thompson's equations, an increase of 2x in cpu speed should bring a corresponding increase of 100 rating points. The CSC program is a bit older than the Elite program. CSC senses the pieces moved and doesn't require keying moves just as the Elite does. Others (all below 1750) Morphy Encore/Morphy Edition GGM/Novag Savant/Boris-Sargon 2.5 ARB. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.