Chess for All Ages

27 July 2015

'The Chips Are Down!'

In the previous post, Deep Thought/Blue in the Early 1990s, I looked at what was happening 20+ years ago on the research side of computer chess, but what about the commercial side? One set of clues can be found in the USCF's '1995 Official Catalog', a publication apparently dating to early 1995 (*). The front cover of its 32 pages (counting the covers) is shown below.

Five of the 32 pages dealt with computer chess. The following bullets, all quoted directly from the catalog, list the products that were promoted on each of the five pages.

p.03 1995's Newest Chess Computers

A. Ultra-portable Topaz II
B. Novag Tourmaline
C. Kasparov Travel Champion

p.26 Chess Software

A. Fritz3 is killer software!
B. Boost your rating by studying with these instructive disks! Chessworks Unlimited offers you hundreds of data files...
C. Chessbase for Windows
D. Turn Fritz into your openings coach with Power Books!
E. DejaVu Chess gives you a database of 350.000 games

p.28-29 Chess Computers for Every Budget

A. Stiletto II
B. USCF Chess Academy
C. Excalibur improves a Legend! [Legend II]
D. Kasparov Travel Companion
E. Excalibur's travel version of Legend II. Sleek Comet goes anywhere...
F. Kasparov Turbo Advanced Trainer
G. ECO battery re-charger
H. Kasparov President

p.32 The Chips are Down! Novag's 2383 Action-rated Diamond and Sapphire are the Year's Best Buys!

You can now have a strong, master training partner without breaking the bank! Novag's Diamond and Sapphire are officially USCF Action-rated 2383. [...] You can be confident of their USCF 2383 rating. It comes from a 48-game USCF Computer Rating Agency event, witnessed by the public, in which human players with high, officially established USCF ratings -- from Expert to Senior Master -- took on Novag, competing for cash prizes.

I'm not sure that the 'The Chips are Down!' is the best title for a page selling computer chess products, but what do I know about marketing? Back to the catalog cover, the raven-haired woman in the near-center photo is holding a Kasparov Travel Champion. Above her to the right is a Novag Tourmaline, while on the bottom right of the page is a Topaz II. Above that ('Action-rated 2383!') is the left side of a Novag Diamond.

The long explanation on p.32 of the 'USCF 2383 rating' indicates the importance of ratings in choosing a chess computer. I'll look at ratings in my next post in this series.

***

(*) I have three 1995 USCF catalogs: the 'Official Catalog', the 'Summer Catalog', and the 'Holiday Catalog' (subtitled 'Biggest USCF Catalog Ever!'). The 'Official Catalog' lists 'Searching for Bobby Fischer on Video!' (p.02) as 'Available in April!'; the 'Summer Catalog' lists it (p.29) as a 'Best Seller'; the 'Holiday Catalog' lists 'Kasparov vs. Anand: The Inside Story' by GM Wolff (p.07) as 'Available in November!'.

26 July 2015

Novag Robot Adversary

After a short break from blogging, what better way to get back in the groove than a post on Top eBay Chess Items by Price. Although it's only been a few months since the previous chess computer post -- Mephisto Portorose 68030 -- an item titled 'Novag Robot Adversary chess computer - working' caught my attention.

With a starting price of US $1.00, the machine eventually sold for $1748.48 after 24 bids from eight bidders. Of the 12 photos attached to the item, I thought the following best captured its look.

The description added,

Novag Robot Adversary - in working order. The robotic arm and the inner electronics work perfectly, however the outside is not perfect: there are small scratches and spots on the metal and plastic parts of the machine. The clean plastic dust cover is missing, the power supply is a modern switching PSU replacement (see among the pictures).

The pieces are not original, they are from another computer chess set (perhaps a Mephisto). The kings and the queens are slightly taller than the original ones, therefore the robotic arm can knock them over sometimes when moving neighbouring pieces.

The magnetic piece detection mechanism under the board may needs some contact cleaning: sometimes the detection is uncertain on some fields (the black queen's place for example). If the detection fails, a discrepancy LED lit and one have to lift and put back or slightly swing the piece until the detection is done.

Though the mechanical and electronical parts are in perfect working order, the Robot may need some maintenance due its old age. The machine contains a rechargeable battery soldered on the PCB (I think it is NiCd). I assume that the battery is the original (more than 30 year old) piece, so the replacement is recommended. Also the fine mechanical parts may need some lubrication.

A few days later 'seller added the following information',

Seems like the pieces are the original ones. Someone told me that the Robot would not work with other pieces. I tried it with several other sets and it seems to be true: I am unable to place foreign pieces in the middle of the fields due the magnetic force (maybe the polarisation of the magnets is special). I talked with the same guy and we compared the sizes of the pieces and they were the same as in the original set - the king is 55 mm tall, and the shape of the pieces is the same as well.

More info came in a Q&A.

Q: Can you tell us anything about the history of your machine? Bidders will be most curious about: * How long have you owned it, * How often/much it has been used (hours/games), * And especially has the machine ever been serviced/repaired. • A: I bought it in 2005 from a second-hand dealer, therefore I know nothing about its previous history. The machine shows the signs of heavy usage as you can see on the photos. I guess I played about hundred games on it. Cannot estimate the usage in hours. I never serviced or repaired it, or even opened it.

Chess playing robots are commonplace now -- see, for example, my 2007 post Bughouse for One -- and are often the subject of a student research project. Thirty years ago, things were different.

17 July 2015

Chess with a Cardinal

For the second time in less than a week -- the first was Affluent Gentlemen Playing Chess -- I discovered a painting not listed in Tableaux ayant pour sujet les échecs.

Interior scene with a lady and gentleman playing chess with a cardinal (Roberto Raimondi) © Flickr user Long Tinh under Creative Commons.

Three times lucky?

16 July 2015

Finding an Old Error

While working on Mystery Capablanca Letter, I downloaded all of the games played between Capablanca and Alekhine to see if there were any openings similar to the mystery game. Of the 49 games I found three where the first two moves for both sides matched, but that was it.

As long as I had the games in hand I decided to calculate the overall score between the two players. The results are shown below.

I found it curious that Capablanca lost three games with White during the 1927 Alekhine - Capablanca Title Match: the 1st, 11th, and 21st games. That happened to equal the margin of loss (+6-3=25).

That link leads to my page on the match that says, 'Before the match, the score between the two opponents was +4-1=5 in favor of Capablanca', although the table shows +5-0-7. Ahem! I'd better change that page pronto.

14 July 2015

Mystery Capablanca Letter

In my most recent eBay post, Affluent Gentlemen Playing Chess, I mentioned,

I had the choice between featuring a Capablanca scoresheet or a painting. Since I had a Capablanca item a month ago in 'Capablanca to His Son', I went with the painting.

The Capablanca auction, titled '1909 Juan Raul Capablanca Cuban Chess Champion Signed Chess Sheet' (Juan!), sold for close to US $2000, 'Best offer accepted'. The description added nothing of importance.

The scoresheet is pictured below. Curious as to what the game might be, I transcribed it.

(Click for a larger version)

My transcription of the game, possibly with errors on my part, is given below.

[Event "1909 Game?"]
[Site "Capablanca Letter on Ebay"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "W"]
[Black "B"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 h6 9.Nf3 e4 10.Ne5 Qd4 11.f4 Bc5 12.Rf1 Bb6 13.c3 Qd6 14. b4 Nb7 15.Qa4 Bd7 16.Na3 O-O 17.Nac4 Qc7 18.Nxd7 Nxd7 19.Qc2 Rfe8 20. a4 a5 21.Rb1 Rad8 22.Qb3 Ba7 23.Ba3 axb4 24.cxb4 c5 25.b5 Na5 26.Nxa5 Qxa5 27.Bb2 Nb6 28.Qc3 Qxc3 29.Bxc3 Nxa4 30.Be5 Bb8 31.b6 Re6 32.Bc7 Rf8 33.Bd1 Bxc7 34.bxc7 Rb6 35.Ra1 Nb2 36.Bg4 Rc6 37.c8=Q Rfxc8 38. Bxc8 Rxc8 39.Ke2 Rd8 40.g3 Kh7 41.f5 Nc4 42.Ra2 Rd5 43.g4 Ne5 44.Rf4 Nd3 45.Rf1 Ne5 46.Ra4 c4 47.h3 Nf3 48.Rxc4 Rxd2+ 49.Ke3 Ra2 50.Rd1 Ng5 51.Rd8 Ra3+ 52.Ke2 Ra2+ 53.Ke3 Ra3+ 54.Kd2 g6 55.f6 e3+ 56.Ke2 Ne6 57.Rd7 g5 58.Rxf7+ Kg6 59.Re7 Kxf6 60.Rxe6+ Kxe6 61.Re4+ Kd5 62. Rxe3 Rxe3+ 63.Kxe3 Ke5 0-1

The letter mentions Alekhine and 1909, but the first games between Capablanca and Alekhine date to St.Petersburg 1913. I also couldn't find the game in a historical database, so I don't know who the players were. I don't understand Spanish well enough to decipher Capablanca's brief introduction.

As for the game itself, it appears to be between two good players. White has the advantage throughout much of the middlegame, then stumbles in the endgame, and resigns in a theoretically drawn position.

13 July 2015

Deep Thought/Blue in the Early 1990s

I signed off Computer Chess in the Early 1990s with,

Twenty years ago people still had a fighting chance against a chess playing machine, but that would soon change.

Let's develop an early chronology of the machine that would eventually dethrone the reigning World Champion. From the rec.games.chess newsgroups:-

1989-03-30: Challange Match • M Valvo: 'Now that my match with Deep Thought is winding down...'; Michael Valvo [Wikipedia]
1989-11-01: Kasparov visits Harvard • 'An IBM rep announced that some of the Deep Thought team was going to be working for IBM on a 1 billion moves/sec machine, to challenge Kasparov, who said that when computers got strong enough for him to worry about, he'd take the time to find a way to deal with them - as for now, they're not a threat to the world champion.'
1989-12-14: Levy - Deep Thought (game 4) • 'In the final game, Deep Thought easily defeated David levy to win the match 4-0.'
1990-02-03: Karpov over DT • 'GM Karpov beat Deep Thought tonight at Harvard University in a game with time controls one hour per side.'
1990-10-17: Feng's (Deep Thought) article in Scientific American
1990-11-18: ACM computer chess chp • '21st North American Computer Chess Championship; 1 Deep Thought 4.0; 2 Mephisto 4.0'
1991-03-19: DT2 in Hannover • '"Deep Thought 2 vs. 7 German GMs" at Cebit in Hannover'
1991-11-21: ACM CCC Albuquerque 11/17-11/20 Final Round Comments & Standings • '22nd ACM Computer Chess Championship ... 1 DEEP THOUGHT'
1992-12-12: IBM Deep Blue • '"IBM Deep Blue" will be presented to the world in Copenhagen, Denmark, in February 24-27, 1993' • 1995-01-22: Old Deep Blue News -- since we're all parched • Feng-Hsiung Hsu - 7 Mar 1993: 'Some time in late 1992, IBM Denmark talked with us about arranging chess exhibition matches, possibly in conjunction with IBM Sweden.'
1993-08-22: Deep Blue/J. Polgar • 'IBM's newest chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, scored its biggest victory yet, defeating the world's top-ranked woman chess player in an informal match.'
1993-08-23: Judit Polgar at IBM T. J. Watson • Feng-Hsiung Hsu: 'Danny Edelman of USCF contacted us back in March about a potential match with Judit Polgar.'
1994-02-06: GM Orlov plays Deep Blue? • 'Georgi Orlov of Seattle played an arranged six-game match with Deep Blue.'
1995-05-30: Fritz Wins World Championships! All games from 8WCCC • 'Final Standings: 1 Fritz (4/5, 5/6): Fritz won the title on the playoff versus Star Socrates; 2 Star Socrates (4/5, 4/6); 3-5 Deep Blue Prototype, Frenchess, Junior (3.5/5)'
1995-12-06: Deep Blue vs. Robert Byrne • 'Yesterday, at supercomputing, Deep blue defeated GM Robert Byrne in a mini-match 3.5-.5 they are playing four more games today.'

The first Kasparov - Deep Blue match took place in February 1996.

12 July 2015

Affluent Gentlemen Playing Chess

For this episode of Top eBay Chess Items by Price, I had the choice between featuring a Capablanca scoresheet or a painting. Since I had a Capablanca item a month ago in Capablanca to His Son, I went with the painting. The item pictured below, titled 'GEO FOX OIL ON CANVAS OF CHESS PLAYERS Lot 6; Part of a live auction event', started at US $250.00 and eventually sold for US $600.00 after 13 bids.