The Legendary Mephisto Excalibur needs no introduction
as the very first dedicated chess computer to utilize the Motorola 68000 processor its place in history is forever insured
legend has it that only 50 units were made but some say not more then 25 were sold
released in 1983 the computer contains the same program as the Mephisto III which was rated 1479 (SS)
compiling the program to run on the 68000 at 8 MHz increased the rating over 100 elo to about 1600
housed in a full sized auto sensory board the computer did use the Mephisto III Brikett but only as the display screen with no module inside it
the program is housed in a separate module and inserted above the Brikett as can be clearly seen here:
having the 68000 processor behind it resulted in several new features being brought to the Mephisto III Program such as automatic rotating display of PV,anticipated move,depth search and clock times and a slightly larger opening book
another nice feature is the auto-take back function(by simply reversing the moves on the board)
the board itself looks exactly like the Mephisto ESB II board or ESB 6000 boards except for the gold metal plate attached to the front of the unit with the name EXCALIBUR engraved on it
i played two games(30 Sec/Move) with this living legend to see if was still fit as a fiddle
the first .. was against another somewhat rare computer...the Mephisto ESB II(1470 elo- SS) , not in the commonly seen ESB board but rather in its own special Brikett..the ESB II module normally was made to run in the ESB II board but some special Briketts were released for the module
so no other modules will work in the ESB II Brikett and the ESB II module will not work in any of the other Mephisto Briketts
the ESBII Brikett:
In the game the Excalibur had white and was out of book first at move 3
it searched typically 2 ply full width and 11 ply selective jumping to 3/19 in the end game
while the ESB II searched 3 ply typically
[White "Excalibur"]
[Black "ESB II Module"]
[Time Control "30 seconds /avg."]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qf5 6.d5 Ne5 7.Nxe5 Qxe5
8.f4 Qh5 9.e3 c6 10.dxc6 bxc6 11.Qxh5 Nxh5 12.Bd3 Be6 13.O-O Rd8 14.Rd1
Bg4 15.Rd2 e6
[fen]3rkb1r/p4ppp/2p1p3/7n/5Pb1/2NBP3/PP1R2PP/R1B3K1 w k - 0 16[/fen]
blacks last move blocks off the only escape route for its B
here the ESB II fails to see a simple 8 ply double attack on its B and N
the Excalibur had no trouble capitalizing on the blunder
16.Bc4 Rxd2 17.Bxd2 Bb4 18.h3 Bxc3 19.Bxc3 Bf5 20.g4
[fen]4k2r/p4ppp/2p1p3/5b1n/2B2PP1/2B1P2P/PP6/R5K1 w k g3 0 20[/fen]
winning a piece for a pawn.. and with it the game
20..Ng3 21.gxf5 Nxf5 22.Kf2 Rf8 23.Rd1 g6 24.Bf6 Ne7 25.e4 Rg8 26.b4 h5 27.Ke3
Rf8 28.Kd4 Kd7 29.Ke5+ Ke8 30.Kd6 Ng8 31.Bg7 Ne7 32.Bxf8 Kxf8 33.Kc7 Kg7
34.Rd7 Kf6 35.e5+ Kf5 36.Rxe7 Kxf4 37.Kxc6 Kxe5 38.Rxa7 f5 39.Ra5+ Ke4
40.b5 Kd4 41.Bf1 Ke3 42.b6 Kf2 43.Bc4 Ke3 44.b7 e5 45.b8=Q e4 46.Ra3+
Kd4 47.Qb4 Ke5 48.Qd6# 1-0
FINAL POSITION
[fen]8/8/2KQ2p1/4kp1p/2B1p3/R6P/P7/8 w - - 0 48[/fen]
a rather easy win for Excalibur
in the second game i gave Excalibur the black pieces and pitted it against the Mephisto III
the same program but running on the slower 1802 processor
i expected another easy win but i was in for a rude awakening
in the game the MIII was out of book first at move 6
it typically searched 2 ply full width and 9 ply selectively .. jumping to 13 ply on occasion
[White "Mephisto III"]
[Black "Excalibur"]
[Time Control "30 sec/avg."]
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.c3 d6 6.Bg5 O-O 7.b4 Bb6 8.Nbd2
Be6 9.O-O Bxc4 10.Nxc4 h6 11.Nxb6 axb6 12.Bd2 Ra3 13.Bc1 Ra7 14.b5 Ne7
15.Qb3 Ng6 16.Ba3 Nf4 17.Rfd1 Re8 18.g3 Qa8 19.Bxd6 cxd6 20.gxf4 exf4
21.Rdc1 Ra3 22.Qc2
[fen]q3r1k1/1p3pp1/1p1p1n1p/1P6/4Pp2/r1PP1N2/P1Q2P1P/R1R3K1 w - - 0 22[/fen]
as one would expect the evaluations of the position should be the same due to the fact that
both computers have the same program
here both pv's are +/-.6 in blacks favor
22..Qa5 23.Nd4 d5 24.f3 Re5 25.Qb2 Rg5+
26.Kh1 dxe4 27.dxe4
[fen]6k1/1p3pp1/1p3n1p/qP4r1/3NPp2/r1P2P2/PQ5P/R1R4K w - - 0 27[/fen]
again we see the same exact evaluations ...+/- .77 for the Excalibur
27..Rg6 28.Ne2 Nh5 29.Rg1 Rxg1+ 30.Kxg1 Qa4 31.Nd4 Qa7
32.Nf5 Qa5 33.Nd6 Qxc3 34.Qxc3 Rxc3 35.Kg2 Rc2+ 36.Kg1 Kf8 37.Nxb7 Rd2
38.Rc1 Rd7 39.Rc8+ Ke7 40.Rb8 Rd1+ 41.Kg2 Rd2+ 42.Kh3 g6 43.Ra8 Rf2
44.Ra3 Rb2 45.Ra7 Rxb5 46.a4 Rb2 47.a5 bxa5 48.Nxa5+
[fen]8/R3kp2/6pp/N6n/4Pp2/5P1K/1r5P/8 w - - 0 48[/fen]
Excalibur is up a pawn with both computers showing a PV of +/- 1.41
however the little MIII is able to hold on for dear life against its faster and deeper thinking
brother
48..Kf6 49.Ra6+ Kg5 50.Nc6 Rc2 51.Ne5 Rc7 52.Kg2 Rb7 53.Kh3 f6 54.Nc4 Rb3 55.Kg2 Rc3 56.Ra5+
Kh4 57.Na3 Re3 58.Ra7 Re2+ 59.Kg1 Kh3 60.Rh7 Re1+ 61.Kf2 Ra1 62.Nc4 Ra2+
63.Ke1 Kxh2 64.Rxh6 Kg2 65.Nd2 Ng3 66.Kd1 Kf2 67.Rh2+ Kg1
68.Rh6 Ra1+ 69.Kc2 Ra2+ 70.Kd3 Ra3+ 71.Kc2 Ra2+ 72.Kd3 Ra3+ 73.Kc2
although up a pawn and unable to make any progress the Excalibur contemplates whether or not to repeat the position for a third time
it took a full 2 minutes and 43 seconds deciding on its 73rd move.. easily the longest think it had for the entire game
FINAL POSITION
[fen]8/8/5ppR/8/4Pp2/5Pn1/r1KN4/6k1 w - - 0 74[/fen]
73.Ra2+ 1/2-1/2 DRAW BY 3 FOLD REPETITION
a surprise for the MIII considering that this little computer can be bought for less then 30 Euro today while the Excalibur cannot be bought for 100 times that price
Mega Post Regards
Steve
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