Collector's Corner..On Collecting Dedicated Chess Computers

[Bryan Whitby]

Nice one Steve

Considering how old our chess computers are, it's a wonder any of them are still working never mind a few sticky reed switches.

Z80 Regards
Bryan

[Bryan Whitby]

Nice one Steve

Sticky Reed Switch Regards
Bryan

[paulwise3]

Thank you for the congrats Laurent

thats a very good question...
all reed squares work perfectly and i have played several complete games...
BUT...
i do notice it takes a bit of adjusting with every piece and on every move for the computer to recognize the move
its a bit annoying but it does eventually recognize the move

Another quirk is the box mentions that there are 3000 selectable openings but the instructions make no mention of this feature
not sure if it was ever implemented

all in all its an elegant ,wooden ,auto-sensory chess computer and my regret at having traded away the one i owned years ago can now be put to rest


Do you also own L'Empereur?

Vive La France Regards
Steve

Congrats Steve for finally getting l'Empereur again!
And as for the sticky reed switches and other "aging" problems: I recently had my CXG Sphinx 40 revised, because it didn't work anymore.
Fixing a loose thread and cleaning of the module contacts did help. But I also must be careful with placing the pieces right in the middle of a square, and sometimes it does hang. But playing it more often seems to help.
Now I intend to play a tournament with it. Too bad the coming Klingenberg tournament switched from Below 1740 to below 1840. So now I will start a tournament with some of my own chess computers.
Maybe you noticed at the German forum that at tournament level it plays best with stile 9= "extremely agressive"
With my testing it seemed that does not work for playing at rapid level (30 sec/move average). But my first tests with stile 6="slightly aggressive" look good, so will test some more to determine what stile I will pick for the tournament.

Oldies but goldies regards,
Paul

[Steve B]

Thanks Bryan and Paul for the congrats

The Sphinx 40 is a very rare as well as a very large computer
i am glad you could repair it Paul

Owning these very rare computers comes with some responsibilities
as there are so few of them ...when they are in need of repair we the owners have a duty to have them repaired so they can be passed on to future generations.. when we have passed on

We carry a ....
Heavy Burden Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

Yes indeed, I'm a lucky L'Empereur owner too. But I just lost my insurance that I could get $5000 from it in case of urgent need !

Do we have an Aktiv Elo estimation for L'Empereur ? Ou should we run some tests ?

Laurent

Hi Laurent

well if you can get your hands on any of the other 3 im searching for you can renew your insurance policies


im pretty sure there is no rating for the computer(active or standard)
in fact ..IIRC ..i know of only one game that has been published for the computer
cant recall where i saw it ..ill try to find it and if i do ill post post it here

Searching Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

i know of only one game that has been published for the computer
cant recall where i saw it ..ill try to find it and if i do ill post post it here

L'Empereur took part in the WMCCC 1984 : https://www.chessprogramming.org/L%27Empereur

Thats it!

History shows L'Empereur as undefeated

Well Done Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

This is the final position in the only known game played by l'Empereur posted above by Laurent



it is in this position that the game score shows L'Empereur is declared the winner

Sargon 3 is white and the score shows 0-1 here

this is odd
material is even ..there are no forced mates..no immediate threats to win material....etc...etc...
surely no reason for Sargon 3 to resign

there can only be 3 possibilities...
1)Sargon 3 lost on time(but i think that would be stated in the game score)
2)the game score is not correct

or 3....

There Was Some Monkey Business Going On Regards
Steve

[paulwise3]

0r 4...
Sargon 3 crashed.

[Steve B]

In That Tournament L'Empereur finished with 2.5 pts and a 16th place finish(out of 19)
in addition to the win above it drew against Sargon 3 (this time playing on the Compaq)and it got a bye in round 6
https://www.chessprogramming.org/WMCCC_1984

Not satisfied that the only recorded game in history for L'Emp was the dubious win above .i pitted it against the Fidelity Travel Master
30 seconds/Avg. per move
The TM has a wiki active rating of 1897

[Date "2024.2.11"]
[White "L'Empereur"]
[Black "Travel Master"]
[Time Control "30 Sec./Avg"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb6 5.h3 Bf5 6.c5 Nd5 7.Bd3 Bxd3 8.Qxd3 Nc6 9.Nf3 g6 10.Bg5 Ndb4 11.Qc4 Bg7 12.a3 Nd5 13.O-O O-O 14.Nc3 Nxc3 15.bxc3 Re8 16.Rab1 h6 17.Be3 Na5 18.Qb4 b6 19.cxb6 axb6 20.Bf4 Nc6 21.Qc4 e5 22.dxe5 Nxe5 23.Bxe5 Bxe5 24.Rfd1 Bd6 25.a4 Qf6 26.Rd4 Rad8 27.Rbd1 Re6 28.Qd3 Rde8 29.Qd2 Re2 30.Qxh6 Bc5 31.Rc4 Bxf2+ 32.Kf1 Be3 33.Qh4 Qxh4 34.Rxh4 Rf2+ 35.Kg1 Rd2+ 36.Kh2 Rxd1 37.Rc4 Bc5 38.h4 Bd6+ 39.Kh3 f5 40.g3 Re2 41.Rd4 Rh1+ 42.Nh2 Rexh2# 0-1

FINAL POSITION



l'Emp gets mated

I Should Have Left Well Enough Alone Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

A final game lowering the strength of the opponent
The Fidelity Sensory 9..tipping the active wiki scales at 1591
30 Sec's Avg.

[Event ""]
[Site ""]
[Date "2024.2.11"]
[Round ""]
[White "Sensory 9"]
[Black "l'Empereur"]
[TimeControl "-"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.Be2 Nf4
8.Kf1 Bc5 9.d4 Bd6 10.Bxf4 Bxf4 11.g3 Bc7 12.Nf3 Be6 13.Bd3 Bb6 14.Qc2
g6 15.Rd1 O-O 16.h3 Qf6 17.Qe2 Rd8 18.Ne4 Qe7 19.Neg5 Rd6 20.Bc4 Bxc4
21.Qxc4 Rd5 22.Re1 Qd7 23.Ne5 Qc7 24.Nexf7 Nd7 25.Re4 Nf6 26.Rf4 Qe7
27.Rh4 Bc7 28.Qb3 Rb5 29.Qc2 Re8 30.Rxh7 Rxg5 31.Nxg5 Qe1+ 32.Kg2 Qxh1+
33.Kxh1 Re1+ 34.Kg2 Rg1+ 35.Kxg1 Nxh7 36.Qxg6+ Kh8 37.Qxh7# 1-0

FINAL POSITION


Mated Again

Not Pretty Regards
Steve

[paulwise3]

A final game lowering the strength of the opponent
The Fidelity Sensory 9..tipping the active wiki scales at 1591
30 Sec's Avg.
...
Mated Again

Not Pretty Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

maybe you should try the Mephisto MM I.

I'd like to see a win regards,
Paul

[Steve B]

OK Paul...MM 1 it is

As we enter the subterranean depths of the Wiki Active rating lists...
The MM 1 clocks in at 1527
it has a 20-30 sec./avg level which worked out just fine as it used about the same amount of time as L'Emp

In the game L'Emp had a strong K side attack but opted instead to let the game drift into a draw by 3 fold repetition


[Date "2024.2.11"]
[White "l'Empereur"]
[Black "MM1"]
[Time Control "30 Sec./Avg'
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nf3 O-O 7.O-O Nc6 8.Qc2 Nb4 9.Qb1 Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Re8 11.Qb5 Bb6 12.d4 c6 13.Qd3 Bc7 14.b3 Ne4 15.Ba3 Bf5 16.Rfd1 f6 17.Rac1 Qd7 18.Qe2 Bg4 19.h3 Bh5 20.g4 Bg6 21.Nxe4 Bxe4 22.Rc3 Rac8 23.Bc5 Ba5 24.Rcc1 Ra8 25.Kf1 Bc7 26.Bb4 Rac8 27.Kg1 a5 28.Ba3 Ra8 29.Kf1 a4 30.Rc3 axb3 31.Rxb3 Bxf3 32.Qxf3 Qc8 33.Qe2 b5 34.Qc2 Qa6 35.Kg1 Re6 36.Rd2 Bb6 37.Bb4 Rc8 38.Ra3 Qb7 39.Kf1 Ree8 40.Qf5 Ra8 41.Rxa8 Qxa8 42.Bd6 Qd8 43.Bg3 Qa8 44.Rc2 Qb7 45.Bf4 Re4 46.Bd6 Re8 47.Rc3 Qa8 48.Qc2 Rc8 49.Ra3 Qb7 50.Qf5 Kh8 51.Kg1 Kg8 52.Qe6+ Kh8 53.Rc3 Ba5 54.Rc2 Bb6 55.Qf5 Ra8 56.a3 h6 57.Rc1 Ra4 58.Kf1 Ra6 59.Rc2 Ba7 60.Qe6 Qa8 61.Qd7 Kg8 62.Kg1 Kh7 63.Rc1 Kh8 64.Kf1 Kg8 65.Ke1 Kh7 66.Rc2 Kh8 67.Kd1 Kg8 68.Ke2 Kh7 69.Kf1 Kh8 70.Kg1 Kg8 71.Rc1 Kh7 72.Kh2 Kh8 73.Rc3 Kg8 74.Kg1 Kh7 75.Kf1 Kg8 76.Rc2 Kh7 77.Kg1 Kh8 78.Rc1 Kg8 79.Kf1 Kh7 80.Ke1 Kh8 81.Rc2 Kh7 82.Kf1 Kg8 83.Kg1 Kh8 84.Kh2 Kg8 85.Rc1 Kh7 86.Kg1 Kg8 87.Kf1 Kh8 88.Ke1 Kg8 89.Rc2 Kh7 90.Kf1
Draw -3 Fold Repetition



FINAL POSITION



Napoleon Would Be Shocked Regards
Steve

[Mike Watters]

Congratulations on the L'Empereur, Steve.
Beautiful machine.

I think you'll find some more published L'Empereur games from that WMCC 1984 Glasgow tournament here :-

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/Computer ... R_1985.pdf

Looking for that illusive win regards
Mike

[Steve B]

I think you'll find some more published L'Empereur games from that WMCC 1984 Glasgow tournament here :-

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/Computer ... R_1985.pdf

Thanks Mike

And as usual a well spotted reference ...in this case ..to 3 other published L'Empereur games
all losses
therefore the first game shown here is the only published WIN for l'Emp

And A dubious One At That Regards
Steve

[Mike Watters]

Steve

Strangely L'Empereur is shown as finishing with only 2 points in the 1985 Chess Digest Supplement and also in Chess magazine
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/Chess_November_1984.pdf
1 bye and two draws against Sargon 3 ??

Curious regards
Mike