Fidelity Avant Garde 2100

[Reinfeld]

Moving sideways and up to the Elite A/S v 11 - I assume Steve has this one, since he has everything else...

What does it mean that this antiquated Spracklen program can be turbocharged to a level where it pounds its successors?

I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of this question. I know Steve as a purist who frowns on Frankenboards - and I am philosophically inclined to agree.

To borrow an analogy from video games (specifically, car-race games), it seems these old classics can be "tuned" to ever-higher levels of performance.

It's a source of continuing fascination to me that I can pull out a dedicated board - a GOOD dedicated board, such as a Designer 2265 - and watch my iPhone programs (Hiarcs, Stockfish, Shredder) beat the snot out of it.

We have become prisoners of the evaluation function, as Jeremy Silman mentions in his latest revision of How to Reassess Your Chess. When playing through old master games, it is fascinating to watch the evaluation move ever so slightly with each move. Take the first game of Alekhine Euwe 1935 WC as a simple example. The meter hovers around +1.0 for a long time, and that is the battle - whether that pawn advantage can be converted by maneuver, tactics, shifting positions, whatever.

The comp evaluations do the same thing in games between dedicateds vs programs. Hover, hover, hover - and the center cannot hold, so to speak - the defense crumbles, ever so slightly, and then more advantage, and more. Often, the dedicateds will react to tactical distractions instead of holding on. This is the elusive idea of positional evaluation that still bedevils the greatest programmers.

When I play computers and win - a rare event - it tends to be the result of a single advantage. I screw up when it turns into a sea of tactics. But when it's one obvious advantage - control of a center file, say - I can hang on. I suspect this is why I do OK against the Morsch machines and their null-move approach. A clear positional advantage lasts, and you wind up fending off tactical forays on the way to the endgame.

- R.

[Steve B]

Moving sideways and up to the Elite A/S v 11 - I assume Steve has this one, since he has everything else....

Nope dont own one for the reason you state below

I know Steve as a purist who frowns on Frankenboards - and I am philosophically inclined to agree.

now that i think about it a bit more
the other EAG ..you know the one owned by this poor fellow (whose wife is selling all of his cherished belongings for lemonade money to anybody with some loose change in their pockets)...could possibly be a "V11"...
If so then that would of course be worth no more then the $5-$10 these bloodsucking Vampires(who frequent Estate Sales) paid for it
if it is a "V11" and if it does pop up on Ebay ..i would buy it and convert it back to a REAL EAG..
perhaps some good can come out of this poor fellows untimely death( caused by hearing of his wifes shocking plans for his chess computers once he is gone)

Blade Sends His Regards
Steve