Philidor/Parker Chess for PC (1983)

[TracySMiller]

This was a wild attacking game that went to Philidor, which now leads the match 2.0-1.0. Philidor (White) played a line of the Ruy Lopez that apparently the Mephisto Master Chess (Black) was unfamiliar with, and the Master got in trouble early on. This is the position after 13. Qd5. I think I'd take White's position here:

[fen]r1bqkbr1/2pp1p1p/p4p1B/3QnN2/p7/8/PPP2PPP/RN2R1K1 w q - 6 13[/fen]

Black chooses to lose the a8 Rook and get the White Knight on f5 by playing 13...d6, knowing that it is also going to get the Bishop on h6 but lose the pinned Knight on e5. Trying to salvage the Rook leads to a bad position. So already Black is down the exchange with its King stuck in the middle.

But the Master fights on bravely, even mounting a counter-attack and achieving equality after 30.g3.

[fen]4k3/1bp4p/2q2p2/3ppQb1/p6r/P5PP/1PP1NR2/4R1K1 w - - 0 30[/fen]

But the Master allows Philidor's Queen to penetrate and makes a fatal decision after a check.

[fen]8/1bpk2Q1/5p2/4p1b1/p2pr2P/P5P1/1P1qNR1K/4R3 w - - 4 37[/fen]

Here Black played 37...Ke8??, and it was all over. Going the other direction, with 37...Kc6, actually draws, although it looks scary walking right into that Rook check at c1, but Stockfish shows Black can seek shelter at a7-a8.

Here's the entire game: https://lichess.org/wu1K3PGW#0

I'm liking this Philidor. Very aggressive, risky style.

[mclane]

David Broughton was a genius.

I like it much too.

[mclane]

Philidor is B strategy. This means it is NOT calculating all branches.

Well, that does not speak very favorably of B strategy programs. I am not interested in a program that does not see a simple thing because he is engaged in high ruminations.

BTW, I will use that explanation each time I could be beaten: "well, sir," I will say, "you beat me just because i was thinking in so much high matters than a vulgar checkmate..."


strategic regards
F

The b strategy programs make mistakes. They are very human concerning this.

[TracySMiller]

Game 4 went to the Mephisto Master Chess, which played an immaculate game with no inaccuracies, mistakes, or blunders, and a 13 ACL. Here's the full game: https://lichess.org/TAIWk6Qp

White was already looking very good, but when the Master played 22. Bc4+,

[fen]1r3rk1/p2b2pp/1pN2p2/2n5/2Bp4/B1P1P2P/P4PP1/3R2K1 w - - 3 22[/fen]

Philidor blundered with 22...Ne6??, after which the evaluation jumped to over 7.00 for White. Much better was blocking with the Bishop. This was the only Philidor blunder, however, and it made 0 mistakes and just 3 inaccuracies, but it caught the Master having a great day.

[TracySMiller]

Philidor wins game 5 to take a 3.0-2.0 lead over the Mephisto Master Chess. This was a positional Caro-Kann where Philidor took advantage of 3 blunders by the Master, making 0 blunders or mistakes itself. One of the defining moments of the game was this position:

[fen]2r4k/p1rn1pp1/Ppb1pb1p/3p4/1P1P1q2/1RPB1N2/2QN1PPP/4R1K1 w - - 9 33[/fen]

Black (Master) has just played 32...Bc6. White (Philidor) counters with 33.b5, forcing the Bishop to retreat to a8. It stayed there until move 67, in effect forcing Black to play a piece down for half the game. Philidor does an amazing job of blocking the Black d-pawn from advancing.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/9f6RtA30

[TracySMiller]

Game six was an incredible game that started with such promise, but fizzled into an early draw by repetition.

White (Master) makes an early Queen incursion into Black (Philidor's) camp, and Black makes a speculative Knight sacrifice to get its own Queen into an attack on White's King, then misses a great continuation that is totally winning.

In this position, Black (Philidor) stunningly plays...

[fen]r1bqkr2/ppp2p1p/2n1pb1Q/5p2/3P4/2P3N1/PP3PPP/R3KBNR w KQq - 5 11 [/fen]

11...Nxd4?!

After a few of the expected checks, in this position, Black misses the likely winning move...

[fen]r1b1kr2/ppp2p1p/4pb1Q/2q4N/5p2/8/PP1K1PPP/1R3BNR w q - 9 19[/fen]

19...Bg5, chasing the Queen from the diagonal and setting up a deadly discovered check. I'll let you check out the variations on your own.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/5HdtPzOK#0

[TracySMiller]

Philidor plays a great positional game by being aggressive and forcing Black's forces into a corner, then simplifies to a winning Rook+Pawn endgame, although it took a long path to actually win the game. Here's an example position:

[fen]5rqk/2QBRbpp/p4p2/3p4/8/1P5P/P4PP1/6K1 w - - 2 32[/fen]

Material is even but White (Philidor) has reduced Black's pieces to defensive stances. Philidor later takes Black's a-pawn, and uses the 2 connected passed pawns to occupy Black's focus, then wins over on the Kingside.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/b55UM5eO

[TracySMiller]

The Mephisto Master Chess fought back with a nice positional win in game 8, closing to within one point of Philidor. It missed a fantastic Kingside attack but corralled its forces into a nice central attack, and Philidor trapped its own Bishop in a flip-flop of the previous game.

In this position, Philidor (Black) plays...

[fen]1rbr1qk1/p1p2p1p/2n1p1p1/1p6/3PPP2/bPBBR3/P1Q1N1PP/5RK1 w - - 6 23[/fen]

23...b4??, trapping its own Bishop. The Master (White) would keep it trapped there the rest of the game until it gets captured on move 53. Philidor leads the match 4.5-3.5 with two games left to play.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/v0ILyqrd

[TracySMiller]

Philidor won game nine, taking advantage of 3 Master blunders (vs. 2 for itself), using its usual aggressive style. With this win, Philidor now clinches the win in the match with 5.5 points. The only thing left is to play game 10 to see the final score.

One of Black's (Master) mistakes was in this position:

[fen]2k1r3/ppq3p1/2p2pNp/2Nn3P/3P1p2/P2Q3R/1P1K2P1/8 w - - 1 31[/fen]

Black (Master) played 31...Ne3?, dropping its protection of the f4 pawn. It looks like the White Knight on g6 can't take the pawn because the pawn is guarded by the Black Queen, but after Nxf4, Qxf4, Rxe3, White is up material, and proceeds to force the win, although there was a time there when it looked as if Philidor was just going to give checks perpetually, but eventually it figured out the win.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/oBo1rCI4

[TracySMiller]

The Mephisto Master wins the last game of the match, leaving Philidor the match winner by a score of 5.5-4.5. The game began with nice positional play by the Master, achieving a fantastic position, worthy of a +4.3 advantage per Stockfish:

[fen]2rq3r/3npp1k/1pB1P1p1/p1pP3p/P5n1/1RP3B1/2P1Q1PP/1R5K w - - 0 33[/fen]

Starting the next move, a tactical melee ensued. When the dust settled the sides were even again, the Master having made a blunder. The game eventually became a Rook+Pawn endgame which the Master played just a smidgen better.

Here's the game: https://lichess.org/FT629Zaw

In summation, I was quite impressed with the old DOS Philidor, little-known and just rediscovered for the PC. Its performance against the 2161-rated Mephisto Master Chess gives Philidor a performance rating of 2196.

Thanks for following.

[mclane]

It’s a miracle to see how the new hardware improves Philidor. Exiting news.

[claudio]

Hi,

I'm looking for the Philidor B4120 MS-DOS version, but the links in this thread are not working.

Anyone to help me?

Thanks!

claudio

[Fernando]

give me your dropbox and I can send you a full package into which you will find Philidor in qemu and Dos versions and many other engines

[claudio]

Hi Fernando,

Thank you pretty much! I've sent you a pm.

Saludos brasileños!

[fhub]

give me your dropbox and I can send you a full package into which you will find Philidor in qemu and Dos versions and many other engines

Didn't your read the first lines on my website https://fhub.jimdofree.com/ ?

"All programs are free and for private use only. It's not permitted to sell or distribute
any program files or to put direct links to my private cloud folder on other websites -
you have to link to this website instead!"