Collector's Corner...The Little Known Novag Topaz II

[Steve B]

Not much has been written about the Novag Topaz II on the net
Released in 1995,Novag rated it 250 Pts higher then the Topaz I
My guess is it plays in the 1400 elo range



In an effort to keep the Citrine in fighting form for its upcoming fall classic match against the CyberChess Cyberator..
i decided to give it some light opposition and chose the Novag Topaz II as its sparring partner
i think this might be the first game ever recorded for the Topaz ll on the net..
Time Control was 1 Min./Avg.

In The Game...
Citrine was Out Of Book at move 3!
Topaz II was out at move 5
Topaz II inexplicably sacks a P at move 11 with no compensation
Citrine executes a nice B sac at move 24 which Topaz II falls for
mate soon follows


[Date "2014.9.20"]
[White "Novag Topaz ll"]
[Black "Novag Citrine"]
[TimeControl "1 Min./Avg."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 O-O 6.Bf4 Nc6 7.e3 d6 8.d5
Ne7 9.dxe6 fxe6 10.Nf3 Bd7 11.c5 dxc5 12.Qd3 Nfd5 13.O-O-O
b5 14.Be5 Ng6 15.Bg3 c4 16.Qd4 a5 17.e4 Nf6 18.Ng5 h6 19.Nf3 Qe7 20.Bxc7
Qxa3+ 21.Kc2 Qb3+ 22.Kc1 Bc6 23.Nd2 Qa3+ 24.Kc2 Bxe4+ 25.Nxe4 Nxe4
26.Qxe4 Rxf2+ 27.Rd2 Qa2+ 28.Kc1 Qxd2+ 29.Kb1 Qb2# 0-1

FINAL POSITION
[fen]r5k1/2B3p1/4p1np/pp6/2p1Q3/2P5/1q3rPP/1K3B1R w - - 0 30[/fen]

Cyber Chess Will Be Crushed Regards
Steve

[Larry]

Not much has been written about the Novag Topaz II on the net

Not much at all. According to schachcomputer.info there aint no
such animal.
L

[Steve B]

In this dog eat dog world where only the strong survive
i thought it only fair to let the Topaz ll devour another computer given the way it was devoured by the Citrine
As Novag advertised the T2 to be 250 elo stronger then the TI
i fed it its weaker brother for dinner
Time Control was 1 Min./Avg.

In The Game...
Both computers were Out Of Book at move 7
Topaz I plays like a drunken sailor repeatedly moving its K for no reason starting on move 9
it was a bloodfest

[Date "2014.9.21"]
[White "Novag Topaz l"]
[Black "Novag Topaz ll"]
[Time Control "1 Min./Avg."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bc4 Bg4
8.Be2 Bxe2 9.Kxe2 a6 10.Na3 Nd4+ 11.Kd3 d5 12.Nxd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Qxd5
14.Kc3 Nb5+ 15.Nxb5 Rc8+ 16.Nc7+ Rxc7# 0-1


FINAL POSITION
[fen]4kb1r/1pr2ppp/p7/3qp3/8/2K5/PPP2PPP/R1BQ3R w k - 0 17[/fen]

Fratricide Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

Not much has been written about the Novag Topaz II on the net

Not much at all. According to schachcomputer.info there aint no
such animal.
L

Yes, well i dont think you will find any mention of the Topaz II on any
of the usual dedicated chess computer sites .

Overlooked Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

And finally to end this little introduction of the Topaz ll to the world..
i had it play one more game...this time..against itself
Time Control 1 Min./Avg.


In The Game...
Black is Out Of Book first at move 4
Black attempts a dubious B sack at move 13 which White repels leaving it
up a Piece for 2P's
the game takes a bizarre turn on move 35 when White ..up the Exchange
blunders into a draw by perpetual check which Black does not see
as the only Draw the T2 will recognize is by Stalemate it proceeds as Black ..even though in a lost position.. to avoid the Draw by perpetual at all costs for the next 7 moves
finally running out of ways avoid the draw it essay's forth the gastronomically suicidal 42..b5??? allowing a mate in 3

[Date "2014.9.21"]
[White "Novag Topaz II"]
[Black "Novag Topaz II"]
[Time Control "1 Min./Avg."]
[Result "1-0"]

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 Bd6 5.d4 exd4 6.exd4 O-O 7.Bd3 Re8+
8.Be3 Bf4 9.Qe2 Nb4 10.O-O-O Ng4 11.Nd5 Nxa2+ 12.Kb1 Nxe3 13.fxe3 Bxe3
14.Nxe3 Nb4 15.Rhe1 Nxd3 16.Qxd3 d6 17.Nd5 Be6 18.Re4 f5 19.Re3 c6
20.Nf4 Qf6 21.Rde1 Bd7 22.d5 Rxe3 23.Qxe3 Kf7 24.Ne6 cxd5 25.Nfg5+ Kg8
26.cxd5 Bb5 27.Nc7 f4 28.Qe4 Qxg5 29.Nxa8 Qd8 30.Qxf4 g5 31.Qb4 Bd3+
32.Kc1 Qxa8 33.Qxd6 Qc8+ 34.Kd2 Bf5 35.Re5 Qc2+ 36.Ke3 Qb3+ 37.Kf2 Qxb2+
38.Ke3 Qc3+ 39.Kf2 Qd2+ 40.Kg1 Qd4+ 41.Kf1 Qf4+ 42.Ke1 b5 43.Re8+ Kg7
44.Re7+ Kf8 45.Qd8# 1-0


FINAL POSITION
[fen]3Q1k2/p3R2p/8/1p1P1bp1/5q2/8/6PP/4K3 w - - 0 45[/fen]

Narcissistic Regards
Steve

[spacious_mind]

And finally to end this little introduction of the Topaz ll to the world..
i had it play one more game...this time..against itself
Time Control 1 Min./Avg.


In The Game...
Black is Out Of Book first at move 4
Black attempts a dubious B sack at move 13 which White repels leaving it
up a Piece for 2P's
the game takes a bizarre turn on move 35 when White ..up the Exchange
blunders into a draw by perpetual check which Black does not see
as the only Draw the T2 will recognize is by Stalemate it proceeds as Black ..even though in a lost position.. to avoid the Draw by perpetual at all costs for the next 7 moves
finally running out of ways avoid the draw it essay's forth the gastronomically suicidal 42..b5??? allowing a mate in 3

[Date "2014.9.21"]
[White "Novag Topaz II"]
[Black "Novag Topaz II"]
[Time Control "1 Min./Avg."]
[Result "1-0"]

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 Bd6 5.d4 exd4 6.exd4 O-O 7.Bd3 Re8+
8.Be3 Bf4 9.Qe2 Nb4 10.O-O-O Ng4 11.Nd5 Nxa2+ 12.Kb1 Nxe3 13.fxe3 Bxe3
14.Nxe3 Nb4 15.Rhe1 Nxd3 16.Qxd3 d6 17.Nd5 Be6 18.Re4 f5 19.Re3 c6
20.Nf4 Qf6 21.Rde1 Bd7 22.d5 Rxe3 23.Qxe3 Kf7 24.Ne6 cxd5 25.Nfg5+ Kg8
26.cxd5 Bb5 27.Nc7 f4 28.Qe4 Qxg5 29.Nxa8 Qd8 30.Qxf4 g5 31.Qb4 Bd3+
32.Kc1 Qxa8 33.Qxd6 Qc8+ 34.Kd2 Bf5 35.Re5 Qc2+ 36.Ke3 Qb3+ 37.Kf2 Qxb2+
38.Ke3 Qc3+ 39.Kf2 Qd2+ 40.Kg1 Qd4+ 41.Kf1 Qf4+ 42.Ke1 b5 43.Re8+ Kg7
44.Re7+ Kf8 45.Qd8# 1-0


FINAL POSITION
[fen]3Q1k2/p3R2p/8/1p1P1bp1/5q2/8/6PP/4K3 w - - 0 45[/fen]

Narcissistic Regards
Steve

Admirable! I have never tried to play a computer against itself!

Me, Myself and Irene regards!

[Steve B]

Admirable! I have never tried to play a computer against itself!

Me, Myself and Irene regards!

Actually i thought by having it play itself i could show two examples of its play ...for the price of one

i am not exactly sure what we learned from having it play against itself (if anything)but it sure did produce a bizarre game

Macabre Regards
Steve

[pr1uk]

Not much has been written about the Novag Topaz II on the net

Not much at all. According to schachcomputer.info there aint no
such animal.
L

Well there is a manual for the said animal

http://www.chesshouse.com/v/vspfiles/pd ... manual.pdf

[Monsieur Plastique]

As someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time researching and investigating the lower end Novags from the 1990s and new millennium, the Topaz II would appear to be one of the earliest versions of the small program with a decent openings book that found it's way (in various incarnations that incorporated both software and hardware improvements over time) into a number of later machines, including Star Opal, Carnelian II, 2Robot, Graphite, etc. But what you are seeing here with the Topaz II is an early effort - possibly one of the very first machines to have such a program.

The "giveaway" - as I found during my research - is that the program is sometimes designated as a "4K" program, but the machine that it resides in has a larger-than-expected RAM for the tiny program size and it also has a pretty decent openings book that takes up a lot more ROM than the program itself does - certainly not the tiny two-ply book that the "real" Novag 4K programs had always had.

What I believe happened is that at some point, Novag began to actually quote the program size itself in the machine documentation independent of the ROM required for the opening book, rather than the traditional method used to describe dedicated machines (which is the actual size of the ROM chip upon which all the software - program plus openings book - resides).

That is why in later years, you would find seemingly contradictory information - you would find, for example, that the Star Opal, 2Robot, Star Aquamarine and Carnelian II were all exactly the same. The openings books in these machines were also 100% identical, complete with exactly the same bugs. But the Star Opal and Carnelian II were always quoted as 16K in the owners manual and box, whereas the other machines were sometimes (apparently not always) quoted as 4K. Ratings also varied though I believe this had as much to do with Novag's marketing and price targeting the various machines as it did minor hardware improvements as time went on.

With the Topaz II, despite the quoted 4K program, you can see from Steve's games, the machine has a "proper" book. And you can also see that it plays some strange speculative moves that were always characteristic of these particular machines (though by the time the Star Opal came out, this speculative type of play had been significantly tempered, especially if the fixed time - or fixed ply - levels are used). That said, I still find the last generation 4K / 16K program - whatever you want to call it - to be extremely human-like and a nice little machine to play against quite simply because it really does play like a human with a comparable rating.

But as I say, the earliest versions of this program played some pretty strange and frustrating chess, often making terrible blunders that were incredibly shallow due to the incredibly selective yet surprisingly deep search and most likely software bugs that were ironed out over time together with improvements made to the search and heuristics. You would find that in a 10 game match on the fixed 1 minute per move level, for example, the Star Opal should easily despatch the Topaz II. That is the difference between the earliest incarnations of the program and the final version some years later that found it's way into the very last Novag machines manufactured.

The easy way to know if you have one of the "real" Novag 4K programs versus the "4K" program that we should otherwise really call a 16K one is the openings book. If the book is just a couple of ply deep, then it's a "real" 4K machine, but if the book goes a fair few ply deep and seems to have amazing variety and depth for what you would expect from a 4K, then it is really one of the machines where the engine itself is around 4K in size but the total amount of ROM needs to fit into a much larger chip (16K apparently in the case of the last generation machines).

Well, all the above is my belief after a tonne of research and practical experimentation over the last decade or so.

[Steve B]

Well, all the above is my belief after a tonne of research and practical experimentation over the last decade or so.

Excellent post and research Jon
interesting to think that the Topaz II could contain the first so called "4k/16k " Novag program as you describe it
i do remember you mentioning this before here..but not in such detail

4K or Not 4K Regards
Steve

[SirDave]

I second that- thanks for the post Jon. Every time you post on the subject of the various Novag's (of which I have a fair number now), I take the Star Opal off the shelf for a few rounds.

[Monsieur Plastique]

Well I hope you use the fixed time levels (or fixed ply levels) as they are definitely the strongest of the ones available - no question about it with these last generation "16K" / 4K programs.