Mondial II -- very lousy at tactics?

[Mentat]

I've been testing the Mondial II and it appears as a very lousy tactician. I tried it on some basic Colditz positions and it has problems with some simple tactical positions. At first blush, and knowing that it appeared before Quest (by Morsch) added null move, it looks like a highly selective program. It plays quite well, and even seems capable of performing OK in the endgame, but generally speaking cannot be more than 1800 at slow time controls. Any ideas, any SSDF results at slow time controls? May be a Colditz score?

Still, it's fun to play against. And does not feel to be a Morsch, such as the GKs or the Centurion. It is slow, 6502 @ 2mhz, but still a 32kb prog.

Dj.

[Monsieur Plastique]

Yes, they are an interesting machine. I used to get a very tough game against it. I actually thought that despite it pre-dating the smaller (in terms of ROM) Europa by a year or two, it actually had a slightly more mature and human-like game and reminded me in some respects of the Mephisto Amsterdam (though obviously not nearly as strong).

The weakness which annoyed me the most was it's pawn play in the endgame when there were still rooks on the board. It seemed to be blind to certain pawn grabbing rook moves even on it's slow tournament level. I suspect this was a side effect of the selective search which at the point in time in his career, Morsch was likely just beginning to explore.

In terms of rating, I would say it is a slightly stronger machine than I am player, so I think on the current SSDF type of scale it would be around the high 1600s (or high 1700s back in the "old" days).

[Mentat]

Yes, they are an interesting machine. I used to get a very tough game against it. I actually thought that despite it pre-dating the smaller (in terms of ROM) Europa by a year or two, it actually had a slightly more mature and human-like game and reminded me in some respects of the Mephisto Amsterdam (though obviously not nearly as strong).

The weakness which annoyed me the most was it's pawn play in the endgame when there were still rooks on the board. It seemed to be blind to certain pawn grabbing rook moves even on it's slow tournament level. I suspect this was a side effect of the selective search which at the point in time in his career, Morsch was likely just beginning to explore.

In terms of rating, I would say it is a slightly stronger machine than I am player, so I think on the current SSDF type of scale it would be around the high 1600s (or high 1700s back in the "old" days).

Monsieur P.,

thanks for your comments. Yes, you are right -- it looked as if the Mondial II was OK in the endgame, but only at the beginning of my playing against it. Later on, I found it struggling with some simple endgame positions, both in pawn endings and rook endings. The general feeling is that it plays a solid game overall, that it is hobbled by the slow CPU and that it was only the weak and unskilled vanguard of what was to come later on from the smithy of Frans Morsch. The selectivity in the Mondial II apparently missed a lot, but did help in certain situations -- there is a very difficult tactical ending that it solves in a split second, but many such remain unsolved. In any case it can be fun for a quick game at 15 sec per move and I am glad I have it in my small stable now.

best reds.

Dj.