Tournament - Strong Group One

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Mike Watters
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Tournament - Strong Group One

Post by Mike Watters »

Hi All

To help fill the gap of 'not much chess' on my website I have just finished an Active tournament between ten of my strongest chess computers; with these results -

Revelation II Hiarcs 14.1..................18/18
Resurrection 2.09 Fruit'05.................13.5
Tasc R30 v.2.5.................................10.5
Mephisto Genius 68030 London..........10
Fidelity Elite v.11 68060 72 MHz.........9.5
Mephisto Atlanta...............................7.5
Mephisto Berlin Pro London.................7
Mephisto Risc 2.................................6
Saitek Risc 2500................................4
Saitek Sparc.....................................4

All games were played on default settings, whole game in 30 minutes each.
You can find the results here - http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/strong.html

If interested you can play through the individual games on each chess computer's webpage. Not sure how the software will display on the various formats. Hiarcs 14.1 running on the Revelation II was relentless. Mephisto Atlanta, a machine I don't really like, performed well with white. Plenty of talking points about how they performed and what they are like to operate which I will be adding to the website in time.

Mike

PS- Another two tournaments to follow.
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Fernando
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Post by Fernando »

Completely rational score, so much that without knowing the results I believe some pals here -me included- could have guessed it almost without mistakes.
Festina Lente
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Hi Mike,

Very nice, great computers, and a lot of work there. I like the way you are also displaying the games on the computers pages.

Best regards,
Nick
Mike Watters
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Post by Mike Watters »

spacious_mind wrote:Hi Mike,

Very nice, great computers, and a lot of work there. I like the way you are also displaying the games on the computers pages.

Best regards,
Thanks Nick

The tournament started as a chore, became a labour of love, and I was sad when it ended. A privilege to play a lot of games with these great machines while monitoring with HIARCS, learning more about them. The final results table is predictable but the journey far from predictable with a few games having crazy swings of fortune.

All the best
Mike
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pr1uk
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Post by pr1uk »

Nice work Mike


Peter
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Wardy
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Post by Wardy »

Good effort Mike, that's a lot of time!

Why don't you like the Atlanta? Playing style?
Mike Watters
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Post by Mike Watters »

Wardy wrote:Good effort Mike, that's a lot of time!

Why don't you like the Atlanta? Playing style?
No not playing style Paul. Just various hardware things I don't like.
Firstly the Mephisto 'laptop' design and having to prise the lid off the machine. Once you have acquired the knack they can all be readily prised off and they loosen up with age anyway, but you shouldn't have to wrestle with a comparatively expensive gadget in order to use it.
More seriously Atlantas seem to be almost impossible to open up if anything needs attention inside. Or to be more accurate, I couldn't find a way into my first one which I bought on Ebay from someone who posts on here, and shall be nameless, but the Atlanta proved to have a faulty display. It ended up as a pile of mangled plastic :oops:
I don't like the minimalist info you get on evaluations and I don't like the over sensitive board.

Having said all that I was quite impressed with its performance at Active chess in a very tough group. 30 minutes a game seems to suit its tactical style.

All the best
Mike
Wardy
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Post by Wardy »

Agree the lid is a right pain in the ........... :lol:

I always struggle against the Atlanta, it is hard to get through the middle game without material loss - well it is for me anyway!

Looking forward to your next couple of tournaments
Larry
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Post by Larry »

Yes, an excellent tournament,we don't seem to see many of them nowadays.
I'll be kept busy browsing the games.
Looking forward to the lower division tourneys too.
all the best...
Larry
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Post by Larry »

Mike Watters wrote: Or to be more accurate, I couldn't find a way into my first one which I bought on Ebay from someone who posts on here, and shall be nameless, but the Atlanta proved to have a faulty display. It ended up as a pile of mangled plastic :oops:
My Atlanta came from Germany and also had a display problem. Other than
that, it was flawless. The problem was a couple of piece icons were not
showing. I took the back off, and found the problem. There was a bit of
stuff caught between the contacts leading to the display. I fixed it in a jiffy,
and thought I'd tell you this because yours might have the identical problem.
Also fixable in a jiffy.
Since the Atlanta you are using in the tourney is obviously working, is it a
borrowed one?
L
Mike Watters
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Post by Mike Watters »

Larry wrote: My Atlanta came from Germany and also had a display problem. Other than
that, it was flawless. The problem was a couple of piece icons were not
showing. I took the back off, and found the problem. There was a bit of
stuff caught between the contacts leading to the display. I fixed it in a jiffy,
and thought I'd tell you this because yours might have the identical problem.
Also fixable in a jiffy.
Since the Atlanta you are using in the tourney is obviously working, is it a
borrowed one?
L
Hi Larry

No, all the chess computers are mine. I have bought three Atlantas on Ebay at one time or another. One was in a job lot - Mephisto Atlanta, Novag Diamond II, Mephisto Mega IV and a couple of others - all for 227 GBP. :D I went to pick them up and got some other stuff too including a spare Atlanta box which I think Steve has. I have since sold one Atlanta in a Sale & Swap.

OK how do you get into an Atlanta? From what I recall the case was held together by lugs which I found impossible to shift enough to split the case without extreme violence. I obviously need to learn this in case I cause irreparable damage again. The faulty Atlanta display had parts of each digit missing. I hoped that taking the back off and a bit of soldering would put that right. I hate displays that aren't 100%.

Doing a tournament like this one, 90 games and two months, you start feeling nervous that a comp will go belly up. I had to get a new module for the Resurrection from Ruud at the very beginning hence the change to version 2.09 and orange display. Other than that it was reassuringly worry free. The Star Sapphire was to be in one of the groups but got temperamental when I made up the groups. Now it seems fine.

I will revisit Group One and try to pick out the games which say most about the comps and write them up, but for now I'm getting the website more up to date.

All the best
Mike
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