Console Chess Ratings

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spacious_mind
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Console Chess Ratings

Post by spacious_mind »

I always wanted to test the strength of the chess programs in game consoles and I finally got around to testing a couple.

First I tested Chessmaster on Sony's Playstation 2 Game Console which was released in 2000.

SONY PLAYSTATION 2

PROCESSOR: MIPS R5900 - 128 BIT
SPEED: 294.912 MHZ
RAM: 32 MB


Image

PS2 CHESSMASTER

Chessmaster for the Playstation 2 is Johan de Koning's King version 3.23 which is the same chess program that is used in Chessmaster 9000 for the PC. Below is a picture of what the game screen looks like on a large flat screen TV. I prefer to use the 2D board as shown in the picture. Chessmaster has a lot of 3D chess boards, but I find a regular 2D board representation much more comfortable. The game in the Picture is Test Game 5 that I had just completed at 30 seconds per move.

Image

PS2 CHESSMASTER TEST RATING

PS2 Chessmaster finished with a rating of 2488 which placed it 2nd place on the ratings chart. This makes PS2 Chessmaster a very strong chess program at just below Grandmaster Level. The program itself rates the Chessmaster engine at ELO 2755. It also has about 40+ Grandmaster Personalities ranging from players like Morphy to Fischer and a 100 or so other personalities ranging from beginner to grandmaster. Therefore overall this program is highly interesting to play against. Especially with all the tournaments that you as the player can enter against all the computer personalities.

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MICROSOFT XBOX

Next I tested Microsoft's XBOX Chessmaster. The Microsoft XBOX Game Console was released in 2001.

PROCESSOR: X86 PENTIUM III
SPEED: 733 MHZ
RAM: 64 MB


Image

XBOX CHESSMASTER

XBOX Chessmaster is Johan de Koning's King version 3.33 which is the same chess program used in Chessmaster 10000 for PC. Here I also prefer to use the 2D board instead of the many 3d boards that are available.

Image

XBOX CHESSMASTER TEST RATING

XBOX Chessmaster running on a 733 MHz Pentium III did not disappoint and as expected finished with a Grandmaster Rating of 2608. This puts XBOX Chessmaster in 1st place for now on the Rating List. XBOX Chessmaster rates itself at ELO 2724 USCF. This is surprisingly lower than what Chessmaster rated itself on the Playstation 2. Strange?

Image

Best regards
Nick
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Fernando
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Post by Fernando »

Game Consoles????!!!!!
Man, you just breached the second iron law of the chart that rules this place:

"Game Consoles are not and never will be considered as something different to PC and other contrivances of that sort, so they cannot have a place in this forum, where they does not appertain. "

the penance for the breach of the rule is...

Send me at once the second box to atone for your sins regards
Fern
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Reinfeld
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Post by Reinfeld »

Very cool, Nick. I have always wondered about this subset of console-based chess games, and I own several. How did you establish which version of the King engine appears in the software?

- R.
"You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess."
– H.G. Wells
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Hi Nick

Excellent post as usual and something I have suspected for a long time.

I can play against the Chessmaster programs on my autosensory SolusChess board connected to my Windows tablet but I never liked the Grandmaster interface. The Playstation looks very good though, better than the XBox.

Regards
Bryan
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Reinfeld wrote:Very cool, Nick. I have always wondered about this subset of console-based chess games, and I own several. How did you establish which version of the King engine appears in the software?

- R.
Hi R,

If you look under credits, it tells shows Johan de Koning and the King version.

Regards
Nick
Nick
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Fernando wrote:Game Consoles????!!!!!
Man, you just breached the second iron law of the chart that rules this place:

"Game Consoles are not and never will be considered as something different to PC and other contrivances of that sort, so they cannot have a place in this forum, where they does not appertain. "

the penance for the breach of the rule is...

Send me at once the second box to atone for your sins regards
Fern
I hear that you are a man of temptations, therefore it is better I don't send you the second box. You will forget about chess and start playing football on it, and all those war games.

I better not tempt you.
Nick
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Hi Nick

Excellent post as usual and something I have suspected for a long time.

I can play against the Chessmaster programs on my autosensory SolusChess board connected to my Windows tablet but I never liked the Grandmaster interface. The Playstation looks very good though, better than the XBox.

Regards
Bryan
Yes, the chessboard seems to be a little larger on the PS2 and the functions and options are a little easier. Xbox however has much better graphics and is also a lot stronger because of the better hardware.

Best regards
Nick
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Here is the test with the Nintendo 64 Game Console that was first released in June of 1996

NINTENDO 64

PROCESSOR: NEC VR4300 - 64 BIT
SPEED: 93.75 MHZ
RAM: 64 MB



Image

VIRTUAL CHESS 64

As far as I know, there was only one chess game produced for the Nintendo 64 which was Virtual Chess written by the Frenchmen Marc-Francois Baudot & Jean-Christophe Weil.

The credits on Nintendo 64's Virtual Chess however only show Marc-Francois Baudot. Virtual Chess is the commercial version of Cumulus 2 which played in some of World Championships in the mid 90's and in fact finished 3rd in the 7th World Computer Chess Championship, equal on points (4 points) with Zugzwang that finished second and 1/2 point behind the first placed World Champion Tasc's Chessmachine Gideon 3.1 Madrid from Ed Schroeder. Saitek's Sparc module finished 4th with Fritz 2 5th, both on 3.1/2. Saitek's Risc 2500 was placed 6th with 3 points and was followed by 16 other non dedicated chess programs. This tournament you could argue was probably the last great tournament were dedicated chess computers were successful. However you can also argue that playing only 5 Swiss Rounds with a total of 22 contestants was far too few rounds for anyone to be realistically called a World Champion.

Virtual Chess first success however was finishing 1st in the 1995 3rd French Chess Computer Championship (3rd FCCC), held in Clichy, France. Saitek's GK2100 also played in this championship finishing 3rd. A total of 6 contestants were entered and Virtual Chess won every game played on a Pentium 133 MHz. Saitek's GK2100 finished 3rd with 3 points from 5 games and was the only dedicated chess computer that played.

The below picture was taken from a small TV hence the bad lighting, but it does show you Virtual Chess 64 just completing Test Game 5.

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NINTENDO 64 VIRTUAL CHESS 64 TEST RATING

Virtual Chess 64 finished with a rating of 2051 ELO and places it right in between CXG Legend/Concerto and Excalibur Grandmaster, which makes it an interesting and challenging opponent to play against for most people.

Image

Best regards
Nick
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