Yesterday I went down to Wokingham to see a chap called Peter Roberts.
Peter was Terry Knight's repairman at 'Competence', from the mid 1980s until Terry died in 2000. Therefore he repaired hundreds of chess computers, the vast majority Fidelitys. Although the boards and pcbs were claimed back by Terry's widow on behalf of the company, Peter was able to keep a lot of chips and other spare parts. He got in touch and offered me the parts which I was happy to buy.
The picture shows most of the hoard. There's processors, Roms, crystals and many types of chip (most unlabelled) for models right from the CC7 all the way to the later Avant Gardes. Chesspieces, LED and LCD displays, switches, speakers, Phantom belts and all sorts, even two packs of Bridge Challenger cards. Most of the parts still look in good condition. Some may be of doubtful value because there are cheap modern equivalents but I assume that some of the chips will be of interest along with other parts which may be missing or broken on people's Fidelitys.
It will take a while to catalogue what there is. When I've finished I will put a list on my website repairs section with some method for dealing with requests for parts. Any reasonable suggestions gratefully received.
Although Peter still dabbles with computers and gadgets of all sorts he says his eyesight is no longer up to doing chess computer repairs, more's the pity.
Faulty Fidelity regards
Mike
