It's Magic

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:57 pm

Well what shall we do with this Black Box?

Hmmmmmmmm....

I wonder what would happen if you throw some electronics into it?

Alright...here we go...

Rattle and shake... NO?

Wait!.....

Ah! yes! we first need to hide the electronics with a Chess Board!

And now... CLOSE YOUR EYES!

Snap your fingers and say (in bold and red ink):

A * B * R * A * K * A * D * A * B * R * A

and....

H * E * Y * *** P * R * E * S * T * O

Now open eyes and what do we see?

OOOOOOOOOOOOppppppps... it's still a Black Box

NO WAIT !!!!!!!

It's MAGICAL!

It's MYSTERIOUS!!

It's MARVELOUS!!!

It's MYSTICAL!!!!

It's MAGNIFICENT!!!!!

***** It's a M Y S T I K U M !!!!!! *****

WOW!

It's MAGIK!!!!!!

BIG Thanks! to Dirk in Germany for slaving countless hours in building this Chess Computer for me and also to all the other important people and hobbyist around the world who are involved in the Mystikum Project.

Here is a test game with Mystikum Roma 32 Bit running at full power against Mephisto TM Vancouver.

[Event "Computer Test Match"]
[Site "Pelham, Alabama, USA 30:1"]
[Date "2011.11.16"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mystikum Roma 32 Bit"]
[Black "Mephisto TM Vancouver"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D22"]
[Annotator ",Microsoft"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "2011.11.16"]
[EventType "rapid"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 a6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Bxc4 e6 6. h3 Bh5 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. O-O
c5 9. dxc5 Nc6 {Mystikum Roma 32 Bit out of book} 10. g4 {
Mephisto TM Vancouver out of book} Bg6 11. Nd4 Bxc5 12. Nxc6 Qxd1 13. Rxd1 bxc6
14. b3 O-O 15. Bb2 Nd5 16. Na4 Bd6 17. Rac1 Rfd8 18. Be2 Nb4 19. a3 Nc2 20. Bd3
Nxe3 21. fxe3 Bxd3 22. Rxd3 Bh2+ 23. Kxh2 Rxd3 24. Rc3 Rad8 25. Kg3 Rxc3 26.
Bxc3 Rd3 27. Kf2 h5 28. Ke2 Rd5 29. e4 Rb5 30. b4 a5 31. bxa5 Rb3 32. Kd3 hxg4
33. hxg4 Rxa3 34. Kc4 Rxa4+ 35. Kb3 Rxa5 36. Bxa5 Kh7 37. Kc4 Kg6 38. Bc3 f5
39. gxf5+ exf5 40. exf5+ Kxf5 1/2-1/2

Well it looked like Mystikum Roma would win this game but in this position:

[fen]8/6p1/2p1p1k1/5p2/2K1P1P1/2B5/8/8 w - f6 0 39[/fen]

Mystikum Roma plays 39. gxf5? which of course only draws. 39. Kc5! or Kd4 would have easily won this endgame. This just shows that higher speeds do not always compensate for lack of chess knowledge in endgames.

Best Regards

Nick

ricard60 · Post by **ricard60** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:06 am

Nice Mysticum Nick,

Hope we can see more games between the Roma 32 bits and the strong Mephisto TM Vancouver

Regards
Ricardo

Post by **Steve B** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:13 am

Hi Nick
Every so often the Msytikum subject comes up here
is the Roma program modified in any way or is the hardware different then seen in normal Roma 32 modules?

Mystified Regards
Steve

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:28 am

Steve B wrote:Hi Nick
Every so often the Msytikum subject comes up here
is the Roma program modified in any way or is the hardware different then seen in normal Roma 32 modules?

Mystified Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

No the ROM is emulated and therefore you can run it at original speed or at full throttle. My Mystikum runs at 1 GHz, I was hoping to have it running at 500 MHz so that I could have a good choice of opponents for the Revelation. But still I am happy with it especially if Ruud ever comes out with his Revelation II then I have opponents for it.

The available emulated programs are Roma, MM4 and 5 and Glasgow. Therefore just as in Ruud's you can have other programms loaded to it, which in my case I am interested in some older classic engines such as Smartthink 0,7, Crafty, Gandalf 4.3 and some others. Therefore I now have the ability to play them on a chessboard whenever and whereever I want.

ps. sure there will be contention that it's not a dedicated chess computer for which you would have similar arguments for the Wundermaschine or the Tasc cards but that is not the point.. the point is the enjoyment of playing chess games, this does not take away from being a dedicated collector. It in my mind just enhaces the opportunity to have more variety of electronic opponents across a real chess board whenever and whereever I want to play.

Regards,

Nick

Post by **Steve B** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:57 am

spacious_mind wrote:
It in my mind just enhaces the opportunity to have more variety of electronic opponents across a real chess board whenever and whereever I want to play.

well i can certainly agree with that
i hope you have much fun with it!
as an aside..i notice the Wiki no longer shows ratings for Ruuds PC based chess computers..or at least nothing over 2500
with the advent of new PC based chess computers like these(another collector recently contacted me and he mentioned he will be building his own Mystikum or something like that )
will the Wiki be showing a separate rating list for PC based Chess Computers?
perhaps there is one already and i am not seeing it?

Searching Hi And Lo Regards
Steve

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:17 am

Steve B wrote:
spacious_mind wrote:
It in my mind just enhaces the opportunity to have more variety of electronic opponents across a real chess board whenever and whereever I want to play.
well i can certainly agree with that
i hope you have much fun with it!
as an aside..i notice the Wiki no longer shows ratings for Ruuds PC based chess computers..or at least nothing over 2500
with the advent of new PC based computers like these(another collector recently contacted me and he mentioned he will be building his own Mystikum or something like that )
will the Wiki be showing a separate rating list for them?
perhaps there is one already and i am not seeing it?

Searching Hi And Lo Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

No I think Info wanted to stay closer to the roots of dedicated chess computers and also keep the integrity of dedicated tournaments to the controlled environment of dedicated machines. A Mystikum for all its possibilities and Ruud's Revelation also just pushes the boundaries beyond the strength level of dedicateds and therefore would make future tournaments difficult to organize. Therefore ELO 2400 was seen by Info as the cut-off point for keeping lists and and tournaments. This covers R40 and everyone else within this range. It actually keeps the list more acurate since the stronger machines causes inbalance in the ratings. I am sure Micha would make the previous list available to anyone who wanted it, but I don't think that he wants to continue managing a list beyond dedicated machines and Ruud's emulated classic programs and the two Resurrections that fit into this strength category.

Regards,

Nick

Post by **Steve B** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:48 am

Hi Nick
i see..thanks for the explanation
very interesting development

you mentioned the WunderMachine ..well i will be looking at the WunderMachine in a new light now
before i considered it the Bridge between the true dedicated chess computer and the PC chess engine...now i guess i should think of it as the bridge between the pure dedicated chess computer and the PC based chess computer

Going With The Flow Regards
Steve

IvenGO · Post by **IvenGO** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:56 am

Hi Nick! Great unit to have! So this emulation works not like WunderMachine - it has its own OS, right?

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 2:28 pm

IvenGO wrote:Hi Nick! Great unit to have! So this emulation works not like WunderMachine - it has its own OS, right?

Hi Ivan,

Yes, you are correct. Guido Marquardt wrote the OS for the Mystikum. Basically any UCI engine can be loaded to the Mystikum. You can connect a keyboard to it and a USB stick and just tranfer the UCI programs into the Engine folder. Therefore of course if you want any special engine configurations it would make sense to do this first before you transfer them, although you do have some configuration ability inside the Mystikum as well as setting up the game levels.

It also has Bluetooth as a backup solution. I really like old DOS programs therefore I shall be hunting around for DOS programs that have been converted to UCI so that I can get to play them on the Mystikum.

Best regards,

Nick

blaubaer · Post by **blaubaer** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:44 pm

Hello,

maybe Nick's got the name Mystikum

, but the project and the others are called Mysticum!

Regards,
Michael

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:56 pm

blaubaer wrote:Hello,

maybe Nick's got the name Mystikum , but the project and the others are called Mysticum!

Regards,
Michael

Hi Michael,

Yes, but I like the K...it's just like NicK

... but true the real project is called Mysticum....

Regards,

Nick

Mythbuster · Post by **Mythbuster** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:18 pm

IvenGO wrote:Hi Nick! Great unit to have! So this emulation works not like WunderMachine - it has its own OS, right?

Well, as far as I know, it is normal PC hardware with normal Windows OS on it ... for the connection to the chessboard there is the "Mysticum Software" which was written by G. M.

So it is similar to the Mephisto Wunder Maschine, because the WM runs also on normal PC hardware with an Windows OS on it. But the Genius versions from Richard Lang were modified just for this machine.

Nevertheless ... if you want, you can see the Mephisto WM like a very early prototype of the Mysticum.

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:37 pm

Mythbuster wrote:
IvenGO wrote:Hi Nick! Great unit to have! So this emulation works not like WunderMachine - it has its own OS, right?
Well, as far as I know, it is normal PC hardware with normal Windows OS on it ... for the connection to the chessboard there is the "Mysticum Software" which was written by G. M.

So it is similar to the Mephisto Wunder Maschine, because the WM runs also on normal PC hardware with an Windows OS on it. But the Genius versions from Richard Lang were modified just for this machine.

Nevertheless ... if you want, you can see the Mephisto WM like a very early prototype of the Mysticum.

Hi Sascha,

Well that explanation sounds pretty accurate for the Mysticum, as well as the Genius software modifications to the WM, those would have been for the same reasons to make Genius Software work with the Mephisto Board. So in effect Steve has in his hands the Pioneer of all these type of projects.

So the only difference is that RL specifically added code to his solftware to make Genius usable specificaly for the WM, where as GM's Software is more modern (because of where we are today in chess) as it takes into account the UCI protocol and therefore allows any UCI engine to work with the chess board. Would I be correct in this?

Interesting Regards,

Nick

Mythbuster · Post by **Mythbuster** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:48 pm

Yep, thats's it.

Much fun with your new toy Regards,
Sascha

ricard60 · Post by **ricard60** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:59 pm

For me Mysticum as the WM is a dedicated chess machine. Both of them have some modfications to fit in the concept of dedicated. Of course because of the evolution of hardware and the software the dedicated chess machine each time became stronger and stronger and nowdays we have the Mysticum and the Phoenix machines. They are the truly grandgrandson of the early CC1, mk1 and others of that time.

dedicated chess machines still ALIVE regards
Ricardo

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