Millenium new release of chess computer

[Steve B]

Thanks Dave
i couldn't let the score stand at 1-1 so i had to play one last game to break the tie

the GM has a fairly extensive opening book(which we now know was written by GM Larry Kaufman) however it is well known that it will only play 1.e4 or 1.d4 as white on its first move ..so to see some variety from its opening book you have to force it to open with another move
if i were playing a longer match i would force it to play something other then just these two moves but since this will only be a 3 game match i let the GM give it its best shot..and it played 1.e4

In The Game...
MCG was out of book at move 9,GM at move 10
MCG saddles the GM with doubled C pawns and play evolves around control of the open B file
the GM over commits 4 pieces to controlling the B file which in turn allows the black Q to penetrate into the defenseless white position
the MCG weaves a mating net and ...the old saying that it.. aint over until The ..


[Date "2016.1.2"]
[Round "3]
[White "Excalibur GrandMaster"]
[Black "MCG"]
[TimeControl "1 Min./Avg."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5
8.exd5 cxd5 9.O-O O-O 10.Bg5 Bxc3 11.bxc3 h6 12.Bh4 Qd6 13.Rb1 Bg4 14.f3
Bd7 15.Qd2 Rfe8 16.Rb7 Bc6 17.Rb3 Ba4 18.Rb4 Bc6 19.Bg3 Qc5+ 20.Bf2 Qd6
21.Ba6 Re7 22.Rfb1 Nd7 23.Bb7 Bxb7 24.Rxb7 Nb6 25.Qd3 Qc6 26.Qa6 Qxc3
27.Rxa7 Rxa7 28.Qxa7 Qxc2 29.Qb8+ Kh7 30.Re1 Rxe1+ 31.Bxe1 Qe2 32.Bg3 d4
33.Qxc7 Nc4 34.Qf4 Ne3 0-1

FINAL POSITION
[fen]8/5ppk/7p/8/3p1Q2/4nPB1/P3q1PP/6K1 w - - 0 35[/fen]
MCG Announces a mate in 7 here so i resigned for the GM

Fat Lady Sings Regards
Steve

[Irrawang]

Obviously the best thing about the Millennium CG is the Lang program. The worst thing about it is the excessive amount of pressure required to activate the squares.

[Irrawang]

I especially like the back lit LCD info screen. Maybe the LCD chess board is a bit small but it's certainly adequate. The Novag chess pieces stay in place even when the unit is placed upside down.

Rob.

[Steve B]

I especially like the back lit LCD info screen. Maybe the LCD chess board is a bit small but it's certainly adequate. The Novag chess pieces stay in place even when the unit is placed upside down.

Rob.

Well..the back light for the LCD screen turns off every 60 seconds like clockwork even if the unit is plugged into an adapter..which is rediculous

Novag Pieces Regards?
Steve

[dedicate computers]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

[Yarc]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

Hello also to the chess computer fans on this site. I have been following this thread for a while but not posted. I received an MCG for Christmas and like it. Sure it has some small issues, but for the price, playing strength, and having the Richard Lang program, I say its pretty good. Its easy to be critical of this little machine, for example, I am running a little 10 game tournament at 2 hours for 40 moves against the Saitek Cosmos. Currently completed the first 5 games and will post the games and results when completed. This will take a little time so be patient. However, after 5 games it's a draw! The little Cosmos I believe has an 8-bit processor running at 10MHz, compared to the MCG which is a 32-bit processor running at 48MHz with some hash tables. It's quite a contrast and shows just how good the Cosmos is. We could criticize the MCG for this, but its was advertised has having a chess rating greater than 2000ELO, the Cosmos is something like 2020, so the advertising is correct. If the end result is a draw or a close finish then the MCG will have a similar rating to the Cosmos in this particular match. Not a conclusive rating for sure as 100's of games are required with differing opponents.

I'm still happy with the MCG, and it's much stronger than me! Also, it has an interesting playing style which may make it better for enjoyable games against humans as opposed to being better against other programs, but I couldn't say for sure.

[Bryan Whitby]

£75 + £9 postage is the cheapest I have seen for the MCG from a chess supplier but if you purchase 100 units directly from the manufacturer in China the price drops to £40 per computers!

Sweatshop regards
Bryan

[Yarc]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

Hello also to the chess computer fans on this site. I have been following this thread for a while but not posted. I received an MCG for Christmas and like it. Sure it has some small issues, but for the price, playing strength, and having the Richard Lang program, I say its pretty good. Its easy to be critical of this little machine, for example, I am running a little 10 game tournament at 2 hours for 40 moves against the Saitek Cosmos. Currently completed the first 5 games and will post the games and results when completed. This will take a little time so be patient. However, after 5 games it's a draw! The little Cosmos I believe has an 8-bit processor running at 10MHz, compared to the MCG which is a 32-bit processor running at 48MHz with some hash tables. It's quite a contrast and shows just how good the Cosmos is. We could criticize the MCG for this, but its was advertised has having a chess rating greater than 2000ELO, the Cosmos is something like 2020, so the advertising is correct. If the end result is a draw or a close finish then the MCG will have a similar rating to the Cosmos in this particular match. Not a conclusive rating for sure as 100's of games are required with differing opponents.

I'm still happy with the MCG, and it's much stronger than me! Also, it has an interesting playing style which may make it better for enjoyable games against humans as opposed to being better against other programs, but I couldn't say for sure.

Actually, after 6 games its a draw. Just started game 7.

[Yarc]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

Hello also to the chess computer fans on this site. I have been following this thread for a while but not posted. I received an MCG for Christmas and like it. Sure it has some small issues, but for the price, playing strength, and having the Richard Lang program, I say its pretty good. Its easy to be critical of this little machine, for example, I am running a little 10 game tournament at 2 hours for 40 moves against the Saitek Cosmos. Currently completed the first 5 games and will post the games and results when completed. This will take a little time so be patient. However, after 5 games it's a draw! The little Cosmos I believe has an 8-bit processor running at 10MHz, compared to the MCG which is a 32-bit processor running at 48MHz with some hash tables. It's quite a contrast and shows just how good the Cosmos is. We could criticize the MCG for this, but its was advertised has having a chess rating greater than 2000ELO, the Cosmos is something like 2020, so the advertising is correct. If the end result is a draw or a close finish then the MCG will have a similar rating to the Cosmos in this particular match. Not a conclusive rating for sure as 100's of games are required with differing opponents.

I'm still happy with the MCG, and it's much stronger than me! Also, it has an interesting playing style which may make it better for enjoyable games against humans as opposed to being better against other programs, but I couldn't say for sure.

Actually, after 6 games its a draw. Just started game 7.

Game 7 completed and the MCG trounced the Cosmos announcing mate in 5.
I wonder why it's standard of play varies so much. Maybe the particular book opening was better for it's style of play, or maybe it's tree pruning just worked better for this game.

Current score is 4 games to 3 in favour of MCG.

I will start game 8 ASAP.

[Yarc]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

Hello also to the chess computer fans on this site. I have been following this thread for a while but not posted. I received an MCG for Christmas and like it. Sure it has some small issues, but for the price, playing strength, and having the Richard Lang program, I say its pretty good. Its easy to be critical of this little machine, for example, I am running a little 10 game tournament at 2 hours for 40 moves against the Saitek Cosmos. Currently completed the first 5 games and will post the games and results when completed. This will take a little time so be patient. However, after 5 games it's a draw! The little Cosmos I believe has an 8-bit processor running at 10MHz, compared to the MCG which is a 32-bit processor running at 48MHz with some hash tables. It's quite a contrast and shows just how good the Cosmos is. We could criticize the MCG for this, but its was advertised has having a chess rating greater than 2000ELO, the Cosmos is something like 2020, so the advertising is correct. If the end result is a draw or a close finish then the MCG will have a similar rating to the Cosmos in this particular match. Not a conclusive rating for sure as 100's of games are required with differing opponents.

I'm still happy with the MCG, and it's much stronger than me! Also, it has an interesting playing style which may make it better for enjoyable games against humans as opposed to being better against other programs, but I couldn't say for sure.

Actually, after 6 games its a draw. Just started game 7.

Game 7 completed and the MCG trounced the Cosmos announcing mate in 5.
I wonder why it's standard of play varies so much. Maybe the particular book opening was better for it's style of play, or maybe it's tree pruning just worked better for this game.

Current score is 4 games to 3 in favour of MCG.

I will start game 8 ASAP.

Finally got round to playing game 8 and this time its a convincing win for the Cosmos, so the score is 4-4. I'm really beginning to think these machines are evenly matched.

Game 9 to follow...

[Yarc]

Hello chess frieds,
Well, the reviews outweigh the positives, so that's enough that I don't put my small money in machine with so many problems.
All my best
Oswaldo

Hello also to the chess computer fans on this site. I have been following this thread for a while but not posted. I received an MCG for Christmas and like it. Sure it has some small issues, but for the price, playing strength, and having the Richard Lang program, I say its pretty good. Its easy to be critical of this little machine, for example, I am running a little 10 game tournament at 2 hours for 40 moves against the Saitek Cosmos. Currently completed the first 5 games and will post the games and results when completed. This will take a little time so be patient. However, after 5 games it's a draw! The little Cosmos I believe has an 8-bit processor running at 10MHz, compared to the MCG which is a 32-bit processor running at 48MHz with some hash tables. It's quite a contrast and shows just how good the Cosmos is. We could criticize the MCG for this, but its was advertised has having a chess rating greater than 2000ELO, the Cosmos is something like 2020, so the advertising is correct. If the end result is a draw or a close finish then the MCG will have a similar rating to the Cosmos in this particular match. Not a conclusive rating for sure as 100's of games are required with differing opponents.

I'm still happy with the MCG, and it's much stronger than me! Also, it has an interesting playing style which may make it better for enjoyable games against humans as opposed to being better against other programs, but I couldn't say for sure.

Actually, after 6 games its a draw. Just started game 7.

Game 7 completed and the MCG trounced the Cosmos announcing mate in 5.
I wonder why it's standard of play varies so much. Maybe the particular book opening was better for it's style of play, or maybe it's tree pruning just worked better for this game.

Current score is 4 games to 3 in favour of MCG.

I will start game 8 ASAP.

Finally got round to playing game 8 and this time its a convincing win for the Cosmos, so the score is 4-4. I'm really beginning to think these machines are evenly matched.

Game 9 to follow...

Game 9 was a draw by 3-fold repetition.

The score now is 4.5 - 4.5

It's looking so evenly matched that if there is a winner on game 10 then this would not be a definitive match win in my opinion. But I will start game 10 soon and then post the games if anyone is interested. Judging by the games so far I would say that the MCG is around the 2020 ELO mark in this tournament. As said before, I would really need to play 100 games to even
start to get a more accurate result, but I don't think the MCG would be much higher or lower than this value. As said before, this rating is against another program, so no idea what its ELO rating would be against humans, maybe higher?

[Steve B]

But I will start game 10 soon and then post the games if anyone is interested.

Hi Yarc

please post a few of the games you consider the most interesting

Requesting Regards
Steve

[Yarc]

But I will start game 10 soon and then post the games if anyone is interested.

Hi Yarc

please post a few of the games you consider the most interesting

Requesting Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

I certainly will when I get a spare moment. May as well complete game 10 and then post the interesting games from the list.

[Yarc]

But I will start game 10 soon and then post the games if anyone is interested.

Hi Yarc

please post a few of the games you consider the most interesting

Requesting Regards
Steve

Hi Steve,

I certainly will when I get a spare moment. May as well complete game 10 and then post the interesting games from the list.

Ok, I have now completed the 10 game match between the MCG and Cosmos at a time control of 40 moves in 2 hours. The final result is close:

5.5 v 4.5 to the MCG

The Cosmos is rated at 2021 ELCO on Wiki-Elo-List so that makes the MCG anything from 33 to 39 points stronger in this match. If I take the average of this range that gives the MCG a rating of 2057. More than enough to thrash me!

Game 1:

[Event "40 moves in 2 hours"]
[Date "2015.12.28"]
[Round "1"]
[White "MCG"]
[Black "Cosmos"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A05"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 d5 4.O-O g6 5.c4 dxc4 6.Qa4+ Nbd7 7.Qxc4 Bg7 8.Nc3
O-O 9.d3 b6 10.Ng5 Rb8 11.Re1 Bb7 12.Bf4 Bxg2 13.Bxb8 h6 14.Ne6 fxe6 15.Qxe6+
Rf7 16.Bxa7 Bb7 17.a4 Qc7 18.Rec1 Ba8 19.Nb5 Qc6 20.Qxc6 Bxc6 21.Nd4 Bd5
22.Nb5 Bb7 23.Rab1 Nd5 24.b4 cxb4 25.d4 Rf8 26.e3 N7f6 27.f3 Nxe3 28.Bxb6
Bxf3 29.Bc5 Nfd5 30.Re1 Nf5 31.Rbc1 Ra8 32.Kf2 Bh5 33.Ra1 g5 34.h3 Rf8 35.Kg1
Nxg3 36.Ra2 Ra8 37.Kh2 Nf5 38.Rf2 Nh4 39.Ra1 e5 40.Kh1 Be8 41.Rff1 exd4
42.Bxd4 Bc6 43.Bxg7 Ne3+ 44.Kg1 Nxf1 45.Nd4 Bxa4 46.Bf6 Nd2 47.Ra2 Nhf3+
48.Nxf3 Nxf3+ 49.Kf2 b3 50.Ra1 Kf7 51.Bb2 Nd2 52.Rc1 Bb5 53.Rc7+ Ke6 54.Rb7
Ne4+ 55.Ke1 Nd6 56.Rh7 Ra2 57.Rxh6+ Kd5 58.Kd2 0-1

I resigned on behalf of the MCG.

Final position:

[fen]8/8/3n3R/1b1k2p1/8/1p5P/rB1K4/8 b - - 2 58[/fen]

[Yarc]

Game 2 was a 105 move drawn game. Included for good measure:


[Event "40 moves in 2 hours"]
[Date "2015.12.28"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Cosmos"]
[Black "MCG"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B18"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Bc4 e6 7.N1e2 Nf6 8.Nf4 Bd6
9.c3 Nbd7 10.O-O Nb6 11.Nxg6 hxg6 12.Bb3 Nfd5 13.c4 Nf6 14.Bg5 Nbd7 15.Qe2
Qa5 16.f4 O-O-O 17.Rad1 Bc7 18.Rfe1 Rh7 19.Nf1 Nb6 20.a3 c5 21.d5 exd5
22.cxd5 Bd6 23.Ba2 Re8 24.Ne3 Qa4 25.g3 Reh8 26.Bh4 Rxh4 27.gxh4 Qxf4 28.Qg2
Qxh4 29.Nf1 c4 30.Re2 Qf4 31.Kh1 Ng4 32.Rde1 Kb8 33.b3 cxb3 34.Bxb3 Nf6
35.Rb1 Qf5 36.Ba2 Ng4 37.Rbe1 Nc8 38.Bb1 Qg5 39.Qg1 Qf4 40.Rg2 Nf6 41.Ba2
Bxa3 42.Rf2 Qh4 43.Rb1 Bd6 44.Qg2 Nb6 45.Re2 Qf4 46.Rf2 Qe5 47.Re2 Qc3
48.Reb2 Qd3 49.Rf2 Rh5 50.Rf3 Qd4 51.Ng3 Rh8 52.Qg1 Qg4 53.Qg2 Qh4 54.Nf1 Qa4
55.Qe2 Qg4 56.Qd3 Qh5 57.Rb2 Rc8 58.Rff2 Qe5 59.Rbe2 Qg5 60.Rb2 Rh8 61.Qb5
Qe5 62.Rfe2 Qf5 63.Rf2 Qe4+ 64.Kg1 Rc8 65.Rbe2 Qg4+ 66.Kh1 Ne4 67.Rg2 Qf4
68.Rb2 Ba3 69.Rb3 Rc1 70.Rb1 a6 71.Qe2 Nc3 72.Qe8+ Ka7 73.Rxc1 Bxc1 74.Qe1
Nxa2 75.Rxa2 Qf3+ 76.Kg1 Ba3 77.Qf2 Qxf2+ 78.Kxf2 Bc5+ 79.Kf3 Nxd5 80.Nd2 Nb4
81.Rb2 b5 82.Ne4 Be7 83.Rd2 Kb6 84.Nd6 Bxd6 85.Rxd6+ Kc7 86.Rd1 a5 87.Ke2 Nc6
88.Rf1 Ne5 89.Ke3 Kb6 90.Ke4 f6 91.Kd5 a4 92.Ra1 Ka5 93.Kc5 b4 94.Rd1 a3
95.Rd8 Ka4 96.Rd2 b3 97.Rd4+ Ka5 98.Rd8 Nd3+ 99.Rxd3 a2 100.Rd8 Ka6 101.Kc6
Ka7 102.Rd7+ Kb8 103.Rd8+ Ka7 104.Rd7+ Ka6 105.Rd8 Ka7 1/2-1/2

Final position:

[fen]3R4/k5p1/2K2pp1/8/8/1p6/p6P/8 w - - 12 106[/fen]