Mind blowing moves made by the Star Opal

[Steve B]

Triple pffft....that Par Excellence win is nothing

Star Opal defeats Mephisto Miami at 40 moves in 2 hours....

[Event "Comp 40/2"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2008.??.??"]
[Round "16"]
[White "Miami"]
[Black "Star Opal"]
[Result "0-1"]

Thats Impossible
but then again ..so was the Mark VI beating the Epsilon


dont tell me
let me guess
now you have the Star Opal overcocked to 500 Mhz?

Star Struck Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

Are you saying the loser has to give his computer to the winner??

Yes, the Mark VI plus your gun and your motorcycle.

Hello
This is Steve's Business Partner
Steve has asked me to inform you that he regrets that he will be unable to participate in the match this Saturday due to a sudden business emergency which has taken him out of the country for 2-3 months

When and IF he ever returns he will be sure to let you know
Sincerely Yours
Steve's Business Partner

[Monsieur Plastique]

Thats Impossible
but then again ..so was the Mark VI beating the Epsilon

Believe it or not that was just the stock 8 Mhz Star Opal. Of course, Star Opal did lose that match 1.5 to 18.5. I believe the 24 Mhz version plays about 50 points stronger, rather than the strength increase one would normally expect. This is because if the extremely selective search is going to miss something obvious, the 24 Mhz speed seems to only pick up about 50% of those oversights. The Star Opal needs to be set on level WG8 (average 20 minutes per move) to largely eliminate these horrendous oversights. But then, as we have seen from the From Gambit position, the Star Opal can also seem to suffer from "overthinking", since it plays the normal Nf3 on the lower levels.

There were also 3 victories against the Advanced Star Chess, plus the 8 against Express 16K I have mentioned previously. As I say, the result against Express 16K was particularly remarkable, since I have only had my Star Opal defeat my Cavalier once in about 12 encounters. It makes me wonder if the differences between the Express 16K and Cavalier are possibly slightly more than subtle. This is something I can look into when I get the chance. The results achieved by the 8Mhz Star Opal have been:

Advanced Star Chess: +3 / =8 / -9

Express 16K: +8 / =2 / -10

Saitek Cosmos: +0 / =1 / -19

Excalibur Grandmaster: +0 / =2 / -18

Mephisto Miami: +1 / =1 / -18

Novag Amber + 0 / =0 / -20 (so Star Opal does not get one single point against the next model up in the range!)

It also has three games against the Citrine, all lost.

[Monsieur Plastique]

Star Opal 24 Mhz takes all of 5 seconds to find Marshall's famous 23...Qg3 sacrifice:

[fen]5rk1/pp4pp/4p3/2R3Q1/3n4/2q4r/P1P2PPP/5RK1 b - - 0 1[/fen]


Baffling Regards

[Steve B]

Serious post here..

In preparation for the upcoming match i have been testing the computer rigorously these last few days
just now i turned the computer on and a puff of smoke comes out of the right side of the computer and that dreaded smell of an electrical short
damn thing is dead as a door knob
thankfully i have another Mark V board and it seems to be working fine

this is the one thing i hate most about the hobby
one moment these old babies work great and then in an instant they go belly up

Annoyed Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

Star Opal 24 Mhz takes all of 5 seconds to find Marshall's famous 23...Qg3 sacrifice:

Yawn...
mere child's play

Here is a position that the Mark VI (playing with the dark pieces) had against the Tasc R40 (Rated 2400)

[fen]r3r1k1/pp3pbp/1qp3p1/2B5/2BP2b1/Q1n2N2/P4PPP/3R1K1R b - - 0 1 [/fen]

R40 as white has just played Bc5 attacking the Mark VI's Q on B6

in this position the Mark VI sacs its Q with
Be6!!!
[fen]r3r1k1/pp3pbp/1qp1b1p1/2B5/2BP4/Q1n2N2/P4PPP/3R1K1R b - - 0 2 [/fen]
and goes on to win in brilliant fashion

the remaining moves..

1.Bxb6 Bxc4+ 2.Kg1 Ne2+ 3.Kf1 Nxd4+ 4.Kg1 Ne2+ 5.Kf1 Nc3+ 6.Kg1 axb6 7.Qb4 Ra4 8.Qxb6 Nxd1 9.h3 Rxa2 10.Kh2 Nxf2 11.Re1 Rxe1 12. Qd8+ Bf8 13. Nxe1 Bd5 14. Nf3 Ne4 15. Qb8 b5 16. h4 h5 17. Ne5 Kg7 18. Kg1 Bc5+ 19. Kf1 Ng3+ 20. Ke1 Bb4+ 21. Kd1 Bb3+ 22. Kc1 Ne2+ 23. Kb1 Nc3+ 24. Kc1 Rc2# 0-1

Too Hot To Trot Regards
Steve

[Monsieur Plastique]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear of the Mark VI failure. Was it the mainframe unit itself, the Mark VI module or the sensory board where the problem occured?

As for that position, I do have to say that I am impressed that a near 30 year old micro chess computer found that continuation, especially a program that seemed to garner a rather disparaging review in CCR back when it came out (incidentally, I haven't seen anything here that supports those original CCR comments that the Mark VI plays an incredibly passive game and was inferior to the Mark V).

Not to put a damper on it though, the stock Star Opal finds this move in 15 seconds as well, so it is obviously something "friendly" to their particular selective searches and checking extensions. I have to say that I have an awful lot of trouble believing that either the Mark VI or Star Opal saw anything better than a conclusion where the checking knight took the rook on d1 (at least when the initial Be6 was played), but of course once the combo was deemed "safe" it would have seen the other possibilities further down the track. That takes nothing away from the move which - as I say - is still incredibly impressive.

Just imagine if this game had been played by the Mark VI back in 1982? It would have been a killer advertisement for the Mark VI, and remember back in those days, the SciSys advertising used to include positions each program solved, in order to show them in their best light.

But there is no denying it - it is a very pretty move and although it is something nearly all human players would have taken a good look at, I honestly would not have expected both the Mark VI and Star Opal to find it on anything but a very long search. But I am assuming both found it quite quickly.

I do have to ask though...in all my time I don't ever recall witnessing a player defeating an opponent over 900 points stronger on equal terms. What playing level was the TASC set to? If they were playing on equal terms then the fact Mark VI defeated TASC is actually far more impressive than the sacrifice itself.

[Alain]

Hi Steve,

In preparation for the upcoming match i have been testing the computer rigorously these last few days
just now i turned the computer on and a puff of smoke comes out of the right side of the computer and that dreaded smell of an electrical short
damn thing is dead as a door knob
thankfully i have another Mark V board and it seems to be working fine

this is the one thing i hate most about the hobby
one moment these old babies work great and then in an instant they go belly up

Annoyed Regards
Steve

sorry to read that !

I had a similar experience the other day when my CC7 suddenly had several keys not working at all and therefore was unable to finish the game... Of course, I am more lucky than you are because replacing a CC7 will not be too difficult (except that this is not "a CC7" but my very first chess computer).

All the best,
Alain

[Monsieur Plastique]

Of course, I am more lucky than you are because replacing a CC7 will not be too difficult

Hopefully what ever Steve's problem was - it is repairable. Whilst Fidelity seemed to be the only company that really had a fully organised spare parts / repair service, at least one advantage of the old style electronics from the 70s and early 80s was that apart from the ICs, practically everything was replaceable from generic parts obtained from a good electronics supplier (sensor boards and pads sadly excluded of course).

Those Mark V machines are very old in electronic terms these days and with any luck, it might be something as simple as a capacitor has finally given out.

To try and repair something modern would be a relative nightmare, owing to the small size and extensive use of miniaturised surface mount technology. I would much rather repair a broken Mark V than a broken Star Opal! The Mark V was a brilliantly engineered product. Some of the current machines such as the Exclibur Grandmaster are a nightmare for different reasons. The housing on that machine is so thin and spread over such a large surface area, that putting one back together is far harder than it sounds. I have even seen Grandmaster units direct from the factory with cracks in the bases owing to the torque of the screws, the materials used and the way the stresses are distributed across the chassis of the unit.

[Steve B]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear of the Mark VI failure. Was it the mainframe unit itself, the Mark VI module or the sensory board where the problem occured?.

its the mainframe unit
the sensory board is AOK
as i mentioned i had another one at the ready
the replacement's display screen though is fading and i can barely read the comments section which displays comments and eval info
sigh..

I do have to ask though...in all my time I don't ever recall witnessing a player defeating an opponent over 900 points stronger on equal terms. What playing level was the TASC set to? If they were playing on equal terms then the fact Mark VI defeated TASC is actually far more impressive than the sacrifice itself.

OK Jon
i have been fooling around here with these posts
the position if from the "Game of the Century" Fischer v D.Byrne-1958
it was Fischer to move and he sacked his Q
the first game i posted was really a LOSS for the Mark V against the Epsilon..not a win
i simply reversed the names when posting the PGN
just trying to hype up the upcoming match and have some fun with this
sorry if you took it seriously..
Steve

[Monsieur Plastique]

Hi Steve,

To be brutaly honest, I was infact suspicious, but wanting to be diplomatic about it I did not want to even suggest something might have been amiss there. In any case, I have seen some remarkable occurances in computer v computer games over the years, but certainly nothing approaching a 1982 dedicated machine being victorious over the strongest commercial semi-mass produced dedicated machine ever produced.

Nevertheless, try putting that position into Mark VI. If Opal found the move, perhaps Mark VI actually will too.

With the Par Excellence game, I was very surprised but thought that was actually quite possible. That program is known to be quite weak at 30 seconds per move and even I can easily defeat the lower spec Excellence at 30 seconds per move myself without any trouble. I have a Mark V versus Elegance draw in my brother's database, so a Mark VI defeating a Par Excellence at 30 seconds a move is quite within the bounds of possibility, though it would obviously lose a match quite badly.

As regards the unit, I am really sorry to hear that, but as you say this what we are stuck with when it comes to ancient electronics. Do you have a repairer you can take it to? Wasn't there some specialist who could repair dedicated machines? At worst, it would seem that the good display out of the dead machine could be transplanted into the working machine with the bad display.

[Steve B]

Hi Steve,

In preparation for the upcoming match i have been testing the computer rigorously these last few days
just now i turned the computer on and a puff of smoke comes out of the right side of the computer and that dreaded smell of an electrical short
damn thing is dead as a door knob
thankfully i have another Mark V board and it seems to be working fine

this is the one thing i hate most about the hobby
one moment these old babies work great and then in an instant they go belly up

Annoyed Regards
Steve

sorry to read that !

I had a similar experience the other day when my CC7 suddenly had several keys not working at all and therefore was unable to finish the game... Of course, I am more lucky than you are because replacing a CC7 will not be too difficult (except that this is not "a CC7" but my very first chess computer).

All the best,
Alain

thanks for the compassion Alain
every time one of these oldies dies..a small part of me dies as well
perhaps that why i am near death and have been given barely two months to live by my team of physicians
(THAT WAS A JOKE)
actually in addition to the now newly defective mainframe unit i also have a 2nd ..defective Sensor board attachment
a complete defective set..Mainframe+sensor board
i also have a 2nd Philodor module that works
man if someone could fix this they would have a very very rare addition to their collections
i also have a second piece set for the sensor board..but that is missing a couple of the pieces though

Defective Regards
Steve

[Monsieur Plastique]

Hi Steve,

It really could be something simple. For example, a faulty / blown / overheated voltage regulator, burst capacitor, failed diodes, etc. I would not give up on such a precious gem.

I am now worried your last machine will expire during this stressful match. On a serious note, if you don't want to do the match, that is fine.

I would be very upset if the machine expired during this match.

[Steve B]

To be brutaly honest, I was infact suspicious, but wanting to be diplomatic about it I did not want to even suggest something might have been amiss there. .

actually i thought you knew i was horsing around with the Epsilon game and playing along with me
i olny now realized you didn't know i was joking when you seemed truly stunned with the Q sac
sorry again

Do you have a repairer you can take it to? Wasn't there some specialist who could repair dedicated machines? .

i did have a person i used to fix the units
Robin Smith..a good friend and a two time United States Correspondence Chess Champion
sadly he passed away this year..

there is a guy everyone in Europe uses from Germany
i used him a few times but every time i sent him a unit he took forever to return it ..and on a few occasions it came back just as defective as when i sent it
everyone seems to love this guy so perhaps i was just unlucky.


Steve

[Monsieur Plastique]

Hi Steve,

Perhaps you can PM me about the Mark V mainframe failure.