Mephisto Nigel Short on British ebay.

Post by **Steve B** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:35 pm

Jose wrote:Congrats Steve!
Your lucky man.
Best José

i cannot tell a lie
you were right the first time
George Washington Sends His Regards
Steve

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:04 pm

Is it this one Steve?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... otostream/

BTW, there is a typo on the flicker description.

Should be "L'Empereur". See the box: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... otostream/

Funnily Steve photo of a real machine is quite different to the one we can see here:

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/che ... story.html

Amazed French Computer Regards,

Fabrice

Steve B wrote:
Jose wrote:Congrats Steve!
Your lucky man.
Best José
i cannot tell a lie
you were right the first time
George Washington Sends His Regards
Steve

Mythbuster · Post by **Mythbuster** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:10 pm

No, complete wrong!

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:16 pm

Well following Steve comment to Jose's one, seems to be the one:

"Le Em..Regards José"

Le Emp... is obviously "Le Empereur" / "L'Empereur"

Isn't it?

Mythbuster wrote:No, complete wrong!

Mythbuster · Post by **Mythbuster** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:30 pm

After that ... Steve wrote also ...

Steve B wrote: i cannot tell a lie
you were right the first time
George Washington Sends His Regards
Steve

I will give you a hint: It was build in Munich ...

Better luck next time Regards,
Sascha

Post by **Steve B** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:37 pm

fdimeglio wrote:Is it this one Steve?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... otostream/

BTW, there is a typo on the flicker description.

Should be "L'Empereur". See the box: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... otostream/

Funnily Steve photo of a real machine is quite different to the one we can see here:

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/che ... story.html

Amazed French Computer Regards,

Fabrice

Steve B wrote:
Jose wrote:Congrats Steve!
Your lucky man.
Best José
i cannot tell a lie
you were right the first time
George Washington Sends His Regards
Steve

Yup
i guess i do have a typo in the name
typo removed in all 3 photos
good catch

a tear always comes to my eyes when i even think of this beauty so its no wonder i made a typo
i once owned that very machine in the photo but traded it away for some other items i was searching for(some hard to find Conchess modules and a few rare auxiliary items)
a bad mistake i will never repeat..
i violated the golden rule of collecting
NEVER CLOSE A HOLE IN THE COLLECTION ..IF IT ONLY OPENS ANOTHER HOLE
i could have eventually acquired everything i got in return for the L'Empereur..but i have never seen another L'Empereur

any way ..at least La Regence is not L Regence Regards
Steve

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:09 pm

Thank you for the confirmation and mucho congrats Steve!

I knew your photos about L'Empereur but I was actually not aware that a French guy decided to build those machines. The French name was intriguing me and I should have done a search for it since a long time.

So as far as I have understood CLJ build two machines:

- L'Empereur
- La Régence

Funnily those name are very French and a bit presumptuous.... for Chess machines. They related more about the French History.

"L'Empereur" relates to Napoléon Bonaparte: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon

and "La Régence" about Louis XV when he was just a "kid under supervision": http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Régence_(1715-1723)

Maybe the French Jean Jacques Japhet (please note the triple "J", quite incredible) was found of French History.

Do you have any other infos about CLJ and what is this machine on Mike Watters web site?

JJJ Regards,

Fabrice

Post by **Steve B** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:27 pm

Not sure what you mean when you say.."The Machine on Mikes Site?"

do you mean the photo of L'Empereur ?
if so..it is the same as the computer i had
they are the same
the only difference is that my machine had labels attached for the rank and files which were put there by the previous owner
this was a bit of a cosmetic modification
i am happy to say that the collector i traded it to was not so happy about that as he could not remove them

i dont know much about the CLJ Company and i dont think they were in business very long
but i have to check that to be certain

Alain Zanchetta or Eric Belot ..two top French Collector's might have more information on the Company

Hedging Regards
Steve

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:07 pm

I am meaning this photo: http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/assets/i ... 0_x_50.gif

It does sounds a bit different from the unit you have or maybe this is the photo quality that is not great.

My Eyes Are Failing Regards

Fabrice

Steve B wrote:Not sure what you mean when you say.."The Machine on Mikes Site?"

do you mean the photo of L'Empereur ?
if so..it is the same as the computer i had
they are the same
the only difference is that my machine had labels attached for the rank and files which were put there by the previous owner
this was a bit of a cosmetic modification
i am happy to say that the collector i traded it to was not so happy about that as he could not remove them

i dont know much about the CLJ Company and i dont think they were in business very long
but i have to check that to be certain

Alain Zanchetta or Eric Belot ..two top French Collector's might have more information on the Company

Hedging Regards
Steve

Post by **Steve B** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:07 am

fdimeglio wrote:I am meaning this photo: http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/assets/i ... 0_x_50.gif

It does sounds a bit different from the unit you have or maybe this is the photo quality that is not great.

My Eyes Are Failing Regards

Fabrice

Steve B wrote:Not sure what you mean when you say.."The Machine on Mikes Site?"

do you mean the photo of L'Empereur ?
if so..it is the same as the computer i had
they are the same
the only difference is that my machine had labels attached for the rank and files which were put there by the previous owner
this was a bit of a cosmetic modification
i am happy to say that the collector i traded it to was not so happy about that as he could not remove them

i dont know much about the CLJ Company and i dont think they were in business very long
but i have to check that to be certain

Alain Zanchetta or Eric Belot ..two top French Collector's might have more information on the Company

Hedging Regards
Steve

Yes i think its just the color and shading of the photo
and of course the photo does not have the rank and file labels which were not part of the originally released computer

Your Vision is..
20/20 Regards
Steve

Post by **Alain** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:31 am

Hi Fabrice and Steve,

Steve B wrote:i dont know much about the CLJ Company and i dont think they were in business very long
but i have to check that to be certain

Alain Zanchetta or Eric Belot ..two top French Collector's might have more information on the Company

unfortunately, I don't have information about CLJ. I have been able to contact one former employee (may be the marketing director ?) through a software engineering freelance site but he never answered my questions about the company.
So I only have some ads in old newspapers...

Best regards,
Alain

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:42 pm

Thank you Alain,

Any chance that you would scan and post them ?

For the record, JJJ seems to have a "profile" here: https://profiles.google.com/wellki9/about

"Sherlock Holmes" Regards,

Fabrice

Alain wrote:Hi Fabrice and Steve,

Steve B wrote:i dont know much about the CLJ Company and i dont think they were in business very long
but i have to check that to be certain

Alain Zanchetta or Eric Belot ..two top French Collector's might have more information on the Company
unfortunately, I don't have information about CLJ. I have been able to contact one former employee (may be the marketing director ?) through a software engineering freelance site but he never answered my questions about the company.
So I only have some ads in old newspapers...

Best regards,
Alain

Post by **Alain** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:14 pm

Hi Fabrice,

fdimeglio wrote:Any chance that you would scan and post them ?

Here is one http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/images/EE289_83-01.jpg

This was published both in Europe Echecs and Jeux et Stratégie in 1983.

I thought I had a few others => I'll check
Best regards,
Alain

fdimeglio · Post by **fdimeglio** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:08 am

Hello again Alain,

Thank you. Wowowowowow, totally awesome! "Le défi français" one more superlative in that context.

Please also note the French Flag colors. JJJ was really pushing hard.

Can Wait For the Other Scans Regards,

Fabrice

Alain wrote:Hi Fabrice,

fdimeglio wrote:Any chance that you would scan and post them ?
Here is one http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/images/EE289_83-01.jpg

This was published both in Europe Echecs and Jeux et Stratégie in 1983.

I thought I had a few others => I'll check
Best regards,
Alain

Mike Watters · Post by **Mike Watters** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:10 am

Hi All

As I am sure Steve knows L'Empereur competed at the World Micro Chess Championships at Glasgow in 1984. So there is a paragraph about CLJ Industries, JJJ and L'Empereur on the CSS DVD October 1984 page 10.

There's also a fleeting mention in the magazine article on Glasgow on my website -
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/PCW_December_1984.pdf

L'Empereur's Glasgow games can be found here -
http://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com ... mitstart=5

So L'Empereur seems to be an upgraded version of La Regence with a Richard Lang Cyrus program, designed by Intelligent Software, and manufactured by JJJ's company which was the liquidated company of Frederic Ries who manufactured La Regence (assuming my guesswork German is correct). That's all I know. Maybe there is more info buried deep in Alain's or Eric's vaults?

Really rare regards
Mike