Philidor/Parker Chess for PC (1983)

[lstlaure]

For those interested, here is a link to download Philidor...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/gvcubgoatu0ov/

The file B1.DOC contains the operating instructions. The command CTRL-A is essential to access the various features of this great program. Keep in mind that it was written at a time when there was no hard disk drives on the IBM-PC! Only two 5.25" large floppy diskettes!

Have fun!

[Dostojewsky]

Big Thanks.

Is this a DOS program, or windows?

[mclane]

1983 ?

Windows 1 began in November 1985.
It’s a dos program.

[Dostojewsky]

Ok.

Big question:

Would it be for example F. Huber allowed to add Philidor to his virtual DOS to Windows software?

[TracySMiller]

Ok.

Big question:

Would it be for example F. Huber allowed to add Philidor to his virtual DOS to Windows software?

I'll let F. Huber answer that for himself, but you can easily add it yourself to the D-Fend DOS Box package that you can get from the Rebel software website. After you unzip the Philidor package, just copy the folder into the D-Fend's "Virtual HD" folder, and then you'll be able to open it through the nice D-Fend interface.

[Dostojewsky]

How can i take back a move in Philidor?

I can´t find anything in the operation manuel.

Thx in advance.

[Tibono2]

How can i take back a move in Philidor?

Hi, ver.num activated (maybe as well using numpad, I haven't one to check)
F1=stop
-=move back
+=move forward
Shift-F1=start

[mclane]

I did 2 test games in 40/120.
The games run in a dos box.

I set up 2 different cycles.


for the first game against stronger dedicated chess computer i setup the cycles on a 486-33 PC level, on the second game against a weaker opponent i set the cycles relatively low, 1000 cycles are similar like an XT 8088 running with 12 mhz.


[Event "40/120 David Broughton"]
[Site "SCW (PC with 28000 cycles)"]
[Date "2020.06.06"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Saitek Renaissance D++ 6mhz"]
[Black "Philidor B1502 PC 486/33"]
[ECO "C43"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nxe5 Be7 6. Nd2
Ng5 7. O-O Nd7 8. Nxd7 Bxd7 9. c3 Bc6 10. Qc2 Qd6 11. h4
Ne6 12. Nf3 O-O-O 13. Be3 g6 14. Rfe1 Bf6 15. Ne5 Be8
16. g3 Bg7 17. Qb3 f6 18. Nf3 Bd7 19. c4 Bc6 20. c5 Qe7
21. Qa3 a6 22. Qa5 Qf7 23. Qb4 Rhe8 24. Re2 Re7 25. Rae1
Rde8 26. Qb3 Qg8 27. Qc3 Qh8 28. Qa5 Qf8 29. b4 f5 30. a4
f4 31. gxf4 Bd7 32. b5 Nxf4 33. Bxf4 Qxf4 34. Rxe7 Qg4+
35. Kh2 Qh3+ 36. Kg1 Qg4+ 37. Kf1 Qh3+ 38. Kg1 {Game
Stopped: Try again. Error 17.} 1/2-1/2


[Event "40/120 David Broughton"]
[Site "SCW (PC with 1000 cycles"]
[Date "2020.06.06"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Philidor B1502 PC XT 8088 12mhz"]
[Black "Excalibur Chess Station"]
[ECO "C28"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nc6 4. d3 Bb4 {"} 5. Nge2 {"} d5
6. Bb5 dxe4 7. Bxc6+ bxc6 8. dxe4 Qxd1+ 9. Kxd1 Be6 10. Bg5
O-O-O+ 11. Kc1 Bc5 12. Bxf6 gxf6 13. Nd1 Rhg8 14. Ng3 Rd6
15. Re1 Kd7 16. Re2 Bc4 17. Rd2 Ke6 18. Ne3 Bxe3 19. fxe3
Rb8 20. b3 Ba6 21. Rf2 Rbd8 22. Nh5 Ke7 23. g4 Bc8 24. h3
Rd1+ 25. Kb2 Rxa1 26. Kxa1 Rd6 27. b4 Bb7 28. Kb2 c5
29. bxc5 Ra6 30. Ng3 Ra5 31. Kb3 Rxc5 32. Kb4 Rc6 33. c4
Ke6 34. c5 a5+ 35. Kb5 a4 36. Rd2 Ra6 37. Nf5 a3 38. Rd8
Ra8 39. Rxa8 Bxa8 40. c6 h5 41. Ng7+ Ke7 42. gxh5 Kf8
43. h6 Kg8 44. Ne8 Kh7 45. Nxf6+ Kxh6 46. Ne8 Kg5 47. Nxc7
Bxc6+ 48. Kxc6 f6 49. Nd5 f5 50. h4+ Kxh4 51. exf5 Kg5
52. e4 Kh5 53. Kd6 Kh6 54. f6 Kg6 55. Ke7 Kh7 56. f7 Kg6
57. f8=Q 1-0


the playing style is very similar to MKV and MK VI Philidor.
the whole way it is operated reminds much on those above machines.
e.g. you can start the clocks like on the MKV and MKVI.

The results are good, aren't they ?

The first game was stopped by the software with an error message
after a repetition. Maybe this is kind of draw 3rd repetition message.

The big advantage is now that we can give it any hardware we can imagine with the cycles command.

THe software itself is very professional and in the typical perfect David Broughton style.

You can even set an AF = Aggression Factor . (maximum 100)

this reminds on the Playing Style changes for aggression in the CXG Sphinx 40 that can be setup in 10 degrees too.

[Fernando]

BTW, I have played several games with Philidor at 30 moves in one hour and in current hardware clearly is lot stronger than the original 1400 or so in the age of his birth. I would bet he is around 1900. I draw one game, won another and lost another, so, you see, not that bad at all.... A very pleasant surprise.

Fern

[mclane]

It seems possible that by converting it from 6502/z80a assembler language into 8088 assembler language there had been a gain in speed.
Also depending on your hardware it is possible and evident that your machine is faster then the 8088 XT machine from 1983 that had 4.7 MHz.
This factor also increases elo.

[mclane]

the next opponent is the 7,4 mhz MM2, so a 2 times overclocked MM2.

I put the Phildor for this experiment to 100.000 cycles, that should be Pentium 133 mhz level:




[Event "40/120 David Broughton"]
[Site "SCW Pentium 133 mhz"]
[Date "2020.06.11"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Philidor B1520 EMU 100000cy"]
[Black "Mephisto MM2 7.4 mhz"]
[ECO "C42"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Nbd2
{"} Bf5 {"} 7. Bd3 Bd6 8. O-O Nxd2 9. Qxd2 Bxd3 10. Qxd3
Nc6 11. Bd2 Qd7 12. Rae1+ Ne7 13. Ne5 Qc8 14. Bb4 Bxb4
15. Qb5+ c6 16. Qxb4 Qc7 17. Re2 a5 18. Qa3 O-O 19. Nd7
Qxd7 20. Rxe7 Qg4 21. Qc5 Rfb8 22. Qb6 Qc8 23. Rfe1 g6
24. Rc7 Qf8 25. Rxb7 Rxb7 26. Qxb7 Re8 27. Rxe8 Qxe8
28. Kf1 Qe4 29. Qxc6 Qxd4 30. Qa8+ Kg7 31. Qxa5 Qc4+
32. Kg1 Qxc2 33. Qc3+ Qxc3 34. bxc3 Kf6 35. a4 Ke5 36. Kf1
Kd6 37. Ke2 Kc5 38. Kd3 f5 39. f4 h5 40. h4 d4 41. c4 Kb4
42. Kxd4 Kxa4 43. Kc5 Kb3 44. Kb5 Kc2 45. c5 Kd2 46. c6 Ke3
47. c7 Kf2 48. c8=Q 1-0

[TracySMiller]

Like many others here, I've been having fun testing Philidor against dedicateds. I decided to use DOS Box to play it, and I maxed out the cycles so it could take as much advantage of my computer as possible. The first match I chose as its opponent the Novag Super Forte A, which has a rating of 1847. Games are 30 seconds/move average.

The first game saw Philidor play well to get the win. It definitely made fewer and less deadly mistakes. Here are the stats:

Novag Forte A: 3 inaccuracies, 1 mistake, 3 blunders, 53 ACL
Philidor: 2 inaccuracies, 3 mistakes, 1 blunder, 30 ACL
Here is Game #1: https://lichess.org/obXmRueZ

The second game saw Philidor with a small advantage for much of the game, but the Novag Forte fought tough, and the game ended in a draw.

The stats for game two:

Novag Forte A: 10 inaccuracies, 2 mistakes, 0 blunders, 27 ACL
Philidor: 6 inaccuracies, 2 mistakes, 1 blunder, 24 ACL
Here is Game #2: https://lichess.org/Cj51Z5q2

Philidor wins the mini-match 1.5-0.5. The two seem not that different in strength, although of course, 2 games is not nearly enough to judge definitively.

Next, I'm going to play a 2-game match against the mighty Mephisto Master. Predictions?

[mclane]

Depends on your hardware, how fast or how many cycles?

[TracySMiller]

Depends on your hardware, how fast or how many cycles?

I'm using a Windows 10 machine running an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 6-core CPU @ 3.4 GHz, with 16 MB RAM.

According to this page (https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Performance), running DOS Box my computer is probably just a little shy of emulating a Pentium III 500 MHz computer. When I run the Rebel 10 Bench test I get 2565, which according to this page (https://www.rebel.nl/bench.htm) is equivalent to running an AMD K6 550 MHz.

[TracySMiller]

In the first game against the Mephisto Master, Philidor makes a few key mistakes, and let its bishop get trapped. The Master mopped up pretty quickly after that, and played no weak moves at all. The stats were:

Philidor: 1 inaccuracy, 2 mistakes, 1 blunder, 63 ACL
Mephisto Master: 0 inaccuracies, mistakes, or blunders, 35 ACL
Here's the game: https://lichess.org/RTI1df0t

Philidor played better in the second game, or, more accurately, Mephisto Master Chess played worse than its flawless first game, and that allowed Philidor to make a go of it for a longer game, but the Master still proved too strong. Here are the stats:

Mephisto Master: 2 inaccuracies, 2 mistakes, 1 blunder, 40 ACL
Philidor: 4 inaccuracies, 2 mistakes, 3 blunders, 57 ACL
Here's the 2nd game: https://lichess.org/WP8y8xH

In summary, Philidor beats Novag Super Forte A 1.5-0.5, and loses to Mephisto Master Chess 0.0-2.0. Even though 2 games is not much, I get the feeling that Philidor is a little stronger than the 1847 rated Forte, and a good bit weaker than the 2161 Master. Perhaps someone with some time on their hands can pick a dedicated in the 1900-2000 range and play a longer match with Philidor to get a better idea of its dedicated equivalency.