Novag Obsidian vs Saitek Travel Champion 2100

sje · Post by **sje** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:26 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 *

[fen]r1bq1rk1/2ppbppp/p1n2n2/1p2p3/4P3/1BP2N2/PP1P1PPP/RNBQR1K1 b - - 0 8[/fen]

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:32 pm

..........d6

sje · Post by **sje** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:35 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 d6 9 h3
*

[fen]r1bq1rk1/2p1bppp/p1np1n2/1p2p3/4P3/1BP2N1P/PP1P1PP1/RNBQR1K1 b - - 0 9[/fen]

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:39 pm

9)........Na5

sje · Post by **sje** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:43 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 d6 9 h3
Na5 10 Bc2 *

[fen]r1bq1rk1/2p1bppp/p2p1n2/np2p3/4P3/2P2N1P/PPBP1PP1/RNBQR1K1 b - - 2 10[/fen]

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:44 pm

10).........c5

sje · Post by **sje** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:47 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 d6 9 h3
Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4 *

[fen]r1bq1rk1/4bppp/p2p1n2/npp1p3/3PP3/2P2N1P/PPB2PP1/RNBQR1K1 b - - 0 11[/fen]

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:17 pm

11).....cxd4

sje · Post by **sje** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:41 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 d6 9 h3
Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4 cxd4 12 cxd4 *

[fen]r1bq1rk1/4bppp/p2p1n2/np2p3/3PP3/5N1P/PPB2PP1/RNBQR1K1 b - - 0 12[/fen]

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:57 pm

12)......Bb7

Still in book

sje · Post by **sje** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:05 pm

The machine finished its search before the 24 hours were up, but it used at least 18 hours or so making it to ply 12 the last time I checked. It should have kept up to ply 16, I guess.

So I checked the level setting and confirmed it was "An 8" ("infinite"). But that somehow disturbed the new search, so I had to fiddle with the position; I just hope I get it correct. I'll check again later.

The Obsidian is currently predicting 12 dxe5 dxe5 13 Nxe5 with a 0.04 pawn advantage. My own program Symbolic is following the game and its book gives only one choice: 12 Nbd2.

You could make your own power adapter for your STC2000 with a regular 6 V DC adapter, a wired jack, and some alligator clips. A voltmeter would help ensure correct polarity so that you won't get the Death Smoke.

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:44 pm

sje wrote: You could make your own power adapter for your STC2000 with a regular 6 V DC adapter, a wired jack, and some alligator clips. A voltmeter would help ensure correct polarity so that you won't get the Death Smoke.

Death smoke is exactly why I won't be trying this

you're a bit more hands on than me, been a why since I've wielded a soldering iron!

I do think it's a false economy that manufacturers don't fit travel machines with proper adapter sockets, mostly when you arrive at a destination there is a power socket after all...........

Position does look very balanced to my eye, this might be a long grind but time will tell.

sje · Post by **sje** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 3:45 am

I reset the machine and re-entered the game because I thought I might have inadvertently given it some bad input earlier. It turns out that I hadn't at least as is shown by the analysis so far.

It looks like the reason that the Obsidian didn't make it all the way to ply 16 on the last search was that the move stack grew to use all the RAM allocated for it. In endgames, the machine does make it to ply 16 nearly always. This is why the documentation says that the machine can solve some but not all mate-in-8 problems.

http://www.chesshouse.com/v/vspfiles/pd ... nglish.pdf

I'll make some guesses and say that 512 bytes of the 768 available are reserved for the move stack. If each move takes two bytes on the stack, then there is room for 256 moves total or 16 moves per ply. So, simple pawn endgames will fit for a 16 ply search.

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:50 am

Interesting, the TC2100 will probably hit a similar issue as it too can solve up to mate in 8 and has a similar RAM configuration for what I can make out. I'll let you know what happens once it gets going.

Should be a pretty even match

sje · Post by **sje** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 7:00 pm

[Event "Correspondence Game"]
[Site "http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62613"]
[Date "2013.10.30"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Novag Obsidian"]
[Black "Saitek Travel Champion 2100"]
[Result "*"]

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 c3 d6 9 h3
Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4 cxd4 12 cxd4 Bb7 13 Nc3 *

[fen]r2q1rk1/1b2bppp/p2p1n2/np2p3/3PP3/2N2N1P/PPB2PP1/R1BQR1K1 b - - 2 13[/fen]