It's Magic

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SirDave
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Post by SirDave »

Very impressive Ricardo! Thanks for taking the time to show all it's parts.

A Monster Master is Born Regards,
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Steve B
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Post by Steve B »

Congrats!
Enjoy your new dedicated chess computer

Mephisto Modular Monster Regards
Steve
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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

Hi Dave and Steve,

As i get to know this outstanding dedicated chess machine i will be posting some games from the mephisto engines against other dedicated chess machines that i have and some games from the uci engines.

dedicated chess Frankestein is waiking up regards
Ricardo
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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

Here is one of the test games of Mysticum dallas 32 bit @40 Mhz vs novag star diamond.

At move 21 Star diamond was better but dallas could hold on and won at the end.

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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

Then dallas (black) went up against mephisto atlanta (white) and at this stage of the game:

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atlanta had more space and dallas could not hold.

Mephisto Atlanta
Mysticum Dallas 32 bit@40 Mhz
{1-0} {iSchach}

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bb4 6. e3 b5 7. Bd2 Qb6 8. Ne5 Nf6 9. axb5 cxb5 10. b3 O-O 11. bxc4 bxc4 12. Nxc4 Qb7 13. Be2 Bd7 14. O-O Bc6 15. f3 a6 16. Na4 Bxd2 17. Qxd2 Nbd7 18. Na5 Qc7 19. Rfc1 Nb8 20. Nc5 Rc8 21. Nxc6 Nxc6 22. Rab1 a5 23. Ba6 Rcb8 24. Bb5 Nd5 25. Na6 Rxa6 26. Bxa6 Rxb1 27. Rxb1 Ndb4 28. Bb5 Ne7 29. Rc1 Qd8 30. h3 Qb8 31. Rc5 Qd6 32. Ba4 Qb6 33. Kf2 Qa6 34. Rb5 g6 35. e4 Kg7 36. Qc3 Qa7 37. Ke2 Nec6 38. Rc5 Nd8 39. d5 Kh6 40. Qe3 Kg7 41. Rb5 Qc7 42. Qd4 e5 43. Qc5 Qxc5 44. Rxc5 Nb7 45. Rb5 Nd6 46. Rxa5 Na2 47. Rc5 Nb4 48. Kd2 Kf6 49. Rc7 Na2 50. Bb3 Nb4 51. Rd7 Nc8 52. Kc3 Na6 53. Rd8 Nb6 54. Rd6 Kg5 55. Rxb6 Nc5 56. Bc2

So Mysticum dallas at 40 Mhz is playing for an elo somewhere between 2200 and 2250. More games needed.
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JamesBennett
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Looks very interesting

Post by JamesBennett »

I happen to stumble on this computer chess game, and it looks very interesting. Though the most that I have tried playing is against my own computer chess program and even the GNU Chess software, which is a free one, but I don’t mind playing against this Mystikum. It looks quite challenging as to which chess pieces it will move and what strategies it will deploy, but hey it is worth a try for me. I wonder - where I can get this or just have a good chess game against this? Any suggestions?
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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

Hi JamesBennett,

Welcome to the hiarcs forum. This is a build it your own dedicated chess machine. This is a free project from Guido Marquardt. It can run any UCI engine and most of the mephisto engines with an emulator called messtiny. Is a special version of the MESS emulator that fits in this type of mysticum machine. Here is a link of a forum for the Mysticum project:

http://www.miclangschach.de/forum/
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Since I have received my first Mysticum, I have been active in playing a couple of test tournaments with it. The first tournament had 6 contestants,1 Mysticum Program running at 8 Mips which is the equivalent speed of a 68020 Chess Computer with 40 MHz (if such a computer existed). 1 Dedicated chess computer and 3 DOS programs running on different DOS Computers, being a 286, 386 and a 486. And also an old British Home Computer named the Amstrad CPC 464.

The results were as follows:

Code: Select all

Mysticum Test Tournament 1 rapid  2012

                                                     1  2  3  4  5  6  
1   80386SX-16 WChess 1.0,LV A5          2000  +138  ** ½0 1½ 11 11 11   8.0/10
2   M68020-40 Prodeo 1.6,LV 40/20        2000   +88  ½1 ** ½½ 1½ 1½ 11   7.5/10  30.00
3   80486-133 Chessmaster 2100,LV 60/30  2000   +88  0½ ½½ ** 11 11 11   7.5/10  25.50
4   SciSys Stratos,LV 5                  1889    -3  00 0½ 00 ** 11 11   4.5/10
5   80286-10 Champion 2175,LV 60/30      1900  -173  00 0½ 00 00 ** 11   2.5/10
6   Amstrad CPC 464 Cyrus II,LV 4        1700  -542  00 00 00 00 00 **   0.0/10

David Kittingers WChess 1.0 won this mini tournament with Mysticum 8 MIPS (68020-40MHz equivalent) playing Ed Schroeder's Prodeo 1.6 finishing second with the same points as Chessmaster 2100 on a 486.

Cyrus II on the Amstard finished dead last without points which was to be expected but I enjoyed having different computers playing each other.

The Dedicated Computer SciSys Stratos finished 4th. It was a little outclassed in this tournament but did manage to draw against Mysticum's Prodeo 1.6.

If anyone is interested, the games can obtained or replayed at Blaubaer's Mysticum site:

http://www.miclangschach.de/forum/viewt ... f=18&t=100


This first Test inspired me to do this again with a more complete and tougher Test.

below is the final Tournament Table of Test 2:

Code: Select all

Mysticum Test Tournament 2 rapid  2012

                                                      1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0  1  2  
1   M68020-40 King 3.5 Brucha,LV 40/20    2100  +176  ** 0½ 1½ 10 11 ½1 ½½ 11 01 11 11 11  16.5/22  155.75
2   80486-66 Sargon 5,LV 60/30            2150  +122  1½ ** 01 10 ½½ ½1 ½½ ½1 11 11 11 11  16.5/22  154.00
3   Novag Sapphire II,LV 60/30            2134   +99  0½ 10 ** 10 0½ 0½ 11 11 11 11 11 11  15.5/22
4   80386-16 Meph. Advantage,LV 60/30     2150   +63  01 01 01 ** 10 ½1 1½ 1½ 01 11 1½ 11  15.0/22  142.00
5   Mephisto Berlin 68000,LV 60/30        2172   +39  00 ½½ 1½ 01 ** ½1 10 ½1 11 ½1 11 11  15.0/22  135.75
6   80486-133 Chess Friend,LV 60/30       2150   -20  ½0 ½0 1½ ½0 ½0 ** 01 11 1½ ½1 10 11  12.5/22
7   80286-10 Fritz 2.0,LV 60/30           2137   -22  ½½ ½½ 00 0½ 01 10 ** 0½ 01 11 11 11  12.0/22
8   80386-25 Kallisto 1.83,LV 60/30       2150  -100  00 ½0 00 0½ ½0 00 1½ ** 01 11 11 11  10.0/22
9   P100 - Cyrus,LV 30S                   2000   +47  10 00 00 10 00 0½ 10 10 ** 1½ 11 1½   9.5/22
10  80286-16 Zarkov 2.5,LV 60/30          2020  -117  00 00 00 00 ½0 ½0 00 00 0½ ** 11 11   5.5/22
11  Sinclair QL Psion Chess,LV 30S        1882   -65  00 00 00 0½ 00 01 00 00 00 00 ** 11   3.5/22
12  Amiga 68000-14.3 CC System ,LV 60/30  2000  -558  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0½ 00 00 **   0.5/22

All the games are here to replay:

http://www.miclangschach.de/forum/viewt ... 03&start=0

This Test was a lot tougher with Chessmaster 11's program King 3.5 representing Mysticum at 8 MIPS (68020-40 MHz) Brucha is just a personality that I used to mess around with in the old Chessmaster 9000 days which I then reused with CM10 and CM11.

This time I had 2 Dedcated Chess computers playing, 2 286 Computers, 2 386 Computers and 2 486 Computers, 1 Pentium 100 as well as a Commodore Amiga 1200 with Complete Chess System which is a 68020 Processor running at around 15.x MHz and another old British Computer the Sinclair QL which was a 68000 processor with @ 8 Mhz playing PSION Chess from Richard Lang.

This tournament was competitive right upto the last game. As you can see from the table above, there were 5 programs competing for 1st place until the end.


I am now patiently waiting for my second identical Mysticum which will then allow me to play all the Mysticum programs against each other as well.

Lessons learned from the Mysticum. If you want to enjoy this computer and play all available engines sitting in your lounge instead of a computer screen then any Mysticum that you build is great for this.

If you want to play against other Mysticym computers and dedicated chess computers then standardization is the key. Both my Mysticum's are Via Nehemiah's 1000 processors which i can slow down to as low as 2.4 Mips or the equivalent of a 68020 with 12 MHz. Staying with these processors and having two identical I can be consistent with my games.

The problem that still requires work is Mysticum Owners who have different Processors. These become difficult to slow down to a comparable speed and therefore it remains difficult especially on faster processors to have a standard speed which can be used to play against old chess computers and old DOS programs.

My recommendation if you build one, don't go for speed it is uneccessary because you have your desktops and laptops for that. Build something that you can play against in your lounge. I would not recommend going beyond a processor of 1000 MHz such as a Via Nehemiah. At full speed you will be playing against Grandmasters of 2800 ELO + (ie Critter, Hiarcs, Houdini, etc etc) and slowed down you can enjoy the old days with speeds of 68020- 12 Mhz etc., as per my above two Test Tournament examples.

Best regards

Nick
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Hi Nick
Amazing, is this the first ever tournament to include the Sinclair QL.
I had the Sinclair Spectrum 48K but could never afford the XL.
Next thing you'll be telling us is that you go to work on a Sinclair C5.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5.
One of the most interesting posts yet posted on this forum.
Regards from the land of Sir Clive
Bryan
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Hi Nick
Amazing, is this the first ever tournament to include the Sinclair QL.
I had the Sinclair Spectrum 48K but could never afford the XL.
Next thing you'll be telling us is that you go to work on a Sinclair C5.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5.
One of the most interesting posts yet posted on this forum.
Regards from the land of Sir Clive
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
Yes I remember the C5 when it first came out. Poor Sir Clive he was just too far ahead of his time. I am sure they are now collector items. I wouldn't know what to do with one though.

As for the Sinclair QL, I first bought one when it came out and loved it. There wasn't much game software for it but the games like Psion Chess and a couple of adventure games were also ahead of the competition at the time. Richard Lang built Psion for the QL and then later sold it on Atari ST and PC. It's mainly for this reason that I bought another QL a couple of years ago (having left my old QL in England when I moved to the States many years ago. Who knows maybe someone in the family still has it somewhere). The spreadsheet, word-processing and database software that came with the QL was also way ahead of the competition. I remember often taking my QL to work and using it there to work on Spreadsheets because the old work PC's and Mainframes were not in the same class.

I guess Sir Clive suffered from lack of good marketing people because he was ahead of the pack with his computers. Always one step ahead of Atari and Commodore, until he went bust. His downfall was probably caused by the C5 :).

Best regards,

Nick
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

One of the best pages on the Mysticum forum, if you haven't already looked are the forum members Mysticum boards that they have made.
http://www.miclangschach.de/forum/viewf ... e63e0173a6
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Nick
Talking about Sinclair computers, I was looking at your site and came across the following page.
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/champ ... enger.html
Did you play the following game and if so, have you still got the Sinclair ZX81?
FIDELITY CHAMPION SENSORY CHESS CHALLENGER, LV 2 - SINCLAIR ZX81 ZXCHESS II, LV 2
Cambridge Computers Regards
Bryan
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Nick
Talking about Sinclair computers, I was looking at your site and came across the following page.
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/champ ... enger.html
Did you play the following game and if so, have you still got the Sinclair ZX81?
FIDELITY CHAMPION SENSORY CHESS CHALLENGER, LV 2 - SINCLAIR ZX81 ZXCHESS II, LV 2
Cambridge Computers Regards
Bryan
Hi Bryan,

Yes to both your questions. All the games on my site were played by me. I have the ZX81 and also the USA equivalent which is the Timex Sinclair 1000.

It has been a couple of years since I last used them though. I need to get them out again sometime soon.

ps. I am continuously amazed with your board creations. They all look incredible.

Regards,

Nick
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Nick
Thanks for the kind words.
I saw the Timex in your collection but not the ZX81 (happy times).
Talking about the Sinclair Spectrum, I once wrote and sold a program for it called the 'Encyclopaedia of the FA Cup'. It took me months and months of laborious coding late at night inputting the data of every FA Cup Final. This including the teams, score, attendance etc and where the final took place as the early finals weren't held at Wembly. Unfortunately it didn't sell too well and the only bit of information I managed to remember was that the Cardiff City goalkeeper in the 1927 final against Aresenal was named Tom Farquharson. This is probably because there was once a British comedian named Larry Grayson. He was always mentioning that his best friend was Everard Farquharson. So I suppose it's kind of word association.
Regards
Bryan
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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

I am building a second Mysticum:

Image

Image

Image

This second dedicated Mysticum chess machine will be capable of running 64 bit engines and even deep engines and it will still have the feature of using the free Mephisto engines such as Rebel 5.0, Dallas, Amaterdam, MMIV, MMV (version 5.0 and version 5.1) and Roma. So it can go from maybe 1800 elo to 3000 elo and it will also keep the outsatnding feature of Mysticum of slowing down any new engine and test it with old engines.

Dedicated chess machines back to the world chess champinship regards
Ricardo
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