Chess-Master

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Chess-Master [1]

Chess-Master,
a dedicated chess computer series manufactured in the 80s by VEB Mikroelektronik „Karl Marx“ Erfurt, East Germany, in West Germany sold by Radiophon. Chess-Master ran on an 8-bit U880 CPU, which was an unlicensed Z80 clone, and had 10 KB ROM and 2 KB RAM. The chess program authors were Dieter Schultze and Rüdiger Worbs.

Automatic piece recognition was implemented with Hall effect sensors under each square of the chessboard, while pieces had two reverse directed permanent magnets with different compensation embedded, so that a cyclic running multiplexed I/O program, also polling the keyboard, could recognize the pieces [2] [3] .

Chess-Master played the 3rd World Microcomputer Chess Championship 1983 in Budapest, running on a 2.5 MHz processor, searching 12 - 15 nodes per second [4], and competed with Fidelity Sensory 9 for the title of the best commercial entry [5]. According to Ingo Althöfer, the Chess-Master was a clone of the Sargon 2.5 6502 program by Dan and Kathe Spracklen - the 6502 had to be emulated by the U880 aka Z80 which apparently resulted in that low speed [6] [7].

Chess-Master Table

Chess-Master Table [8] [9]

The Chess-Master Table was a rare piece of jewelry. Only approximately 10 issues were build for special purposes - for instance, one Chess-Master Table was dedicated to Fidel Castro, a gift by Erich Honecker [10] [11] .

Chess-Master Diamond

Chess-Master Diamond [12]

The improved Chess-Master Diamond was contributed by Rüdiger Worbs and Wolfgang Pähtz [13] , and was released in 1987 [14].

Video Chess-Master

Video Chess-Master Screen [15]

The Chess-Master program was further ported to the KC 85/2 personal computer by Wolfgang Pähtz [16].

See also

Publications

External Links

East German programmers in Budapest - Discussion by Ingo Althöfer, ChessBase News, July 07, 2020

References

  1. ↑ East German chess computer CM (Chess-Master,) CM, Schachcomputer in der DDR from Wikipedia.de (German)
  2. ↑ OEM und Sonstiges - Schachcomputer "ChessMaster" from Robotron-net.de (German)
  3. ↑ Chess-Master circuit diagram hosted by Robotron-net.de
  4. ↑ Frederic Friedel (1984). Move from the East. Report of the WMCCC 1983, Personal Computer World, January 1984
  5. ↑ David Kittinger (1984). Report from Budapest. Computer Chess Digest Annual 1984 pp. 34
  6. ↑ East German programmers in Budapest - Discussion by Ingo Althöfer, ChessBase News, July 07, 2020
  7. ↑ Ingo Althöfer (2020). Computer Chess and Chess Computers in East Germany. ICGA Journal, Vol. 42, Nos. 2-3
  8. ↑ Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt (KME) from Wikimedia Commons, Photo by Erdmann Schleinitz
  9. ↑ Chess-Master Schachtisch from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
  10. ↑ VEB Mikroelektronik Erfurt from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki (German)
  11. ↑ Karsten Bauermeister (1999). Deutsch-Deutsche Geschichte(n). Computerschach und Spiele. No. 5, October-November 1999, pp 32-33 (German)
  12. ↑ Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt (KME) from Wikimedia Commons, Photo by Erdmann Schleinitz
  13. ↑ Chess-Master Diamond from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
  14. ↑ Chess-Master Diamond from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
  15. ↑ Der Video Chess-Master in der DDR
  16. ↑ Schachcomputer (DDR) by Wolfgang Pähtz
  17. ↑ OEM und Sonstiges - Schachcomputer "ChessMaster" from Robotron-net.de (German)
  18. ↑ Dap Hartmann (1988). Christian Posthoff and Günter Reinemann: Computerschach - Schachcomputer. ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Review)
  19. ↑ VEB Mikroelektronik Erfurt - Chess-Master Diamond, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis
  20. ↑ VEB Mikroelektronik Erfurt - Chess-Master Diamond, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis

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