Hegener & Glaser

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Hegener & Glaser was a German company, 1969 founded in Munich by Manfred Hegener and Florian Glaser for production of semiconductors, displays as well as applications of portable electronic game units. In the late 70s with the starting boom of dedicated chess computers, Hegener & Glaser created the Mephisto trademark along with the first German commercial chess computer based on the RCA 1802 8-bit CMOS processor, with a program by Elmar Henne and Thomas Nitsche.

Acquisitions

In 1989 Hegener & Glaser acquired Sidney Samole's Fidelity Electronics for estimated 4.5 million Dollar, which soon emerged as flop in the already decreasing market of dedicated chess computers . In 1992 Hegener & Glaser's debts were 28 million DM, and in 1994 Hegener & Glaser's was acquired by Eric Winkler's Saitek Ltd. for about 7 million DM , which continued the Mephisto trademark .

Stella

In 2000 the entire business operations of Hegener & Glaser was sold to its major shareholder for 4 million DM. In the end of 2000 the German DEAG Entertainment AG became new major shareholder to held 79.3% of the shares. At the Extraordinary General Meeting in December 2000 it was decided to change the company's name from Hegener + Glaser AG to Stella Entertainment AG realizing 100% of the shares of the Broadway Musical Management GmbH (BMM) , while Winkler concurrently resigned as member of the supervisory board. Stella became insolvent in 2002, partly acquired by Stage Entertainment - the German Mantelaktien-Report by Undervalued-Shares.com broached the issue

Photos

Polgar sisters at Mephisto 1989, Manfred Hegener, ?, Susan Polgar, Ed Schröder, Sofia Polgar, ?, Judit Polgár, Helmut Pfleger

Programmers

Professional chess programmers working for Hegener & Glaser:

• Elmar Henne
• Johan de Koning
• Richard Lang
• Frans Morsch
• Thomas Nitsche
• Ulf Rathsman
• Ed Schröder

Selected Programs

• Mephisto (H) (Elmar Henne and Thomas Nitsche)
• Mephisto (Richard Lang)

Mephisto Amsterdam

Mephisto Dallas

Mephisto Roma

Mephisto Almeria

Mephisto Portorose

Mephisto Lyon

Mephisto Vancouver

Mephisto Wundermaschine

• Mephisto MM II (Ulf Rathsman)
• Mephisto Rebell (Ed Schröder)
• Mephisto MM IV (Ed Schröder)
• Mephisto MM V (Ed Schröder)
• Mephisto Mondial (Frans Morsch)
• Mephisto Polgar (Ed Schröder)
• Mephisto RISC (Ed Schröder)

The Mephisto Best-Publication Award

The Mephisto Best-Publication Award, sponsored by Hegener & Glaser, for the first time announced in ICCA Journal Vol. 11, No. 2/3, has been presented annually to authors of a publication which, in the opinion of the jury, has made the biggest contribution to computer chess in the year in question. The 1992 jury consisted of Don Beal, Robert Hyatt, David Levy, Tony Marsland, Tony Scherzer and Ken Thompson : Winners of the Mephisto Best-Publication Award by Hegener & Glaser, 1988-1992:

• Thomas Anantharaman, Murray Campbell, Feng-hsiung Hsu (1988). Singular extensions: Adding Selectivity to Brute-Force Searching. AAAI Spring Symposium, Computer Game Playing, also published in ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4, republished (1990) in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 99-109
• Don Beal (Editor) (1989). Advances in Computer Chess 5.
• Feng-hsiung Hsu (1990). Large Scale Parallelization of Alpha-Beta Search: An Algorithmic and Architectural Study with Computer Chess. Ph.D. thesis, Technical report CMU-CS-90-108, Carnegie Mellon University
• Tony Scherzer, Linda Scherzer, Dean Tjaden (1990). Learning in Bebe. Computers, Chess, and Cognition  » Bebe
• Thomas Anantharaman (1991). Extension Heuristics. ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2
• Jos Uiterwijk (1992). The Countermove Heuristic. ICCA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1

See also

• Best-Publication Awards
• ChessBase Best-Publication Award
• Fidelity Electronics
• Saitek

Publications

• Gern gefällig, Der Spiegel 1/1983, January 03, 1983 (German)
• Tony Harrington (1983). A Match for Brute Force. Personal Computer World, May 1983, pdf
• Portfolio Management führt "Mephisto-Hersteller" an die Börse:: Hegener+Glaser sieht Zukunft im Mikro-Markt, May 25, 1984, Computerwoche 22/1984 (German)
• Fortsetzung der expansiven Geschäftsentwicklung:: Hegener + Glaser baut Mikrogeschäft aus, February 22, 1985, Computerwoche 8/1985 (German)
• Hegener + Glaser zahlt hohe Dividende, April 26, 1985, Computerwoche 17/1985 (German)
• Entspannung der Liefersituation bei Bauelementen:: Schwaches Quartal bei Hegener & Glaser, May 24, 1985, Computerwoche 21/1985 (German)
• Für die Aktien der Münchener Hegener & Glaser AG erfolgt die Preisfeststellung jetzt im geregelten Freiverkehr an der bayerischen Börse in München sowie der hanseatischen Wertpapierbörse in Hamburg, September 27, 1985, Computerwoche 39/1985 (German)
• Hegener + Glaser AG:Der Münchner Peripheriedistributor (H + G) wird im September ein Vertriebsbüro in Chemnitz eröffnen, das für den Produktbereich "Display Systems" verantwortlich sein soll, August 24, 1990, Computerwoche 34/1990 (German)
• Hegener + Glaser: Dramatischer Kursverfall, August 14, 1992, Computerwoche 33/1992 (German)
• Detlef Pordzik (1999). Mephisto - Eine "teuflische" Firmengeschichte. Rochade Europa, 02-1999, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis

Forum Posts

• Ron Nelson and H & G Projects by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016

External Links

• About the company Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto) from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki
• Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto) from ChessComputers.org
• Hegener & Glaser from Wikipedia.de (German)
• Mephisto (chess computer) from Wikipedia
• Mephisto Electronic Chess Computers from The Spacious Mind
• Hegener + Glaser AG - München, Mai 1984, Specimen einer Sammelaktie über 20 x 50 DM, nullgeziffert - HWPH Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG

References

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