Elektronika IM

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Elektronika IM, (Электроника ИМ) a series of Soviet dedicated chess computers developed and produced by Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) based Svetlana company . The ICCA Journal report on the First Soviet Computer-Chess Championship 1988 by Mikhail Donskoy and Jonathan Schaeffer mentions Electronics-01 by V. Petrenko, Leningrad, special hardware, DEC Assembly, 8KiB ROM, 1KiB RAM, a 200 moves opening book, and alpha-beta search with 25 positions per second. The program ran on PDP-11 extended instruction set compatible 16-bit Soviet K1801VM1 processor. According to Mike Watters, the Elektronika IM-01 was manufactured in the Soviet Union already in 1986. Elektronika, the brand name, is mainly associated with calculators, computers, watches and video games. IM stands for microprocessor game. The chess computer was a sophisticated machine with a wide range of options.

=Tournament Play= Due to travel problems, Elektronika IM-01 was unable to reach Ulan-Ude in time to play the First Soviet Computer-Chess Championship 1988. Arriving after the last round, exhibition games were arranged against the three top finisher Centaur, Strategist-1 and Algir. Petrenko's program scored 2½/3 drawing from Centaur, while only using a 1-ply search. At the First International Chess-Computer Tournament in the USSR 1989 in Moscow, Elektronika IM became fifth with 2½/7 in a strong field dominated by Mephisto.

=Forum Posts=
 * Soviet chess computers by IvenGO, HIARCS Forum, November 22, 2011
 * Elektronika IM-01 by Volodymyr, HIARCS Forum, November 20, 2017

=External Links=
 * Elektronika IM - 01 from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
 * Soviet Digital Electronics Museum - Elektronika IM-01 by Sergei Frolov
 * Soviet Digital Electronics Museum - Elektronika IM-01T by Sergei Frolov
 * Soviet Digital Electronics Museum - Elektronika IM-05 by Sergei Frolov
 * Soviet Digital Electronics Museum - The chess partner Elektronika IM-29 by Sergei Frolov
 * Elektronika IM-01, Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)

=References= Up one level