Chess-Master

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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 was initially written by 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.

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, and competed with Fidelity Sensory 9 for the title of the best commercial entry.

=Chess-Master Table=

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. =Chess-Master Diamond=

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

=Video Chess-Master=

The Chess-Master program was further ported to the KC 85/2 personal computer (an Amstrad CPC clone) by Wolfgang Pähtz.

=See also=
 * Chessmaster
 * ChessMaster aka Chess Champion Super System III
 * Masters
 * SC 1
 * SC 2

=Publications=
 * Dieter Schultze, Rüdiger Worbs (1986). Schachcomputer Chess-Master CM, rfe, H1, S 19-21
 * Christian Posthoff, Günter Reinemann (1987). Computerschach - Schachcomputer. Berlin: Akademie-Verl., ISBN-13: 978-3055002281, with cooperation of Rainer Knaak, Michael Schlosser, Rainer Staudte, Rüdiger Worbs, available from Wernis Schachlade - Computerschach
 * Rainer Hinkeldein, Rüdiger Worbs (1988). Schachcomputer Chess-Master Diamond. rfe, H5, S 316-312
 * Hans-Peter Ketterling (1988). Nürnberger Messeneuheiten - VEB Mikroelektronik Erfurt - Chessmaster Diamond. Europa-Rochade 03-1988, 04-1988
 * Thomas Mally (1989). Dinosaurus Hi-Tech - Chess Master “Diamond” nicht ganz Lupenrein. Modul 1/1989
 * Karsten Bauermeister (1999). Deutsch-Deutsche Geschichte(n). Computerschach und Spiele. No. 5, October-November 1999, pp 32-33 (German)

=External Links=
 * Chess-Master's ICGA Tournaments
 * Rft/VEB Erfurt Chess-Master Electronic Chess Computer from The Spacious Mind
 * Chess Master by Tom Luif
 * Chess Master Diamond by Tom Luif
 * CM, Schachcomputer in der DDR from Wikipedia.de (German)
 * Chess-Master from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
 * Chess-Master Schachtisch from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
 * Chess-Master Diamond from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
 * Chess-Master Diamond from Kurt´s Schachcomputer Homepage by Kurt Kispert (German)
 * OEM und Sonstiges - Schachcomputer "ChessMaster" from Robotron-net.de (German)
 * Schachcomputer from robotrontechnik.de (German)

=References=

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