Mephisto

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Mephisto was a family of dedicated chess computers, produced and traded by Hegener & Glaser since 1980, starting with Mephisto I-III by Elmar Henne and Thomas Nitsche. In 1985 Richard Lang became primary Mephisto programmer. All his Mephisto programs were written in 68000 Assembly. They competed in various World- and World Microcomputer Chess Championships as well as Computer Olympiad and ACM North American Computer Chess Championship from 1985 until 1993, most often operated by Richard Lang himself and/or opening book author and chess advisor Ossi Weiner.

It was in 1994 when Eric Winkler, CEO of Saitek Ltd., acquired Hegener & Glaser to continue the Mephisto trademark, but no longer with programs of Richard Lang, who had developed Chess Genius for the PC market to persist his long term collaboration with Ossi Weiner until 2003.

=Photos & Games=

ACM 1988
Nelson, Hyatt and Weiner, Mephisto X aka Almeria - Cray Blitz, ACM 1988 [Event "19th NACCC ACM"] [Site "Orlando USA"] [Date "1988.11.13"] [Round "2"] [White "Mephisto"] [Black "Cray Blitz"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 3.c4 e6 4.Qb3 b6 5.Nc3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 Nf6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.e3 Nbd7 9.Qc6 Bb4 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Rc1 a6 12.Be2 Ra7 13.Nh4 Bxc3+ 14.Rxc3 Bb1 15.Qa4 Be4 16.O-O Qb8 17.Rfc1 b5 18.Qa5 Nb6 19.f3 Bd5 20.b3 Ba8 21.Rc5 f5 22.g3 Nd5 23.e4 fxe4 24.fxe4 Ne7 25.Bf3 O-O 26.Rg5+ Ng6 27.Rcc5 Rd8 28.Qc3 Qb6 29.Rg4 Rd7 30.Bg2 Bb7 31.Nf3 Ra8 32.Ne5 Rd6 33.Qe3 Kf8 34.Nf3 Ke8 35.e5 Rd7 36.Ng5 Bxg2 37.Kxg2 h5 38.Re4 Qb7 39.Qf3 Rad8 40.Qf2 Re7 41.Kg1 Red7 42.Rc1 Re7 43.Rf1 a5 44.Qf6 Qb6 45.Rd1 Qc6 46.Re2 Qc3 47.Nxf7 Rxd4 48.Rf1 Qd3 49.Ref2 h4 50.Rf3 Qc2 51.R1f2 Qc1+ 52.Kg2 hxg3 53.hxg3 Qb1 54.Nh8 Nxh8 55.Qxh8+ Kd7 56.Rf7 Qe4+ 57.Kh2 Rxf7 58.Rxf7+ Kc6 59.Qe8+ Kb6 60.Qb8+ Qb7 61.Qxb7+ Kxb7 62.Kg2 Rd5 63.g4 Rxe5 64.Kf3 Re1 65.Rf4 1/2-1/2

ACM 1989
Richard Lang operating Mephisto Portorose vs. Deep Thought at ACM 1989 [Event "ACM 1989"] [Site "Reno USA"] [Date "1989.11.14"] [Round "5"] [White "Mephisto"] [Black "Deep Thought"] [Result "1-0"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.h3 Bh5 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.g4 Bg6 9.Nh4 Be4 10.Nxe4 Nxe4 11.Nf3 Nd6 12.Bb3 Qe7 13.Bd2 h5 14.Rg1 hxg4 15.hxg4 O-O-O 16.Ba5 b6 17.Bb4 a5 18.Bxd6 Qxd6 19.Qc2 Be7 20.O-O-O Rh3 21.Nd2 c6 22.Rh1 Rdh8 23.Rxh3 Rxh3 24.Ne4 Qc7 25.Kb1 g5 26.Rc1 Kb7 27.Ba4 Nb8 28.Nd2 Qd7 29.Bb3 Na6 30.Qe4 Nb4 31.a3 Nd5 32.Qg2 Rh8 33.Ne4 f6 34.Qg3 Rg8 35.Rh1 f5 36.gxf5 exf5 37.Qh3 Rf8 38.Nd2 Bf6 39.Qh7 Rf7 40.Qh6 Qe6 41.Qg6 Rg7 42.Rh7 Rxh7 43.Qxh7+ Be7 44.Kc1 Kc7 45.Nf3 Kd8 46.Ne5 g4 47.Qh8+ Kc7 48.Kd2 Kb7 49.Nxc6 Qxc6 50.Qe5 Nc7 51.Qxe7 Qg2 52.Qh4 f4 53.exf4 Qe4 54.Qxg4 Qxd4+ 55.Kc1 Qxf2 56.Qf5 Qf3 57.Kc2 Kc6 58.Qe5 Nd5 59.Qe6+ Kc5 60.Bxd5 Qxd5 61.Qxd5+ Kxd5 62.Kd3 a4 63.Kc3 Kc5 64.f5 1-0

WMCCC 1993
At the WMCCC 1993 the Mephisto Wundermaschine (Miracle Machine), running Genius on an internal 80486 PC, won the Manufacturers Group and the playoff versus Software Champion HIARCS for the title of the World Micro Absolute Champion.

Playoff Wundermaschine vs. HIARCS, Richard Lang, David Levy, Mark's father and Mark Uniacke

=Achievements= Richard Lang won ten times the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in a row, eight times with Mephisto, 1984 and 1987 with Psion, 1995 with Chess Genius.

=Mephisto People=

Programmers
Chess programmers associated with Mephisto computers :

Business People

 * Florian Glaser
 * Manfred Hegener
 * Ossi Weiner, Opening Book author and operator
 * Eric Winkler

=See also=
 * Hegener & Glaser
 * Mephisto Europa
 * Mephisto (H)
 * Mephisto MM II
 * Mephisto MM IV
 * Mephisto MM V
 * Mephisto Module Systems
 * Mephisto Mondial
 * Mephisto Montreux
 * Mephisto Polgar
 * Mephisto Rebell
 * Mephisto RISC
 * Saitek
 * The Mephisto Best-Publication Award

=Publications=
 * Detlef Pordzik (1999). Mephisto - Eine "teuflische" Firmengeschichte. Rochade Europa, 02-1999, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis

=Forum Posts=
 * Re: Which Mephisto Version Beat Deep Thought? by Steve B, CCC, January 04, 2005 » ACM 1989
 * Mephisto Modules Architecture and Interoperability by braeburn, CCC, May 03, 2007
 * Tournoi Mephisto 1985 by Eric Belot, Hiarcs Forum, June 08, 2009 » Mephisto MM II, Mephisto Amsterdam

=External Links=

Chess Computer

 * Mephisto (chess computer) from Wikipedia
 * Mephisto's ICGA Tournaments
 * About the company Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto) from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki
 * Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto) from ChessComputers.org
 * Chess Computers - The UK Story from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
 * Mephisto | Photo collection by Chewbanta
 * Mephisto from Saitek
 * Mephisto Electronic Chess Computers from The Spacious Mind
 * Back to the 80's with UCI by Ed Schröder » UCI

Misc

 * Mephisto (automaton) from Wikipedia
 * Mephistopheles from Wikipedia

=References=

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