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 [2]
[3]. The ICCA Journal report on the First Soviet Computer-Chess Championship 1988 by Mikhail Donskoy and Jonathan Schaeffer [4] 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 [5].
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 [6]. 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 [7].
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
- ↑ Elektronika IM - 01 from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
- ↑ Confirmed by Sergei Frolov
- ↑ Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia - Svetlana Factory
- ↑ Mikhail Donskoy, Jonathan Schaeffer (1988). Report on the 1st Soviet Computer-Chess Championship or re-awakening a sleeping giant. ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, Nos. 2/3
- ↑ Elektronika IM - 01 from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
- ↑ Mikhail Donskoy, Jonathan Schaeffer (1988). Report on the 1st Soviet Computer-Chess Championship or re-awakening a sleeping giant. ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, Nos. 2/3
- ↑ Alexander Timofeev (1989). Report on the 1st International Chess-Computer Tournament in the USSR. ICCA Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2