Does anyone have links to websites that still have CP chess program ratings for the old legacy programs? I mean from back when CP chess was getting started, circa late 70’s thru the 90’s.
Thank you for any help.
Which programs are you referring to? Fidelity Chess Challenger, Radio Shack, Sargon III, Apple Chess, Chessmaster 3000, Tech…….?
I’m not looking for the ratings of the mainframe programs, I’m looking for the ratings of the dedicated chess machines (Fidelity, SciSys, etc.) and programs you could load/install on PC’s (ChessMaster series and such).
The only ratings we have in US Chess records are from the 1980’s, and only one or two of the programs had gotten above 2200 by then.
The problem with the ratings is that most people don’t use the same settings that the ratings were validated at, they set them to much faster speeds because they don’t want to wait 5-10 minutes for the computer to respond.
Most of the programs these days are capable of 2400-level play at slow chess settings. How they scale down at faster settings is less clear, though even at fast settings programs tend not to make one-move blunders (unlike people.)
It’s too bad MSA only goes back to 1991. The US Open used to get a half-dozen or so models of the same computer each playing 12 rounds to get an official rating. Sometimes they were pulled in mid-tournament when the manufacturer discovers a bug that people were exploiting (particularly since the “computer corner” section of the tournament bulletin was well read when a computer lost). The manufacturers back then would have them paired with a tentative rating before an actual rating was assigned.
Oh, we’ve got several dozen of them in the database, with pre-1991 ratings, but figuring out what programs they were might not be easy from the name. I also see several of the mainframe programs (like Belle) in there.
For the most part, programs were assigned member type M, but there may be some exceptions to that and there appear to be some other instances of ‘M’ being assigned that may not be a computer.
I have a few of the programs sitting on a shelf. The Chessmaster series, 2000, 2100, 3000, and 5000 when placed on the strongest/slowest time setting played somewhere between 1650 to low 1800 strength. They did not blunder too much, except on the faster settings. The very small database it had allowed you to look at old games by champions and some other strong players. The earliest version was on a 5.25 floppy. The 2100 had both 5.25 and 3.5 floppies. The 3000 and 5000 were on CDs. I have an 8000 that I found at Half Priced Books for $2, but I never played it because I soon bought Fritz 8. Sargon III was around 1300 to 1450 in playing strength. It fell for a lot of double attacks and frequently lost pawns in the endgame. The side for IBM clones played a bit better than the side for Apple machines as I recall. The program came out on a red 5.25 floppy disk. There was another program called World Class Chess that someone gave me, but I only played it a couple of times. The program was on a 5.25 floppy disk.
The Fidelity Chess Challenger, a dedicated machine plays at about the 1100 to 1200 level. I still have one that came in a carrying case. The talking feature burned out a long time ago. You type in the moves and it replies almost instantly. I think I got it for about $20 at an auction. I have let kids who are below 1000 play with it and they struggle with the device. Funny, it played endgames better than some of the disk programs.
I think I’ve eliminated the non-computer names from this list, but I probably can’t eliminate all the mainframe programs and I’m not sure how to match the other names up with commercial programs.
[code] memid memname rating
12454641 HITECH COMPX 2401
12455144 LACHEX COMPX 2328
12531358 M30X COMPX 2256
12544018 DKS-KL COMPX 2222
12520986 CHESSMATE !! COMPX 2222
11169627 BELLE COMPX 2193
12463699 TURBO X COMPX 2176
12473076 S6 COMPX 2162
12517547 CRAY - BLITZ COMPX 2147
12511957 M 26X COMPX 2138
12528567 THE SNIPER COMPX 2129
12473073 S3 COMPX 2120
12541697 RX2 COMPX 2116
12473078 S8 COMPX 2107
12532571 S29X COMPX 2065
12187860 BEE BEE COMPX 2064
12473075 S5 COMPX 2055
12473070 CHESS CHALLENGER COMPX 2047
12473077 S7 COMPX 2045
12455156 TURBO KASPAROV COMPX 2038
12431790 NUCHESS COMPX 2029
12473071 S1 COMPX 1991
12511956 S 27X COMPX 1982
12423440 SUPER CONSTELLATION COMP 1956
12473074 S4 COMPX 1951
12442056 TURBO STAR COMPX 1944
12455157 TURBO 640 COMPX 1914
12431789 B10 COMPX 1897
12490915 REX IV COMPX 1827
12433164 SUPERSTAR COMPX 1784
12474133 WAYCOOL COMPX 1781
12432968 MYCHESS II COMPX 1779
12477220 MEGACHESS! X COMPX 1705
12496773 TERMINATOR 2.0 COMPX 1676
12442413 SPOC 3.0 COMPX 1640
12463701 XERXES COMPX 1612
12248450 SFINKS COMPX 1602
12490916 PSION COMPX 1599
12455148 B11 COMPX 1599
12464097 REX COMPX 1394
[/code]
For 50 cents, I found a Radio Shack 1650 or something at a thrift shop in NC. I was vacationing at the time. I guess it’s suppose to be rated 1650, but it played terrible. I took the batteries out and donated it to the local Goodwill.
It was from the early 90’s. I wasn’t going to donate the batteries though. I bought some Duracell batteries, figuring I might use it for a long time. Sadly, it took exactly one game to figure out it wasn’t playing anywhere close 1650. At least, not 1650 USCF in today’s climate. Perhaps 1300 would be closer.