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Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sac
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Christophe Théron



Joined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 815
Location: Guadeloupe (french caribbean island)
PostPost subject: Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa    Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 10:34 pm Reply to topic Reply with quote
JonP01 wrote:
As some of you might know, I have been very impressed with my new Novag Star Beryl. Not only is it's playing strength and style very surprising (if not amazing) for a 4K program, but it also has an excellent openings library full of variety. I've yet to see it repeat an opening after many games with it. Additionally, it does not seem prone to the afflictions that plague it's bigger brother (Star Opal / Carnelian II) - namely the ocassional bizarre blunders where it drops major pieces for no reason at all. Add to that a fine finish in exquisite textuered grey plastic and this machine is one of my firm favourites. What more could one ask for, except perhaps for a Deluxe version in simulated walnut a la Carnelian II (plastic, of course).

Yesterday I decided to see how long it would take to solve one of my favourite positions of all time - the aesthetically very pretty but deadly move 23...Qg3!! played by Frank Marshall against Stepan Levitsky in 1912:

[D] 5rk1/pp4pp/4p3/2R3Q1/3n4/2q4r/P1P2PPP/5RK1 b - - 0 23
   ::    ::    BR BK ::
BP BP ::    ::    BP BP
   ::    :: BP ::    ::
::    WR    ::    WQ    
   ::    BN    ::    ::
::    BQ    ::    :: BR
WP :: WP ::    WP WP WP
::    ::    :: WR WK    


To be honest I was wondering if the machine could solve this at all, since the longest variation is something like around 10 ply before all the smoke clears and the pieces are off the board.

I was amazed, however, to find that Star Beryl solved this position in a mere 12 seconds! Yes, that's 12 seconds for a mere 4K program running on an incredibly modest processor that can't even hope to compete with a 6301Y, let alone a 6502 Shocked

No question about it - this is amazing. I am starting to think that for practical play, this machine might even be better than the current Novag 16K programs, since (touch wood), it seems to be only slightly weaker, but it does not make those ocassional horrific blunders that the larger program makes (and which spoil otherwise good games).

That said, like even the best of the current Novags (Citrine, Star Ruby), the selective search can sometimes miss very obvious moves that other programs can pick up on quite easily. In this 40 moves in 2 hour game played yesterday, Beryl commits an inaccuracy in the opening leaving it fatally vulnerable on the A1 - H8 diagonal. The Saitek Maestro did not waste time inflicting a fatal blow. That makes the current match score between these two 1.5 - 0.5 in favour of Maestro.

[Event "40 in 2 Blair Athol"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2007.05.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Saitek Maestro"]
[Black "Novag Star Beryl"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D04"]
[PlyCount "107"]
[EventDate "2007.??.??"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. e3 g6 4. Nbd2 Nc6 5. Be2 e6 6. O-O Be7 7. b3 O-O 8. c4
Bd7 9. a3 Ne4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Nd2 f5 12. Bb2 Re8 13. Rc1 Qc8 14. Qc2 Qd8 15.
d5 exd5 16. cxd5 f4 17. dxc6 Bxc6 18. Qc3 Bf6 19. Qxf6 Qxf6 20. Bxf6 Kf7 21.
Bg5 fxe3 22. fxe3+ Kg7 23. Bf6+ Kh6 24. g4 g5 25. Rc5 Rf8 26. Bb5 Bxb5 27. Rxb5
b6 28. Nxe4 c5 29. Rd1 Rae8 30. Bxg5+ Kg6 31. Rd6+ Kf7 32. Rf6+ Kg8 33. Bh6 Rf7
34. Rxf7 Kxf7 35. Nd6+ Kg6 36. Nxe8 Kxh6 37. e4 Kg5 38. b4 Kxg4 39. bxc5 bxc5
40. Rxc5 Kf3 41. e5 h5 42. e6 Ke3 43. Nd6 h4 44. e7 Kd4 45. Ra5 Kc3 46. Rxa7
Kd3 47. a4 Kd4 48. a5 Kd5 49. Rd7 h3 50. a6 Kc5 51. a7 Kc6 52. e8=Q Kb6 53. Qh5
Kc6 54. Qb5# 1-0



Chess Tiger 2007 for PalmOS solves it at ply depth 4 in 1s (Palm TX, 768Kb hash tables).


// Christophe
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Subject Author Date/Time
Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sac JonP01 Sat May 12, 2007 9:15 pm
      Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Sat May 12, 2007 10:10 pm
      Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Christophe Théron Sat May 12, 2007 10:34 pm
      Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Uri Blass Sat May 12, 2007 11:35 pm
            Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Sat May 12, 2007 11:42 pm
                  Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa fernando Sat May 12, 2007 11:48 pm
                        Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Basham Sun May 13, 2007 12:12 am
                              Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Basham Sun May 13, 2007 12:20 am
                              Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Sun May 13, 2007 12:31 am
                  Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Sun May 13, 2007 12:27 am
                        Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Sun May 13, 2007 6:51 am
                              Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Sun May 13, 2007 2:57 pm
                                    Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Sun May 13, 2007 8:26 pm
                                          Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Sun May 13, 2007 10:20 pm
                                          Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa klute Mon May 14, 2007 12:13 pm
                                    Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa klute Mon May 14, 2007 12:39 pm
                                          Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Mon May 14, 2007 4:26 pm
                                                Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Tue May 15, 2007 1:08 am
      Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa nczempin Sun May 20, 2007 1:01 pm
            Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Mon May 21, 2007 11:15 am
                  Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Weck Mon May 21, 2007 12:16 pm
                        Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Mon May 21, 2007 12:55 pm
                              Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Weck Mon May 21, 2007 1:13 pm
                                    Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Steve B Mon May 21, 2007 1:24 pm
                                          Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Weck Mon May 21, 2007 1:42 pm
                                                Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm
                                                      Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Robert Weck Tue May 22, 2007 2:03 pm
                                                            Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa JonP01 Fri May 25, 2007 10:03 pm
                  Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa nczempin Tue May 22, 2007 9:39 am
                        Re: Impressive - Star Beryl finds Marshall Levitsky Queen sa Terry McCracken Fri May 25, 2007 11:31 pm
      I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. Georg Langrath Mon May 21, 2007 9:58 pm
            Re: I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. Steve B Tue May 22, 2007 12:54 am
                  Re: I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. Georg Langrath Tue May 22, 2007 6:27 am
            Re: I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. fernando Tue May 22, 2007 1:38 am
                  Re: I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. Georg Langrath Tue May 22, 2007 6:32 am
                        Re: I have killed my Star Beryl Plus. Unfortunately. nczempin Tue May 22, 2007 9:25 am
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