ChessChallenger wrote:I am Ron Nelson the inventor of Chess Challenger.
It is really nice to see you on this forum, Mr. Nelson!
I was thrilled when I got this Sensory Chess Challenger 8 as a birthday present from his parents in 1981. It greatly sparked my interest in chess and, together with the Commodore 64, in computer science. I have spent many pleasant hours playing this beautiful chess computer as I was proudly making my ways defeating the increasing levels.
Thanks for making this enjoyable machine!
[pgn]
[Date "sometimes in 1981"]
[White "a much younger Aart Bik"]
[Black "Chess Challenger (Level 1)"]
[Result "1-0"]
Nice quick game. I remember being extremely disappointed how easy it was to beat. Then I used it's pass feature to give it two moves in a row every other turn. I still beat it and never played it again. Sorry to say but was a total waste of money.
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Michael Sherwin wrote: Nice quick game. I remember being extremely disappointed how easy it was to beat. Then I used it's pass feature to give it two moves in a row every other turn. I still beat it and never played it again. Sorry to say but was a total waste of money.
As lousy as it played it was fascinating enough for quite some folks to step into the arena themselves. For progress you need competition and it played strong enough to give aspirant chess programmers a hard time before they could beat it.
As lousy as it played it was fascinating enough for quite some folks to step into the arena themselves. For progress you need competition and it played strong enough to give aspirant chess programmers a hard time before they could beat it.
Well said Ed, this is so true - for me, the best game my engine ever played was this one.... the first time it managed to beat the Chess Challenger 3!
Michael Sherwin wrote: Nice quick game. I remember being extremely disappointed how easy it was to beat. Then I used it's pass feature to give it two moves in a row every other turn. I still beat it and never played it again. Sorry to say but was a total waste of money.
As lousy as it played it was fascinating enough for quite some folks to step into the arena themselves. For progress you need competition and it played strong enough to give aspirant chess programmers a hard time before they could beat it.
Ron Nelsons programs / machines grew stronger over the years
With more ROM/RAM space and faster hardware. I have the Excalibur GRANDMASTER here in the living room beating the Mephisto Magellan ( that is Frans morsch on 32 bit with hash tables) in a 40/120 game.
One should better not underestimate Ron nelsons creatures...
I find it amazing that Ron was able to produce these machines over such a long distance in years and in ELO beginning with the chess challenger 1
Until today!
And still capable to stand the competition !!
Fighting the strong opponents.
Very well done Ron !!
Last edited by mclane on Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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