Due to an overwhelming demand by the CCC membership(one member) .. the Novag Diablo will be next up for its check up from the neck up
the Diablo and the non wooden Scorpio were Novag's only chess computer's to utilize the 68000 processor as the Company preferred to cling onto the 6502 and then jumping to the H8
Programmed by Kittinger and rated 2012(SS) it is considered some what rare today and highly sought after by Collectors worldwide:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/cpaa2@sbcgl ... 6780034/71
its opponent is the also rare Mephisto Nigel short programmed by our own Ed Schroder
rated 1987(SS) it was released to take commercial advantage of the World Championship match between Sir Nigel and Kasparov
Amusingly when Ed was recently asked about the NS(in a thread here about 6 months ago) he denied any involvement with the computer
spurring some members to quip that if the programmer himself never even heard of the computer then it must be very rare indeed!
after a few short posts Ed did eventually recall programming it though
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/cpaa2@sbcgl ... 789300/129
the coin toss went to Diablo who elected to play with the Dark pieces
when asked why it would prefer to move second ..it was overhead saying..
"Let Short take his best shot!..Bring it Dude!"..(or something similar to that effect)
Game /30 Minutes
in the game Diablo was out of book first at move 7
NS searched typically 5 ply and 500-600 positions per second
and Diablo cranked out 6 ply and roughly 1500 nodes per second
[White "Mephisto Nigel Short"]
[Black "Novag Diablo"]
[Time Control "Game/30 Min."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.O-O
O-O 9.c3 Bg4 10.e6 d5 11.exf7+ Rxf7 12.Nbd2 e5 13.Qe3 exd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd4
15.cxd4 Qf6 16.Re1 Qxd4 17.h3 Qxe3 18.Rxe3 Bd7 19.Nf3 Raf8 20.Re1 c5
21.a4 c4 22.a5 cxb3 23.axb6 axb6
[d] 5rk1/1p1b1rbp/1p4p1/3p4/8/1p3N1P/1P3PP1/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 24
Diablo is up 2 pawns but they are tripled
interestingly. throughout this game i noticed that both computers returned PV's that were always very similar,never diverging by more then
+\- 1/2 a pawn
here the Diablo returns +1.42 while Nigel shows -1.54
24.Re3 d4 25.Rxb3 Bc6 26.Rxb6 Bxf3
27.gxf3 d3 28.Bd2 Rxf3 29.Be3 R3f7 30.Rd1 Rd7 31.Rb3 Rfd8 32.Bb6 Ra8
33.Rdxd3 Rxd3 34.Rxd3 Bxb2 35.Rd7 Rf8 36.Rxb7
[d] 5rk1/1R5p/1B4p1/8/8/7P/1b3P2/6K1 b - - 0 36
Sir Nigel has regained its pawns and the position has drifted into a lifeless draw
not wishing to be accused of ending hostilities too quickly i insisted that the two continue the game to at least get past move 40
36..Rf7 37.Rb8+ Kg7 38.Kg2 Be5
39.Rc8 Kf6 40.Kf3 Kf5 41.Be3 Rd7 42.Rc5 Rd8 43.Rb5 Rc8
FINAL POSITION
[d] 2r5/7p/6p1/1R2bk2/8/4BK1P/5P2/8 w - - 0 44
its a dead draw
both computers showed valuations of less then .05
with the rooks off the board White could even sac its bishop for blacks G pawn and still draw
"Bring it Dude"
Pfft Regards
Steve
