I would just like to let you know that I have finished my English language User Guide for the RFT Chessmaster Diamond (with P10 and P11 modules). I first began work on this guide several years ago, however, upon coming back to it recently I realised there was quite a bit of information missing from it. The updated guide includes very detailed instructions on how to swap the modules, when to swap the modules, how to use both modules during Match (sudden death) mode, etc. Whilst it does not explain all there is to know about this machine, I believe it now covers all the essentials that users would ever need.
I stress that this is not an English translation of the German user manual. It seems that no one fluent in both German and English has tackled such a project, although admittedly such a translation might have taken many weeks if not months to do, given the complexity and highly technical nature of the original user manual.
I should point out that for anyone unfamiliar with this machine, it contains an extremely weak program, even with the enhanced program contained in the endgame module. I think some of this has to do with very limited search extensions for checks and captures (excluding swap offs). Because of this, even at 3 minutes per move it will often fall for simple two move traps because there might be an intervening check or delaying capture before a piece is lost.
Secondly, there seems to be a bug in the program that causes it to start playing suicidal moves for no reason whatsover. This generally occurs if it is about to lose a piece. It will attempt to throw away another piece simply to delay the loss of the first one!
Here is an example of what I mean. This was a test game I was playing against it this morning:
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a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
r2q1rk1/pppn1ppp/3pb3/8/4P1nP/2QB1NB1/PPP2PP1/2K1R2R b - - 0 1
In the above position with Chessmaster Diamond as black, play continued:
1....Bxa2
2. b3 Nc5
3. Kb2 Nxf3
Thirdly, if a situation arises where it happens to be in a clearly winning position come the endgame, it will actually often attempt to seek a draw via three-fold repetition. And to make matters worse, if the opponent does not play ball in wishing to repeat the position, Chessmaster Diamond will still continue repeating the position for it's own colour, even if it means leaving pawns en prise. In every endgame I have seen where it actually had a won position, it would drop pawns for no reason at all, other than the fact that it was trying to repeat the position for it's own colour whilst the opponent went on attacking the undefended pawns. Interestingly, it does not always repeat these blunders if the position is set up from scratch, even though the levels are the same and the time taken to move is the same. Sad, but true, I have not seen this machine win one single game yet, even against my weakest 4K machine, all because of the above mentioned problems.
Still, if you have one of these machines or wish to acquire one, you can download this manual which explains how to operate it.
I will be emailing it to Alain Zanchetta over the next day or two, so I hope it should be available for download within the next week or so.
Glad this project is over Regards
Jonathan