CHESS CHRLLENGER OWNER'S MANUAL. FIDELITY ELECTRONICS, LTD- 36th STREET. MIAMI, FLORIDA 33178 P/N 006-1048A01 Patent NO. Quality Made In US A. SECTION ONE —OPERATION INTRODUCTION Your MINI SENSORY CHESS CHALLENGER is designed and programmed to help you learn how to play chess if you're a beginner, and to provide an interesting opponent. Fidelity Micro Chess Challenger This Fidelity Micro Chess Challenger (2nd release) was published around 1988 (there is some advertising for the Excellence Voice, the Designer 2000 and the Designer 2100 in the user guide). It has a similar size as the Novag Solo. At the higher level (64), it answers in less than 30s. There is no 'take back. Excerpt taken from the Fidelity Sensory Chess Challenger 8 user manual, leaflet and box. FIDELITY SENSORY CHESS CHALLENGER 8 - Picture taken from box. Numerous other features, includes durable molded housing, uses four “C” size batteries (batteries not included) or plug-in transformer, 100% solid state. I offer for your review, a 150 dpi scan, cover to cover, of the user manual for the Fidelity Phantom Chess Challenger (Model 6100). Excerpt taken from the Fidelity Micro Chess Challenger I user manual and box. FIDELITY MICRO CHESS CHALLENGER I Electronic Chess Computer - Picture taken from box. Two versions were made by Fidelity. This version has 12 Buttons, the other version has 16 Buttons. The software and play strength seems to be the same in both versions.
One of the few 'premium' vintage chess computers from my 2000s collection that I didn't sell down the river was the Elite A/S Chess Challenger from 1983, made by industry pioneers Fidelity Electronics, Florida. Fidelity had introduced the 'Chess Challenger' series in 1977, the first commercially available micro chess computer (although only its successor, the slightly improved 'Chess Challenger 3', was distributed outside the US). The 1983 Elite version was a premium machine of its day, and this first version contained the programme by Dan & Käthe Spracklen that won the '3rd World Micro Computer Chess Championship' in Budapest, Hungary - hence the monicker 'Elite Budapest'. Its engine offered a substantial improvement over the first CC machines, which were programmed by Ron Nelson and only reached ELO 12-1300 (SSDF). The Budapest programme is estimated to play at ELO 1750 in tournament mode (40m/2h).
Those were the days when people were willing to spend real money for wood-veneer 'electronic chessboards' - the Elite Budapest cost USD 1,500 in 1983 money when released - inflation-adjusted, that's almost USD 4,000 in today's money. If you want to buy a vintage Elite Budapest in good condition, accessories included, nowadays, expect to spend about the original USD 1,500. I bought mine in the early 2000s for less than USD 400 - quite a nice profit. Theoretically, of course, since they'd have to grab this computer from my cold, dead hands.
The pieces were rather nice indeed, though not particularly heavy, and the magnetism was quite weak, too. Could be a problem during a Blitz game.
The main attraction, apart from the programme and the stylishly designed wood veneer board, was that the Fidelity Elite offered one of the first auto-sensory boards (hence, 'A/S') with precise magnetic sensors that were responsive enough even for a Blitz game. Even on this, my now 36 year-old machine, the reed contacts work perfectly.
Also, like its predecessors, the CC 'Voice' and the CC 'Sensory Voice' (a with pressure-sensitive board), it can talk. Fidelity provided the electronic voice in a variety of languages, and mine speaks German:
It had a little speech impediment though. It couldn't pronounce the German word for castling, 'Rochade'. Instead, it said 'Onad'.
The board is 45.5 x 48.5 cm in size, with a field size of 45mm (1.75') - so, not quite tournament size.
The Fidelity Elite can with a 6,100 half-move opening library - which you could boost to 16,100 if you purchased their 'CB 16 Openings Book' module:
To insert a module, you first had to unplug the machine, press the moduke into the slot, then power it up again. Ideally, you could then proceed with the ongoing game, as the Fidelity Elite had an internal battery to save the latest game.
Although the board had a fair number of control buttons ...
... sometimes you had to use more elaborate methods to access its various functions.
E.g., to start a new game you had to press 'Game Control', then lift the black queen on D8, then press 'Clear' - The computer would reset itself and greet you again with 'Hallo. Ich bin der Chess Challenger von Fidelity, Ihr elektronischer Schachfreund. Wählen Sie Ihre Spielstärke....' You were well advised to better turn off the machine before a new game though, as moving each piece into the starting position would be greeted with an 'Illegal move ... illegal move ... illegal move' message.
Several board sensors had a specific function...
... a method that was carried to its (il)logical extreme by assigning a function to every single field in the later Fidelity chess computers of e.g. the 'Designer' series.
The Fidelity A/S Budapest offered 8 levels of gameplay (incl. two different tournament modes, 40m/2h & 40m/2.5h) plus three special levels: in the first you could decide the time per move between 1 second and 9 minutes in 99 seconds; in the second, 1 minute to 9 hours and 99 minutes for the whole game; and a third for 1 minute to 9 hours 99 minutes for a specific number of moves.
The maximum ply-depth for solving problems is 32 half movies - you can probably guess how long it would take this machine to actually solve a Mate in 15.
As you can imagine, playing on this fairly large wooden board is a lot of fun.
One of the gripes I always had with Fidelity computers was their proprietary mains adapter, and the fact that part of the power cable was attached to the machine itself, which caused many a Chess Challenger to 'die' as the years progressed.
For such an expensive gadget, the packaging was almost insultingly dull and plain:
However, it did come with rather voluminous printed instructions (in typewriter font!), which you can still find online here: http://www.progettosnaps.net/manuals/pdf/feasbu.pdf
Fidelity Chess Challenger
Dan & Käthe Spracklen became staff programmers for Fidelity Electronics until Sid Samole sold his company to its German competitor Hegener & Glaser (of Mephisto fame) when he correctly sensed that the era of expensive dedicated chess computers was coming to an end. The Spracklens improved their engine considerably in the years to come: In its final version, the Elite V11, it achieved an ELO of over 2300 SSDF (about 2500 USCF).
The Elite 'Budapest' calculated about 6-7 (max) half moves ahead in a normal middle game position in tournament mode, which was good for its time. The engine was focused on tactical strength, thus mostly of the Shannon A (aka 'Brute Force') variety. Thus, it favored complex middle games with many tactical opportunities over positional concerns. Against its Mephisto rivals at the time, it usually won in complex middle games, but if the Mephistos could 'wipe' the board clean early on, the Fidelity would be at a disadvantage in the end game.
Chess Challenger Download
Hope you liked this glimpse into one of the most popular 'premium' chess computers of its time.