Commercial Chess Programs

[M Valvo]

I see there has been a lot of talk lately about commercially available
Chess Computers. Thought I add my two cents. I have to be careful, though,
because of my position of tournament director at many compter chess
championships.

The Chess Machine. Well, I just bought one last night. It certainly is
strong. I had to work hard to break even at 5 minute chess (5 seconds per
move for the machine). I know of a problem with chips getting too hot and
the machine seizing up. I personally am not experiencing that problem, but
know that at least three people in the world who have. I seem to have a
problem with my program, though, because it doesn't seem to recognize my
bus mouse. Estimate of 5 minute playing strength: 2500.

Fritz. Yet to be released ChessBase compatible program. Fun to play and
quite strong. Will be available in August. Saw Don Maddox create an opening
book for it by simply feeding in all the Informata #50 games. Took about
two seconds to set up! Was able to transpose back into book if it came out.
Seems to have been designed for tactics and 5 minute chess. Could easily be
used to practice against an opening database. My guess at its 5 minute
playing strength: 2400.

M_CHESS. Probably best PC only program around (i.e. no hardware). Fischer
(yes, Bobby) has it, but considers it "weak". He only has a '286 12 MHz
portable, though. Probably around 2400 5 minute playing strength as well.

Zarkov. Strong and lots of features. Have it and would recommend it, but
not in the same class, strength wise, as the rest.

KarpovSoft. A database, not a playing program. Has been released in parts of
Europe (that's what Karpov told me). Brilliant concept, similar to Bookup,
where every game in the database is part of a hugh tree. Has logical functions
such as union and join. Support will be an issue.

--Mike Valvo