When I worked on the London Stock Exchange, a collegue showed me a stunning chess machine that had been sold to him cheaply by a client. It was a regular chess computer but what made it special was the board. It was about 1987 and I don't remember it well. It must have costs thousands originally.
The board had some depth to it – an inch or so – and in that layer void operated an electric motor and sliding levers connected to a magnet. Above a thin wooden board were the pieces – all with magnets or ferrous material in the base.
One made a move in the regular way and then waited for the chess computer to respond. The response took the form of one's opponent's pieces sliding across the board - apparently by themselves! My friend demonstrated how pieces taken, would miraculously slide their way off the board, manoeuvring between other pieces!
I have never seen one before or since.
Does anyone know any more?
Originally posted by King GambitI've seen one of those for sale at the mall a 15-20 years ago.
When I worked on the London Stock Exchange, a collegue showed me a stunning chess machine that had been sold to him cheaply by a client. It was a regular chess computer but what made it special was the board. It was about 1987 and I don't remember it well. It must have costs thousands originally.
The board had some depth to it – an inch or so – and in ...[text shortened]... between other pieces!
I have never seen one before or since.
Does anyone know any more?
Hi.
I had to go work just as I posted this morning.
Had one in my shop window and at night I use to set it up for 15 minutes a move.
My shop was right next to the bus top and a few doors along from Sandy Bells.
When I came out of Bells you would often see people staring at it
with one person saying;
"Honestly, I tell you, I saw it move."
and nobody else believing them.
It was simply fascinating to watch it re-set the pieces up for the start of a new game.
Bought 5 at cost and sold the lot. Tidy profit.
It was in that shop I met a young student called Matthias Wullenweber,
Who he?
He first had the idea to develop a software program to store his many chess
games and despite me telling him it was a naff idea. (I really did!).
He went ahead anyway.
Then of course the internal memory of computers was not very huge and
the thought of carrying around 3 inch floppy discs did not appeal.
You will most likely know Matthias Wullenweber's software idea as ChessBase.
It's a good thing that friend Matthias Wullenweber did not post his idea in
Site Ideas on here. We would still be using chess score books.