OLD Dedicated Chess Computers

In 1985 I bought a Fidelity Electronics "Elite Auto-Sensory" chess computer, cost about $500 US, and it was supposedly tournament rated at 2100 USCF.
I still own it, and with it's large wooden board and pieces, I find it a charming way to play chess when no human opponent is available. I am rated 1850, and beating it is still an accomplishment for me at a minute per move.
Does anyone out there own one of the latest dedicated chess computers? How good are they now, compared to the 20 year old dinosaur I have?

Originally posted by Drumbo
In 1985 I bought a Fidelity Electronics "Elite Auto-Sensory" chess computer, cost about $500 US, and it was supposedly tournament rated at 2100 USCF.
I still own it, and with it's large wooden board and pieces, I find it a charming way to play chess when no human opponent is available. I am rated 1850, and beating it is still an accomplishment for me at ...[text shortened]... edicated chess computers? How good are they now, compared to the 20 year old dinosaur I have?

I remember meeting a former USCF master in Los Angeles who used to sell those. They were huge. Does it have the printer with it?
He claimed they where strong, (at the time) My old fidelity can still give me a game at the higher levels, but is weak in the first few. I imagine that one is similar,

No, I don't have the printer, but it's a large wooden board. I play it at one minute a move, and can about hold my own against it.

Originally posted by Drumbo
No, I don't have the printer, but it's a large wooden board. I play it at one minute a move, and can about hold my own against it.

It might be collectible. Its a cool set, and you should keep it.
If you can get a good game from it cool.
There are handhelds that are deticated chess programs that range from 1500 to 2500 strengh.(novags, fidelitys, etc)
I use PC software, but started out on the board computer sets.
Have you checked out the USCF site for what their selling nowdays?

I'm suprised it does so well compared to today's computers....1985, we're talking about an 8 bit processor running at 4 MEGAHERTZ, with maybe 32k of RAM, yet it plays quite well against me (I'm a USCF "A" player)
I play it against Fritz 7 on my home computer that's light years ahead of it, and it loses, but just barely.

Originally posted by Drumbo
I'm suprised it does so well compared to today's computers....1985, we're talking about an 8 bit processor running at 4 MEGAHERTZ, with maybe 32k of RAM, yet it plays quite well against me (I'm a USCF "A" player)
I play it against Fritz 7 on my home computer that's light years ahead of it, and it loses, but just barely.

Any way to juice it up? maybe an email to the Fidelity company. They might have some suggestions

Well, it's dedicated. Who knows what today's commercial PCs actually do with the extra RAM and processing power when they have to "think out the moves for this human's fancy game when I can indulge in cyber stimulation".

A brief search on google to see what you were talking about would seem to indicate that Fidelity Electronics no longer exists.

Yes, Fidelity is long out of business, which is a shame. In the late 80's they introduced a line of lower priced chess computers in the $100 range called the mach 3, mach 3 turbo, then finally the mach4, which I believe were put in tournaments and rated about 2300 uscf. The best dedicated computers today aren't much better, for some reason.

Originally posted by Drumbo
Yes, Fidelity is long out of business, which is a shame. In the late 80's they introduced a line of lower priced chess computers in the $100 range called the mach 3, mach 3 turbo, then finally the mach4, which I believe were put in tournaments and rated about 2300 uscf. The best dedicated computers today aren't much better, for some reason.

Maybe there was more a demand for smaller portable chess computers, rather than stronger ones (how many people need a portable over 2300?)

Originally posted by Drumbo
In 1985 I bought a Fidelity Electronics "Elite Auto-Sensory" chess computer, cost about $500 US, and it was supposedly tournament rated at 2100 USCF.
I still own it, and with it's large wooden board and pieces, I find it a charming way to play chess when no human opponent is available. I am rated 1850, and beating it is still an accomplishment for me at ...[text shortened]... edicated chess computers? How good are they now, compared to the 20 year old dinosaur I have?

I turned up a bit of history on Fidelity Electronics, and apparantly they were purchased by Hegener and Glaser which in turn was aquired by Saitek. Meanwhile, the son of Fidelity's former owner is the founder of Excalibur. It's an interesting connection as I was wondering how your 20 year old computer compares with my little Excalulibur hand-held LCD unit. By the sounds of it the Fidelity could easily win.

Thanks for the interesting info, skorj....yes, the little hand held lcd screen machines are still not too strong, from what I hear.

Originally posted by Drumbo
In 1985 I bought a Fidelity Electronics "Elite Auto-Sensory" chess computer, cost about $500 US, and it was supposedly tournament rated at 2100 USCF.
I still own it, and with it's large wooden board and pieces, I find it a charming way to play chess when no human opponent is available. I am rated 1850, and beating it is still an accomplishment for me at ...[text shortened]... edicated chess computers? How good are they now, compared to the 20 year old dinosaur I have?

I have owned 3 dedicated chess computers.

The first was a "Chess Challenger 7" from Sears. I can't remember who made it, and I can't remember what happened to it. I bought it around 1978 or 1979 for around $100. It was not very strong, but was good practice for my strength at the time.

Since then, I've bought two from Radio Shack. One a model number 1650 (bought probably in 1986 or so). The other a model number 1850 bought in about 1994. The 1650 I loaned out and never got back. I still have the 1850 and have not played it in years. I assume it still works. It could beat me last time I played it, but I'm not sure how it would fair now. I enjoy playing humans much more than computers.

The Chess Challenger 7 was a Fidelity product, and it was a bit weak...I bought a chess challenger 9 which was considerably stronger....the Mach 3, etc machines looked quite similar to the challenger series, but were quite strong, too bad they were Fidelity's last gasp.
I found my game improved considerably once I got a strong chess computer and started playing every day.

Originally posted by Drumbo
In 1985 I bought a Fidelity Electronics "Elite Auto-Sensory" chess computer, cost about $500 US, and it was supposedly tournament rated at 2100 USCF.
I still own it, and with it's large wooden board and pieces, I find it a charming way to play chess when no human opponent is available. I am rated 1850, and beating it is still an accomplishment for me at ...[text shortened]... edicated chess computers? How good are they now, compared to the 20 year old dinosaur I have?

That means that 2100 USCF fidelity chess computer is a 1800 ELO strength. So, that's probably why you're beating it. USCF is inflated.