Superquerg vs Colossus Chess 4.0

[devwebcl]

Time ago I made a program to make play Superquerg vs Colossus Chess 4.0.

The idea was to do a Blitz, but finally I got only one game:

http://manillismo.blogspot.com/2013/01/superquerg-vs-colossus-chess-40.html

 

If any chess player would like to do an analysis for that game, there is a PGN game to download it.

 

--Devwebcl

[Magic Knight]

Time ago I made a program to make play Superquerg vs Colossus Chess 4.0.

The idea was to do a Blitz, but finally I got only one game:

http://manillismo.bl...s-chess-40.html

 

If any chess player would like to do an analysis for that game, there is a PGN game to download it.

 

--Devwebcl

 

On a side note, A while back i set up a league of the Atari only chess games playing each other

 

These were

 

1. Atari Chess (Atari)

2. Masterchess (Mastertronic uk)

3. Colossus chess 4 (CDS)

 

Colossus unsurprisingly came first, followed by Masterchess.

 

I also did these against state of the art 'engines' such as Rybka and Houdini (which kicked all of them as you would expect), however it was alsoup against the latest 'colossus engine (2008b) which does fairly well and has come a long way!

 

Colossus 2008b sits at 63 in the rankings which is high considering there are thousands overall with competing ELO's

 

http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

[russg]

On a side note, A while back i set up a league of the Atari only chess games playing each other

 

These were

 

1. Atari Chess (Atari)

2. Masterchess (Mastertronic uk)

3. Colossus chess 4 (CDS)

 

Colossus unsurprisingly came first, followed by Masterchess.

 

I also did these against state of the art 'engines' such as Rybka and Houdini (which kicked all of them as you would expect), however it was alsoup against the latest 'colossus engine (2008b) which does fairly well and has come a long way!

 

Colossus 2008b sits at 63 in the rankings which is high considering there are thousands overall with competing ELO's

 

http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

I think, in addition to colossus chess for the A8, the most common are Sargon II and III and Chessmaster 2000. I play Sargon III regularly, as it is about my speed. I modified it so the opening disk goes in D2:, you

don't have to remove the program disk and insert the openings disk. Actually, I made Sargon III a binary load file. I never heard of atarichess and masterchess. I play Chessmaster 7000 on the PC. I think Chessmaster is

up to about version 11 for PC. I loaded one of the querg vs cc4 games. White got the advantage very early and never lost it. Chessmaster 7000 analyzed it. Put the opening book in D2: before running SARG3.COM.

A8Sargon3.zip

Edited January 6, 2013 by russg

[Magic Knight]

I think, in addition to colossus chess for the A8, the most common are Sargon II and III and Chessmaster 2000. I play Sargon III regularly, as it is about my speed. I modified it so the opening disk goes in D2:, you

don't have to remove the program disk and insert the openings disk. Actually, I made Sargon III a binary load file. I never heard of atarichess and masterchess. I play Chessmaster 7000 on the PC. I think Chessmaster is

up to about version 11 for PC.

 

I normally play chessmaster 10 on the pc for all round enjoyment, but i love the thrill of pitting my wits against the A8! (CC4 or masterchess)

 

Masterchess can be found here: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari_search_109.97.115.116.101.114.32.99.104.101.115.115._8_G.html

 

Masterchess was ported across many platforms in the uk and was was one of mastertronics top sellers, which considering how many other games MT made overall was quite a feat,

 

 

Atari chess is the original one on 16k: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari_search_99.111.109.112.117.116.101.114.32.99.104.101.115.115._8_G.html

[AtariMagic!]

which is the one that was ported to the 5200 ?

[Magic Knight]

The port was on a thread here (plus the rom): http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/44025-chess-for-atari-5200/

 

Interesting that the original 2600 chess game was made purely because a picture of a chess piece was on the console packaging. As Atari didnt have an actual game it was seen by some as false advertising. Atari (US) was getting sued so they conceded in developing and fitting a complex engine on to such a small amount of ram - just to avoid litigation!

[JohnBuell]

Many years ago for kicks I ran the Lynx's Fidelity Chess Challenge against a couple of Chess programs, including the Atari cartridge, and it stomped over every single one of them.

[AtariMagic!]

Sargon 3 is slow but can't be defeated by me

Edited January 9, 2013 by AtariMagic!

[russg]

I think, in addition to colossus chess for the A8, the most common are Sargon II and III and Chessmaster 2000. I play Sargon III regularly, as it is about my speed. I modified it so the opening disk goes in D2:, you

don't have to remove the program disk and insert the openings disk. Actually, I made Sargon III a binary load file. I never heard of atarichess and masterchess. I play Chessmaster 7000 on the PC. I think Chessmaster is

up to about version 11 for PC. I loaded one of the querg vs cc4 games. White got the advantage very early and never lost it. Chessmaster 7000 analyzed it. Put the opening book in D2: before running SARG3.COM.

Oh, here's the commands for Sargon III.

 

 

 

ESC- See move list, or return to board display

New Game (CTRL-N)

Exit the program (CTRL-Q)

Level of difficulty select (SHIFT-1 to SHIFT-9)

1 easiest (60 moves, 5 minutes)

2 (60/15)

3 (60/30)

4 (60/60)

5 (30/55)

6 (40/110)

7 (30/180)

8 (40/6 hrs, 40 min.)

9 infinite, must terminate search with CTRL-T)

 

Terminate Search (force Sargon to move) (CTRL-T)

Switch sides with SARGON (CNTRL-S)

Invert the board (CNTRL-I)

Take back a move (CTRL-B)

Get a suggested move (CTRL-O)

Easy Mode (CTRL-E)

Verify mode (2 players) (CTRL-V)

Zap the beeper (CTRL-Z)

Offer Draw (seldom accepts) (CTRL-D)

Replay the game (CTRL-R)

Print list of moves (CTRL-P)

Write Board to printer (CTRL-W)

Save game to disk (CTRL-G)

Load game from disk (CTRL-L)

Analysis Mode (Set up the board) (CTRL-A)

K,P,R,N,B,Q C=Change color

Change side to move ie. skip player's move, force other side to move (CTRL-C)

Cancel opening library (CTRL-Y)

Watch computer think, ESC to exit (CTRL-J)

Change display color (1 to (do this at second opening screen)

Change display color while playing:

T- light squares

S- dark squares

U- light pieces

V- dark pieces

Y- Text screen darkness of letters

Z- Darkness of background, text screen

W- Text screen border color

 

(Fiddler's note: To change default colors, ie. colors that automatically

come up, edit sector 44, bytes $15 to $1A, as follows:

Probably colors you get will be the same as values poked in 'COLOR'

registers (decimal 708 to 712). Where hue is bits 7,6,5,4 and luminance

is bits 3,2,1. Bit 0 not used.)

 

Sector 44:

byte #

$15- text border

$16- light squares

$17- dark squares

$18- light pieces

$19- ?

$1A- dark pieces

 

I don't remember where the drive # specification is on the

program disk. I just changed a D1: to a D2: until the

progam accessed the opening book in drive 2.

 

The annoying 'attract' mode comes on after 10 minutes. I

haven't corrected this fault. Hit a key to stop the mode.

sarg3.txt

[devwebcl]

for those who haven't watched it yet, there is a chapter of Computer Chronicles where Lady Sargon (Kathe Spracklen) presents Sargon III for Mac;

http://archive.org/details/Computer1985_6

 

--devwebcl

[zbyti]

Is anyone know the year of publish SuperQuerg by John White (author of the Writing Strategy Games On Your Atari)?

 

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Querg 1988, 1990?

 

manual.pdf

Edited September 7, 2020 by zbyti
Querg - link

[Mclaneinc]

Had a quick look around and 1988 keeps popping up..Does not mean its right tho..

Edited September 7, 2020 by Mclaneinc

[zbyti]

1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said:

Does not mean its right tho..

mysterious case...  I am looking for a reference point in time for the chess knowledge of this period and the strength of this program.

Edited September 7, 2020 by zbyti
point in time

[StickJock]

On 1/7/2013 at 10:50 AM, Magic Knight said:

The port was on a thread here (plus the rom): http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/44025-chess-for-atari-5200/

 

Interesting that the original 2600 chess game was made purely because a picture of a chess piece was on the console packaging. As Atari didnt have an actual game it was seen by some as false advertising. Atari (US) was getting sued so they conceded in developing and fitting a complex engine on to such a small amount of ram - just to avoid litigation!

I remember that I used to play 2600 chess at the Atari kiosk in the store way back when.  I don't remember the year, but it must have been around 1980ish.

[Gunstar]

This thread came out back when I was out of the 8-bit scene for a while, so I never did see it until now.

 

A couple of years ago I started my own tournament comparing some chess games for the Atari. I just had two games running on two Atari's and made the moves for each computer on the opposite computer manually, to see which was the most sophisticated chess game for the Atari. I only matched up three games; Colossus Chess 4.1, Chessmaster 2000, Master Chess.  In the end, Chessmaster 2000 came up with the most wins, then Colossus Chess 4.1, which are very comparable with each other in the "smarts" department. Master Chess lost to the other two every time.

 

I also like Chessmaster 2000 and Colossus 4.1 the best for graphics, both have 2D and 3D views. I love the 3D views, which CM2K does best, with it's color medium resolution, but some may like the high-res monochrome of Colussus better. Either way, both are the two best chess games for the Atari I think. All the others seemed pretty primitive and I just didn't bother.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Gunstar

[zbyti]

Tournament provided by @urborg on A8. First screen is a A-class, second B-class players.

 

 

[JagChris]

Gameknot vs Computer Chess- Best of  3

 

I got a stupid idea but it was fun. Pitting Gameknot's online chess engine against Computer Chess. Loser of best of 3 gets difficulty turned up.(Up to game 5 on Computer Chess)

 

Gameknot-> start new game -> play vs computer

 

Computer Chess starts as white for each round then switches sides.

 

Game knot < 1000 (Easy)

VS LVL 8
Computer Chess -  LOST -  LOST

 

VS LVL 1
Computer Chess LOST -TIE-WON -LOST

 

 VS LVL 2

Computer Chess  LOST(badly.. Seriously?! Checks Gameknot difficulty setting)- WON- Stalemate -WON

 

Game knot ( ~ 1200 Beginner)

VS LVL 2

Computer Chess -WON  - Stalemate - LOST -  LOST

 

VS LVL 3
Computer Chess - Stalemate - WON - WON 

 

Gameknot ( ~ 1400 Casual)

VS LVL 3
Computer Chess - WON ( GK got spanked ) - LOST (GK spanked back harder ) -  WON

Gameknot ( ~ 1600 Intermediate )

VS LVL 3
Computer Chess - LOST ( I thought CC was going to take first game but midway thru the tables suddenly turned. GG) -  LOST

 

VS LVL 4
Computer Chess - LOST ( Like watching two closely matched fighters circle and jab at each other looking for weaknesses ) - LOST ( opening was a mini disaster for CC that it surprisingly recovered from. In the end tho...)

 

VS LVL 5
Computer Chess - LOST - LOST ( halfway through both games CC finds itself a step behind and getting chipped away at)

This exercise assumes a couple of things. That the rankings on Gameknot.com are accurate and the website and it's settings for online play against the computer are working correctly. With that I will make the disclaimer that this is for entertainment purposes only.

Edited April 5, 2023 by JagChris