Chess+Challenger

was a series of dedicated chess computers produced and market by Fidelity Electronics. The //Chess Challenger 1// was the first commercial chess computer of its kind in 1976, invented by Sidney Samole, with a program by Ron Nelson, developed for an [|Altair 8800] Microcomputer with an Intel 8080 CPU. Further versions of Nelson's program run on a more advanced Z80 CPU, great commercial success was the //Chess Challenger 7// in 1979. Ed English, an early game programmer affiliated with Fidelity Electronics in 1979/80, improved the alpha-beta implementation to double the playing speed. toc =Photos =
 * Home * Engines * Chess Challenger**
 * [[image:4-2.Sensory_Chess_Challenger.Fidelity_Electronics.1982.102633899.lg.jpg link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=art-431614f446c99"]] ||~  || **Chess Challenger**, or **Fidelity Chess Challenger**,
 * Sensory Chess Challenger, 1982, 6502 ||~  ||^   ||
 * Sensory Chess Challenger, 1982, 6502 ||~  ||^   ||
 * [[image:CC1Proto.JPG width="640" link="http://www.ismenio.com/fidelity.html"]] ||
 * Chess Challenger Prototype, 1976, 8080 . ||

=Sargon becomes Challenger= In 1980, when Dan and Kathe Spracklen started to collaborate with Samole, a 6502 Version of Chess Challenger was built for a Sargon III port. The 6502 was better suited for Sargon than Z80. Excerpt from their oral history how it went with Fidelity :

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WMCCC 1980, MCC 1980
The immediate success was the lucky win of the 1st World Microcomputer Chess Championship, September 4 to 9, 1980, in London. Chess Challenger with a 6502 CPU, notably winning last three of five rounds against three of four other Sargon incarnations! While the ICGA tournament site states a Z80A CPU, Kevin O’Connell reported the World Microcomputer Chess Champion was equipped with a [|MOS Technology] processor, despite newest Fidelity computers were shipped with Z80/Z80A. As further confirmed by Fidelity Electronics' Vice President Myron Samole in an Personal Computing interview, the Champion Sensory Challenger, which also won the MCC 1980 at September 5 to 7 in [|San Jose, California] had a program written around the 6502 chip. //Chess Challenger Sensory Voice//, a Z80 based Nelson Program as Micro Champ? ||
 * [[image:ChessChallengerBroschure.jpg link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N05/859069920/sizes/l/in/photostream/"]] ||
 * German Chess Challenger brochure with [|Prof. Heinz Haber] endorsement

WCCC 1980
The //Chess Challenger// which played the WCCC 1980 end of September in Linz and finished last was presumably an older Z80 based computer with a Nelson program. Fidelity's flagship end of the 70s, with World Champion 1980 advertisement was the //Chess Challenger Sensory Voice//. The first 6502 based computer with a Spracklen program commercially available appeared in 1981 as //Champion Sensory Chess Challenger//.

ACM 1980
The strong third place at the ACM 1980 in October was again a great success, only losing to Belle in the last round. Description given from the ACM booklet with mentioned authors Dan and Kathe Spracklen, Ronald Nelson, Frank Duason

=Name Confusion= Using the same name at almost the same time for programs with different authors and CPU architectures caused some confusion by potential customers, not to mention tournament organizers. Accordant to their product lineup and nomination, and caused by former tournament rules, permitting multiple, but different named entries from the same author, and commercial availability of participating computers, Fidelity Electronics somehow was "forced" to continue the naming obfuscation in further tournaments, where Fidelity computers with Spracklen programs participated as Fidelity X, Challenger-X, Elegance, Elite, Private Line, and Sensory.  =Chess Challenger X=

ACM 1986
In 1986, at the 17th ACM North American Computer Chess Championship, Fidelity showed up with a huge experimental, parallel machine, named //Chess Challenger X//. Authors were Ron Nelson, Dan Spracklen, Kathe Spracklen, and Danny Kopec as Book author. It had a Z80 controller, and 16 or more 68000 16-bit processors. The controller was written in C, the 16 or more Spracklen programs in assembler.

Chess Challenger X scored 50%, losing from Recom and Belle. Notably, in the same tournament, another Fidelity computer programmed by the Spracklens with a Kopec book took part, as Fidelity Experimental with a 68020 processor. It did not score better in that strong field and finally placed 10th.

ACM 1988
At the ACM 1988, the new experimental version of a 68030 based micro called //Chess Challenger X// showed a remarkable performance. Mentioned authors from the tournament report by Monty Newborn and Danny Kopec were Dan and Kathe Spracklen as well as Ron Nelson. The 32-bit program, written in 68030 assembly language, drew Deep Thought and won versus Waycool, the current World Champion Cray Blitz, and HiTech. Chess Challenger X was likely the forerunner of the commercial available //Fidelity Elite Avant Garde V9//. One year later, at the WCCC 1989 in Edmonton, a similar machine, presumably with a further developed program, played under the name Fidelity X and finished sixth.

=CC Clones=
 * Cassia Chess Mate
 * SC 1
 * SC 2

=See also=
 * Fidelity
 * Fidelity Electronics
 * Ron Nelson
 * Sidney Samole
 * Dan Spracklen
 * Kathe Spracklen
 * Spracklens with Apple II ICE

=Publications=

1978 ...

 * Editor (**1978**). //Black-box war//. Personal Computing, Vol. 2, No. 11, pp. 17, November 1978 » Boris
 * Don Gerue, Russ McNeil (**1979**). //Chess Challenger-10 wins Microchess Tourney//. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 63 » The Penrod Memorial Microchess Tournament
 * John Larkins (**1979**). //Inside Chess Challenger//. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 11, pp. 78
 * Editor (**1979**). //Misadvantages of a Chess Traveler//. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 12, pp. 75

1980 ...

 * Sidney Samole (**1980**). //[|Genius Offspring]//. [|Changing Times], refers Personal Computing, February 1979
 * Evan Katz (**1980**). //Chess Challenger's Voice comes out of Both Sides of its Mouth//. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 80
 * Harry Shershow (**1981**). //The MyChess-CSC Confrontation at San Jose//. Personal Computing, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 79 » MCC 1980, Interviews with David Kittinger and Mike Samole
 * John F. White (**1981**). //[|Survey-Chess Games]//. Your Computer, [|August/September 1981]
 * John F. White (**1982**). //[|Review-Morphy V Champion]//. Your Computer, [|January 1982]
 * John F. White (**1982**). //[|Review-Chess Computers]//. Your Computer, [|March 1982]

2000 ...

 * Rob van Son (**2002**). //De schaakcomputer daagt u uit!//. Computerschaak, [|pdf] hosted by Hein Veldhuis (Dutch)

=Forum Posts=

1998 ...

 * [|Re: Old chess challenger 7 algorithms] by Fernando Villegas, CCC, April 06, 1998
 * [|Something More About Chess Challenger 7] by Fernando Villegas, CCC, April 06, 1998
 * [|Fidelity Sensory Chess Challenger 8] by Jim Phillips, CCC, September 20, 1998
 * [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 7] by Joseph R. Coppola, CCC, January 21, 1999

2000 ...

 * [|Instruction Book For Fidelity Chess Challenger] by John Burton, CCC, February 22, 2000
 * [|What was Chess Challenger 7 thinking?] by Rich Van Gaasbeck, CCC, March 06, 2002
 * [|I Think I have Chess Challenger 7 search depths correctly now] by Rich Van Gaasbeck, CCC, March 08, 2002
 * [|Fidelity Sensory Chess Challenger 8] by Eric Guttenberg, CCC, February 20, 2005
 * [|Chess Champion Sensory Challenger Asked] by Fernando Villegas, CCC, March 06, 2006

2010 ...
> [|Re: Ron Nelson] by Chessmaster Ireland, Hiarcs Forum, January 02, 2016 > [|Re: Ron Nelson Chess Challenger 10] by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, January 24, 2016
 * [|Fidelity World Champion Challenger] by Larry, Hiarcs Forum, December 03, 2013
 * [|Ron Nelsons dedicated chess computers] by mclane, Hiarcs Forum, April 26, 2015
 * [|Re: Ron Nelson] by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 29, 2015
 * [|Re: Ron Nelson maybe will come here...] by Ron Nelson, CCC, February 03, 2016
 * [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 3 Components] by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, February 03, 2016

=External Links=
 * [|Challenger's ICGA Tournaments]
 * [|Fidelity Electronics] from [|chesscomputers.org]
 * [|Fidelity Champion Sensory Challenger Electronic Chess Computer] from The Spacious Mind
 * [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 1] from Adam's [|Computer Chess Pages], May 30, 2012
 * [|Fidelity] from [|Schachcomputer.info Wiki] (German)
 * [|Sargon immer noch Marktführer:: Mikros noch ohne Großmeister-Format], Computerwoche, November 28, 1980 (German) » WCCC 1980, WMCCC 1980

Chess Challenger Voices
hosted by [|Tom Luif]
 * [|English]
 * [|French]
 * [|German]

Editions
[|Fidelity Chess Challenger (CC1)] [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 1] || Ron Nelson || 8080 ||  || [|Chess Challenger 3], [|CC1 vs CC3] || Ron Nelson || 8080, 2 MHz ||  || [|Fidelity Super 9] || Dan and Kathe Spracklen || 6502, 2 MHz ||  || [|Fidelity USCF Special Edition] || Dan and Kathe Spracklen || 6502, 2.5 MHz ||  || Ron Nelson, Danny Kopec || Z80, 16 x 68000 ||  ACM 1986, 7th || Ron Nelson || 68030 || ACM 1988, 2nd ||
 * ~ Year ||~ Product Link(s) ||~ Author(s) ||~ Processor ||~ Tournaments ||
 * 1977 || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 1]
 * || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 3]
 * 1978 || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 10] || Ron Nelson || Z80, 4 MHz ||  ||
 * 1979 || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger 7] || Ron Nelson || Z80 ||  ||
 * || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger Voice] || Ron Nelson || Z80, 4 MHz ||  ||
 * 1980 || [|Fidelity Voice Sensory Chess Challenger] || Ron Nelson || Z80, 4 MHz ||  ||
 * || [|Fidelity Decorator Challenger] || Ron Nelson || Z80, 4 MHz ||  ||
 * 1981 || [|Fidelity Chess Challenger Mini Sensory] || Ron Nelson || [|80C50], 6 MHz ||  ||
 * || [|Fidelity Champion Sensory Chess Challenger] || Dan and Kathe Spracklen || 6502, 2 MHz || WMCCC 1980, 1st ||
 * 1982 || [|Fidelity Super 9 Sensory Chess Challenger]
 * || [|Fidelity USCF Special Edition]
 * 1986 || Chess Challenger X || Dan and Kathe Spracklen
 * 1988 || Chess Challenger X || Dan and Kathe Spracklen

=References= =What links here?= include component="backlinks" page="Chess Challenger" limit="80"
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