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		Gideon, a Rebel based series of chess programs developed by Ed Schröder and marketed by TASC and Hegener & Glaser in conjunction with plug-in cards as well as dedicated chess computer modules based on ARM2 RISC processors. The native PC program Mephisto Gideon was developed in cooperation with Hegener & Glaser, and later marketed by Ossi Weiner and various other companies and dealer. The World Microcomputer Champion and World Champion titles from 1991 and 1992 look a bit ambiguous, since they are not only dedicated to Gideon or the 1992 entry ChessMachine (with a Gideon program), advertised by TASC for the ChessMachine and Hegener & Glaser for the Mephisto RISC modules, but from Ed's perspective also to Rebel itself [1] .
Gideon [2]

RISC

Gideon was the name of the first ARM2 RISC version of Rebel, running on a TASC ISA card for an IBM PC. It became third at the WMCCC 1990 in Lyon, and World Microcomputer Champion at the WMCCC 1991 in Vancouver ^[3] . The further improved Gideon 3.1/32 MHz ChessMachine became World Champion at the WCCC 1992 in Madrid. RISC Gideon was further marketed as PC plug-in ChessMachine by TASC in bundle with The King program by Johan de Koning ^[4] , and as dedicated chess computer of the Mephisto RISC series by Hegener & Glaser ^{[5] [6]} .

Description

from Don Beal's WMCCC 1991 report ^[7]:

Written by Ed Schröder (programmer) and Jan Louwman (a strong chess-player and designer of the opening book), both previously known over many years for their Rebel program that run on 6502 pocessors, Gideon is a new program for the ARM-2 RISC CPU and has taken 1.5 years (4000 man-hours) to develop. The evaluation function is complex, incorporating much chess knowledge, and positional scores can range up 1.5 times a Pawn. Gideon includes specialized knowledge for many types of endgame (defined to be when material < 26) such as rook-and-pawn endings. The search techniques include iterative deepening, check extensions and singular extensions. Moves are generated one-at-a-time, rather than all-and-sort.

Mephisto Gideon

The PC program Mephisto Gideon was developed in cooperation with Hegener & Glaser and was Ed's first program running under the MS-DOS operating system, also bundled as Mephisto Advantage with the Saitek PC Auto Chessboard. It was entirely written in C and marketed by Ossi Weiner and other dealer in large quantities ^[8], while independently Schröder BV kept their own brand name Rebel selling it via their own distribution channels in smaller quantities ^[9]. In 2012, Ed Schröder resurrected Mephisto Gideon Professional as WinBoard and UCI compatible donationware ^{[10] [11]}.

Forum Posts

• New programs released! by Ralf Stephan, rgc, October 10, 1993 » Chess Genius
• Mephisto Gideon Professional (1993) for Winboard and UCI by Ed Schröder, CCC, August 17, 2012
• Q to Ed Schröder-Gideon Pro = Rebel Decade ??? by Gustavo Mallada, CCC, January 28, 2014

External Links

Chess Program

• Mephisto Gideon from Rebel Pure Nostalgica
• ChessMachine from Rebel Pure Nostalgica
• Mephisto Gideon's ICGA Tournaments
• Chessmachine's ICGA Tournaments
• Download Chess Programs hosted by Ed Schröder
• Donationware by Ed Schröder
• Chess by Robert Byrne, New York Times, June 25, 1991 - on Chess Machine Gideon versus Cumulus, WMCCC 1991 ^[12]

Misc

• Gideon Ståhlberg from Wikipedia
• Gideon (biblical figure) from Wikipedia
• Gideon - disambiguation page from Wikipedia

References

1. ^ World Champion (1991-1995)
2. ^ Judge Gideon, Russian Orthodox icon from first quarter of 18-th century, source: Iconostasis of Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia, Gideon (Bijbel) from Wikipedia.nl (Dutch)
3. ^ REBEL (chess) from Wikipedia
4. ^ TASC ChessMachine from Schachcomputer.info Wiki
5. ^ Mephisto Risc 1MB from Schachcomputer.info Wiki
6. ^ Mephisto Risc 2 from Schachcomputer.info Wiki
7. ^ Don Beal (1991). Report on the 11th World Microcomputer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2
8. ^ Ed Schröder - Mephisto Gideon from Schachversand Niggemann
9. ^ REBEL on the PC (1993-2001)
10. ^ Mephisto Gideon Professional (1993) for Winboard and UCI by Ed Schröder, CCC, August 17, 2012
11. ^ Donationware by Ed Schröder
12. ^ Vancouver 1991 - Chess - Round 2 - Game 1 (ICGA Tournaments)

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