Dedicated Chess Computer: Definition, History and Examples

A dedicated chess computer is a standalone electronic device built for one purpose, playing or analysing chess. Unlike a PC running an engine, it has no operating system for other tasks, and the board, the processor and the program live in one case. Simple models make do with a small display and a few buttons rather than a full screen and keyboard.

Where the category began

The first dedicated chess computer was the Chess Challenger 1, designed by Sidney Samole and Ron Nelson and sold by Fidelity Electronics from early 1977. In the 1980s modular systems became popular, in which the playing core could be swapped for an update while the case and the interface stayed the same. A competitive market through the 1980s and early 1990s produced strong machines that dominated the early microprocessor tournaments. The Mephisto Montreux was described as the last and lonesome competitor of its kind at the 1995 world microcomputer championship.

How they work in use

Most commercial models include a sensory board, which recognises the moves a person makes. LEDs show which squares to use when the computer’s own move has to be played for it. Dedicated machines may use specialised hardware, though the ordinary design is a microprocessor running a chess program.

What happened afterwards

Dedicated units were at their strongest in the 1980s and early 1990s. Most of those sold today are of beginner or intermediate strength, and they compete with chess engines on phones. A collector scene has kept older designs alive, with new Mephisto-compatible boards produced for enthusiasts, and later hobby models include the CT800 of 2016 and Revelation II.

Further reading

The article on the Fidelity Chess Challenger follows the first company’s models and where manuals can be found. Pocket units are the subject of the guide to the handheld chess computer, and the broader story of software, engines and endgame data is on the computer chess page.

Dedicated machines at the world microcomputer championships

The first three World Microcomputer Chess Championships were won by dedicated machines. Fidelity’s Chess Challenger took the 1980 event in London, Fidelity X the 1981 event in Travemünde and the Fidelity Elite A/S the 1983 event in Budapest. The 1984 title in Glasgow was shared between several entries, among them Fidelity Elite X, Mephisto and Princhess X. A Psion program running on an IBM PC under MS-DOS also took a share, an early sign that general-purpose hardware was catching up. Mephisto then won most of the editions from 1985 to 1990, in Amsterdam, Dallas, Rome, Almería, Portorož and Lyon. In 1991 in Vancouver the winner was ChessMachine, running the Gideon program, and later titles went to HIARCS in Munich in 1993 and MChess Pro 5.0 in Paderborn in 1995. By then the dedicated units that had opened the series were no longer the strongest entries.

Makers and the Mephisto line

Many firms sold dedicated machines. The Chess Programming Wiki names Fidelity Electronics, Saitek, Novag, Excalibur Electronics, Milton Bradley, Chafitz, Applied Concepts, Heuristic Software, Intelligent Software, Millennium 2000, Newcrest Technology, Philidor Software, TASC and VEB Mikroelektronik Erfurt, with Hegener & Glaser and Phoenix Chess Systems also listed. Hegener & Glaser, based in Munich, used the Mephisto trade name, created in 1980, and its modular system of 1983 let an owner replace the playing module without replacing the board. The Mephisto Amsterdam of 1985, a 68000-based module, was Richard Lang’s first Mephisto module. The Mephisto Exclusive was a 40 by 40 centimetre wooden board that sensed moves automatically.

Terms that sound alike

A dedicated chess computer is not the same thing as an engine, which is software, and it is not the same as a chess server. The word dedicated can also describe special-purpose hardware of a different kind: Ken Thompson’s Belle, built for chess, won the 1978 North American Computer Chess Championship over Northwestern’s Chess 4.7, and Hydra, a machine with custom hardware and sixty-four processors, won the 14th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship in 2005 and beat Michael Adams 5½ to ½. Those machines were built to compete at the top. The consumer category in this entry is the boxed board or pocket unit sold for home play.

Interface and display

The simplest models have a seven-segment or LCD display and push-buttons for entering moves and switching modes. A sensory board recognises the moves a person makes, so the piece can simply be moved on the board. LEDs show the coordinates of the machine’s own move, which the player then carries out by hand on the physical set.

The hobby scene today

A small group of builders keeps the format alive. Ruud Martin and Phoenix Chess Systems offer Resurrection, a Mephisto-compatible module, and Revelation, a complete system; the first Resurrection module appeared in 2005 and Resurrection II in 2007. PicoChess, announced in 2012 and later ported to the Raspberry Pi, turns a cheap computer into a board that plays like a classic unit. Millennium Chess Genius was announced in October 2015 and the CT800 in September 2016.

The comparison with phones is stark. In 2009 Hiarcs 13 running inside Pocket Fritz 4 on an HTC Touch HD won a category 6 tournament with a performance rating of 2898, while searching fewer than 20,000 positions per second.

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