Fidelity Phantom

Once you have seen this board, you just want one. It's beautiful though plastic. It is the strongest self-playing chess machine (robot), the elo rating is 1835. The pieces have magnets at their base, and a magnet under the board is moving the pieces.  It is known also as the most reliable technology. The auto-play feature is very impressive.

 

 

It is not rare even now (released in 1988); you can find some on ebay (germany, uk, united states). Mine's came from the states; unfortunately, the input voltage was 110v alternative, so I was obliged to get a converter (220v-AC to 110v-AC). You can see it on the photo below (the manufacturer is Tibelec, model n° 208810); it works really nicely and never heats.

 

 

I have tested the Phantom against the Mephisto MM II (the strength of both engines are confirmed and I have finished the 20 games). The level was set at A5 for the Phantom and level 5 for the MM II (1min/move):

 

Total games	20	Mean rating	1802,5	Error Barre (%)	8,9
	Score	Rating	Perf (%)	Rating opponents	Perf (elo)	Error Bar (Elo)	Elo
Mephisto MMII	7,0	1770,0	35,0	1835,0	1715,0	71,6	1727,5
Fidelity Phantom	13,0	1835,0	65,0	1770,0	1890,0	71,6	1877,5

 

During the match, I had the feeling that the Phantom was stronger than MM II. Some of the games were very pleasant, as can be seen below (game 17). Some of the games were just a succession of blunders from both sides. An other interesting position is this one :

6k1/p2b2p1/p1pb1p1p/Pr1p4/R2P3P/3NP3/5PPN/6K1 b - - 7 32 ; game 18 MMII-Phantom

After 31. Ra4 ?? there are several winning moves for blacks. The Phantom found one of the winning move. Could you find it?

 

During the 17th game, I have taken 4 positions which can be used as tests for your engine (or you).

The solutions are given at the end.

1k2r2r/pp2b1pp/2p3n1/Q3P3/PP1N2q1/2P5/3B2PP/R3R1K1 b - a3 0 25 ; game 17 Phantom - MMII black wins (hard)

 

1k6/p5pp/1b2r3/3QP3/PP4qn/2P5/R2B1rPP/4R2K w - - 7 32 ; game 17 Phantom - MMII white is lost even with their best move (hard)

1k6/p5pp/1b4r1/3QP3/PP4qn/2P5/R4rPP/2B1R2K w - - 9 33 ; game 17 Phantom - MMII white wins (hard)

 

4k3/4P1p1/p2Br3/P1P4p/1P5n/8/5b1P/5R1K w - - 0 44 ; game 17 Phantom - MMII white wins (easy)

 

Solutions :

 

1/ unseen winning move 25...Nh4

2/ even the best move 32.... Bc1 (or Be3) is loosing, for instance look at the Fruit 2.1 analyses lines:

14/47 00:37 39 267 399 1 058 211 -2,48 1.Bc1 Rxa2 2.Qxa2 Rxe5 3.Qg8+ Kb7 4.Qf7+ Bc7 5.Rg1 Rh5 6.a5 a6 7.b5 Rxb5 8.Be3 Rb2 9.Bf2

14/48 00:52 56 288 295 1 072 223 -2,26 1.Be3 Rxa2 2.Qxa2 Bxe3 3.h3 Qxg2+ 4.Qxg2 Nxg2 5.Kxg2 Bd2 6.Rf1 Bxc3 7.Rf8+ Kb7 8.Rf7+ Kb6 9.Rxg7 Bxb4 10.Rxh7 Rxe5 11.Rd7

15/51 02:11 139 916 580 1 062 940 -2,25 1.Be3 Rxa2 2.Qxa2 Bxe3 3.h3 Qxg2+ 4.Qxg2 Nxg2 5.Re2 Nf4 6.Rxe3 Nd5 7.Rf3 Rxe5 8.Kg2 Re7 9.Kg3 Kb7 10.b5

3/ after 32...Rg6?? winning move 33. Rxf2
4/ after 43...a6?? winning move 44. b5

 

All the games of the match can be downloaded here.

 

The playing style is very pleasant since it is a Dan and Kathe Spracklen programme. The processor is a 6502 at 5Mhz according to schachcomputer info.