Excalibur Model 410 E-Chess (2001) Electronic Travel Chess Computer

EXCALIBUR E-CHESS ELECTRONIC CHESS

Congratulations on your purchase of Excalibur Electronics’ e-Chess! You’ve purchased both your own personal chess trainer and a partner who's always ready for a game -- and who can improve as you do!
Your EXCALIBUR e-Chess partner is packed with valuable special features that can help you learn to play better and better chess -- and to have a lot of fun!

MAIN EXCALIBUR E-CHESS GAME CHARACTERISTICS

HINT key: Press this key if you want to get hints from your e-Chess partner.

UNDO key: This key lets you take back a move or moves you’ve decided against. Press this key repeatedly to continue taking back moves.

HELP key: This key is used to turn HELP option on or off. When this option is on, all legal moves for the selected piece will be shown.

LEVEL key: Use this key to set the levels of play.

The first four levels (1, 2, 3 and 4) are beginner levels and take approximately 4, 8, 12 and 16 seconds per move, respectively.
Level 5 is a fixed 1-ply (one-half move) search.
Levels 6 through 15 take about 1 second per level number, so level 10 will average about 10 seconds per move.
Levels 16 though 72 take about 2 seconds per level number. The amount of time will vary depending on the position, the stage of the game, and whether or not FAST level option is switched on.
Level 73 is an infinite level. e-Chess will take as long to move as you want it to, or until it finds a mate position in its search. Level 73 is good for problem solving.

LEVEL options: When the level is displayed, pressing the OPTIONS key shows:

FAST: In this mode, e-Chess uses a more selective search for thinking. It may miss a tactical move, but it can look more deeply into a position.
rAnd: Allows the computer to randomly choose between two good moves so that you get to practice and play against different responses.

OPTIONS key: Before the game starts:

OPEn: Select one of 34 book opening lines of play.
GAME: Select one of 16 Great Games.
MATE: Select one of 31 mate-in-2 problems. Problem 32 is a mate-in-3 problem.
TrAIn: Select one of eight training positions. Positions with the Black king in the middle give you practice in check-mating the Black king.

OPTIONS key: Before and during the game:

TOtAL: Your e-Chess normally shows the time taken for each move. Turning this option ON will instead show the total game time.

SCOrE: Your display normally shows the number of the current move. If instead you want to see the piece-score of your current position, turn this option ON. The scoring totals the following values:

Pawns = 1
Knights = 3
Bishops = 3
Rooks = 5
Queen = 9

PLAYr: Select between:

1 - Human vs. Computer
2 - Human vs. Human
3 - Computer vs. Computer

InFO: When turned one, this option will display the score, depth of search (number of moves e-Chess is thinking ahead, best move it is considering playing, and clock times. These will be displayed while the computer is thinking at its higher levels.

CLrBr: Use this option to clear the chess board for easier problem setup.

SOUnd: Select between:

2 = All sound on.
1 = No sound on key presses
0 = No sound, except for error buzzes.

SLEEP: Adjust the automatic shut off time with this key. Setting it to ‘0’ will disable auto shut-off altogether.

SETUP key: Press one of these keys to promote a pawn that reaches your opponent's back rank to a piece other than a queen. (The promotion to a queen is the most common, so it is automatic.) You can also use this key to set up special positions.

CONTRACT key: Press this key repeatedly to adjust the display contrast to one of eight settings. This allows you to compensate for differences in lighting and battery strength.

RATING key: E-Chess rates your play! Use this key to view your current rating. Also use it to enter game results for a new rating if the ‘O’ symbol is on, showing you played a ratable game with no hints or take-backs.

BOOK OPENING Trainer: E-Chess makes it easy for you to learn the same openings that world chess champions play! At the beginning of a game, you may choose to learn one of 34 popular book openings used by chess masters.

Excerpts taken from Excalibur E-Chess User Manual and Box.

MORE ABOUT EXCALIBUR E-CHESS ELECTRONIC CHESS COMPUTER

Ron Nelson spent 9 months developing a new 4 Bit chess program which became the foundation for many future Excalibur models as well as its continued use by Excalibur's successor EB Electronics. The first 4 Bit Model 375 Excalibur LCD Chess was launched in the year 2000. This program can also be found inside many chess computer models sold by other companies such as Radio Shack.

This 4 Bit program seems to be per Nelson's comments an even further slimmed down version of the original Nelson H8 program, compressed into this much smaller hardware and trimmed with many of the features of the original stronger H8 program removed in order to squeeze a workable chess program into the lesser ram space available on the 4 Bit hardware. This included removal of many of the more sophisticated chess routines used in stronger chess programs such as Nelson's Attack Bit Map Tables, much smaller opening books, removal of any pondering routines and excess search routines.

Nelson commented he had a great interest in developing a capable program suitable for any beginning or hobby chess player and thereby finding larger outlets of distribution for the Excalibur chess products. Excalibur E-Chess, a very playable and capable chess program ideal for most players was one of the many creations that followed as a result of this nine month period of new program development in 1999.

Excalibur e-Chess Model 410 was manufactured for Excalibur Electronics in the Shenzen Province of China.

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Technical Specification

Excalibur E-Chess (2001)

Box

User Manual

Computer Label

Spacious Mind

Schachcomputer.Info

Active 2017

Tourn. 2015

1367

-

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

Final

-

MANUFACTURER

PROGRAMMER

Excalibur Electronics, Inc

Ron Nelson

1700 USCF

2/1/2001

$49.95

Not Available

Year:

MFR ELO:

Original Price:

Wiki ELO:

Model #:

410

My Serial #:

EC004100

Processor OEM

Samsung

Processor:

SAM47 S3C72P9

Speed:

Type:

4 Bit

1.5 MHz

ROM:

32 KB

RAM:

1056 Byte x 4 Bit

Battery Type:

3 x 3 LR44 (AG13)

Power Adapter:

Not Available

Display:

LCD Dot Matrix

Board Type:

LCD Chess Board

Overall Size:

Board Size:

2x2 in

5.7/8x3.7/8x1 in

Options Select:

Button Select

Play Levels:

73

Opening Book:

34 Book Opening

Take Back:

26 Half Moves

Position Setup:

Available

Position Verify:

Available

Move Analysis:

Display Info:

Available

Solve Mate:

Mate in 3

Save Game:

Available

Ponder:

Not Available

Search Depth:

Not Known

Provide Hint:

Available

Teach Mode:

Available

Change Sides:

Available

Active Level:

TM Level:

72 (129 seconds)

Infinite Level:

73

23

Hardware Specification

Game Features

Matchplay & Test ELO Ratings

Computer Game Rating

Rating Test

Other Computer Chess Ratings

USCF

Spacious Mind

Human Rating

USCF

CCR 88

CCNS 87

Ply 88

FIDE

USCF

-

1537

1453

Class C Level Electronic Travel Chess Computer!