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Dear Chess Friend!
Congratulations on the purchase of your MEPHISTO Polgar chess- computer!
We would like to welcome you to the growing club of owners of MEPHISTO chess-computers and hope that you will have many hours of entertainment with your new partner. Your MEPHISTO is a high-quality product, manufactured in Germany. It is simple to use and yet offers a large number of features, which make your MEPHISTO an ideal tournament and training partner for everyone interested in chess.
GAME OPTIONS
ELO Tournament Level
With this level you can set the approximate strength that you want MEPHISTO to play against you with at the tournament level of 40 moves in hours. As in a game with a human opponent, the MEPHISTO now won’t show you it’s intended moves, it’s evaluation of the position etc.
Press the LEV key six times.
If you want to play against MEPHISTO set at 2000 ELO points then press CL to confirm and you can start.
If you want to change the setting, press ENT to announce an alteration (the first digit starts blinking), then use the TRN, INFO, MEM and POS keys (each corresponds to a digit in the LCD) to alter the setting. The possible settings in the LCD range from 0000 to 9999, however MEPHISTO is programmed to accept an approximate maximum of 2000 ELO (value setting over 2000 are accepted as 2000). Settings under ELO 1200 cause MEPHISTO to play approximately 1200.
Press CL to stop the flashing and check your setting, if all right, press CL else press ENT to go back and reset. The chess clock is the same as for the tournament level i.e. is shown in the countdown mode.
ELO Active Chess (speed chess) level
This is the same as the previous section except that the computer now plays at the active (action, rapid or quick) chess level timing of 30 minutes for the whole game. As before, it is not possible to obtain the position evaluation, intended moves etc.
To set this level, press the LEV key seven times.
If you are happy with a strength of ELO 2000 for the game then press CL. If you want to change the level then do this as described in the previous section. First press ENT. Then use TRN, INFO, MEM and POS keys to alther the setting. Press CL to finish to finish the setting, check the setting (ENT allows you to go back and correct) and CL again to leave the Level mode.
The chess clock shown is set to the countdown mode as previously described.
ELO Calculation
It is exciting to be able to monitor your progress when training. As your MEPHISTO has the official formula from the international Chess Federation (FIDE) stored in its memory. It can rate your last game against the computer in ELO (maximum 2400 ELO) and show this to you.
To find out your new ELO rating after a game first call up the special function by pressing the FCT key seven times. Next you have to press ENT to tell MEPHISTO that you want to enter your last ELO rating (if this is the first time, then you can start with a rating of e. g. 1500). Then use the TRN, INFO, MEM and POS keys to alter the digits in the display for your ELO rating. Settings between 0000 and 9999 can be written in the display, but don’t forget the maximum ELO of 2400.
Having typed your rating, press CL and continue by typing in the rating of your opponent in the same way as before - maximum EO 2400 and finish by pressing CL again.
The first digit on the display is flashing to show that an alteration can be made. Use TRN, INFO, MEM and POS keys to alter the digits in the display for your ELO rating. Settings between 0000 and 9999 can be written in the display, but don’t forget the maximum of 2400 ELO.
Having entered the ELO rating of your opponent, press CL.
The character for the result is now flashing, asking for the result of the game as follows:
- + means game won by the first player
- = means game drawn
- - means game lost by the first player
Having entered your result press CL and the display immediately jumps to show you “ELO (NEW):” and the your new rating. Using CL you can leave the mode.
Your MEPHISTO is the fist commercial chess computer which has this feature!
Various excerpts taken from the “MEPHISTO POLGAR” user manual.
The MEPHISTO Polgar chess program was written by Ed Schroeder and is one of the strongest 8 Bit chess programs available playing at an approximate 2200 ELO USCF.
The above examples are just a few of the many interesting new features incorporated into the program. As you start a new opening the LCD display will also show you the name of the opening that you are playing. You have an infinite amount chess levels that you can set up and play. All in all this was one of the most interesting programs ever written for an 8 bit chess computer.
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