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Date: 29 Dec 2008 08:17:16
From:
Subject: Elektronnaya Vychislitelnyaja mMashina
I was going through some old correspondance and found this reference
to "Elektronnaya Vychisllitelnyaja Mashina" forwarded to me by Natalia
Glagoleva in 1999 on the first GM games against a chess computer.

An acroynym for the "Electronic Calculating Machine" was EVM M-20, the
M20 being the model number, so to speak.

The Grandmaster was David Bronstein and the games played in 1963. The
anecdote goes that Bronstein offered it Queen-odds in the first game,
and to his mortification he lost! After insisting on a second game
played not-at-odds, Bronstein was able to announce a mate-in-10.

World Champion programmer Bob Hyatt then told me that this 10-move
forced mate was still used as a bench-mark for chess engines.

A little more poking around revealed the tech specs of the EVM M20:

4096 45-bit words
20k instructions per second

Mr. Charles Milton Long also confirmed much of this information, but
was unable to name a location other than "USSR 1963", from Bronstein's
200 Open Games.

Does any reader know of the location, and further development of
Soviet-era chess programming?

Phil Innes




 
Date: 30 Dec 2008 10:48:05
From:
Subject: Re: Elektronnaya Vychislitelnyaja mMashina
On Dec 30, 12:48=A0pm, chessparrot <[email protected] > wrote:
> On Dec 29, 4:17=A0pm, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
>
> > I was going through some old correspondance and found this reference
> > to "Elektronnaya Vychisllitelnyaja Mashina" forwarded to me by Natalia
> > Glagoleva in 1999 on the first GM games against a chess computer.
>
> > An acroynym for the "Electronic Calculating Machine" was EVM M-20, the
> > M20 being the model number, so to speak.
>
> > The Grandmaster was David Bronstein and the games played in 1963. The
> > anecdote goes that Bronstein offered it Queen-odds in the first game,
> > and to his mortification he lost! After insisting on a second game
> > played not-at-odds, Bronstein was able to announce a mate-in-10.
>
> > World Champion programmer Bob Hyatt then told me that this 10-move
> > forced mate was still used as a bench-mark for chess engines.
>
> > A little more poking around revealed the tech specs of the EVM M20:
>
> > 4096 45-bit words
> > 20k instructions per second
>
> > Mr. Charles Milton Long also confirmed much of this information, but
> > was unable to name a location other than "USSR 1963", from Bronstein's
> > 200 Open Games.
>
> > Does any reader know of the location, and further development of
> > Soviet-era chess programming?
>
> > Phil Innes
>
> yes, the game is in '200 Open Games' by Bronstein (Batsfords 1974)
> p14-15. It may be that Soviet computer interest lost something with
> the death of Botvinnik and the pulling of the plugs with state
> sponsorship.
>
> James Pratt (Basingstoke!)

Interesting response James. I have asked more broadly at Chessville,
as well as inviting some specialist opinion on the subject [Russians
and Americans]. Bob Hyatt in the event, didn't know the answer - which
does him no discredit, since actually, who does? And possibly the
evolution of any such device would have become classified?

As far as State sponsorship of 'chess schools' is concerned - my
friend from Petersburg wrote me that that plug was pulled in about
1994 for women, and 1996 for men.

Cordially, Phil Innes


 
Date: 30 Dec 2008 09:48:57
From: chessparrot
Subject: Re: Elektronnaya Vychislitelnyaja mMashina
On Dec 29, 4:17=A0pm, [email protected] wrote:
> I was going through some old correspondance and found this reference
> to "Elektronnaya Vychisllitelnyaja Mashina" forwarded to me by Natalia
> Glagoleva in 1999 on the first GM games against a chess computer.
>
> An acroynym for the "Electronic Calculating Machine" was EVM M-20, the
> M20 being the model number, so to speak.
>
> The Grandmaster was David Bronstein and the games played in 1963. The
> anecdote goes that Bronstein offered it Queen-odds in the first game,
> and to his mortification he lost! After insisting on a second game
> played not-at-odds, Bronstein was able to announce a mate-in-10.
>
> World Champion programmer Bob Hyatt then told me that this 10-move
> forced mate was still used as a bench-mark for chess engines.
>
> A little more poking around revealed the tech specs of the EVM M20:
>
> 4096 45-bit words
> 20k instructions per second
>
> Mr. Charles Milton Long also confirmed much of this information, but
> was unable to name a location other than "USSR 1963", from Bronstein's
> 200 Open Games.
>
> Does any reader know of the location, and further development of
> Soviet-era chess programming?
>
> Phil Innes

yes, the game is in '200 Open Games' by Bronstein (Batsfords 1974)
p14-15. It may be that Soviet computer interest lost something with
the death of Botvinnik and the pulling of the plugs with state
sponsorship.

James Pratt (Basingstoke!)