Super Constellation (chess computer)

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Super Constellation ( Super-Conny for short ) is a chess calculator from the 1980s, which was operated in Hong Kong by the British chess computer manufacturer Novag Industries Ltd. was made. The chess program comes from the American electrical engineer and computer chess - programmer David Kittinger .

The Super-Constellation, a small, handy device with the dimensions (L × W × H) 245 mm × 305 mm × 35 mm (see also photo under web links ), which was released in the summer of 1984 , is based on the 8, which is operated with 3.6  MHz clock frequency -Bit microprocessor 6502 . His Elo rating is 1636 according to the SSDF list and 1811 according to the Wiki Elo list, which corresponds to the skill level of an amateur class A or that of a very good club player.

The Super Constellation soon became known for its particularly humane style of play. The reason for this was seen as the pre-scan heuristic (PSH) implemented by Kittinger, interpreted half-jokingly as “ P asst S icher H albweg”. Fans affectionately called the device (similar to the Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft ) their "Super Conny".

literature

  • Dieter Steinwender and Frederic Friedel : Chess on the PC - Bits and Bytes in the Royal Game , Pearson Education 1998, ISBN 978-3-87791-522-6 .
  • Super-Constellation in the GM tournament in Computer Chess & Games (CSS), No. 2, 1984, pp. 33-35
  • Thorsten Czub: Kittingers Comeback - From “Super-Conny” to “C” program in CSS, No. 4, 1990, pp. 10–15
  • Danny Kopec : Chess Computers - A critical descriptive analysis of the currently available commercial chess computers. 1985 PDF; 1.4 MB (English) p. 5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dimensions at Schachcomputer.info , accessed on December 5, 2017
  2. ↑ SSDF computer ranking from February 28, 2019
  3. ↑ Technical data at Schachcomputer.info , accessed on April 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ In the workshop of a chess programmer - Frederic Friedel visited Dave Kittinger in CSS, No. 3, 1984, pp. 6-11
  5. ↑ Kittingers Comeback - From “Super-Conny” to “C” program in CSS, No. 4, 1990, p. 10