The Super VIP

Another weekend almost over. Where does the time go? We were a bit lucky with the storm, it really didn't hit us so bad. But still, today felt like mostly a wasted day. I didn't do too much with my project this weekend, and it's going to kill me if I don't get motivated and moving on it soon. I did spend a little time playing around with NAnt, which is a .NET build tool similar to Ant for Java. But aside from that, no real progress was made.

Last night I did make it down to the chess club. It was actually more interesting than I had anticipated. Tom asked me to play a game against the "computer" that someone had donated to the club. He told me that he had Dave Hall play it at the "E8" level (hitting go after 30 seconds, so it was basically not playing at the full E8 strength) and it crushed Dave. The computer itself is the Novag Super VIP. Although I was proud of the game, and had a great time playing it while kibitzing with Antonio Laudati and Larry Williams, I just did a little research on it:

Model: NOVAG Super VIP
Manufacturer: NOVAG
Year: 1989
Est. ELO rating: 1688
Levels of play: 48 divided into 6 skill sections
Type: Calculator
ROM: 48Kb
RAM: 2Kb
CPU clock speed: 9.8304 MHz
Opening book: 20,000 moves
Port: 1 standard RS 232C port in modular socket
Transmission Format: 1 Start-bit. 8 data-bits. 1 stop-bit no parity bit. I200 or 9600 baud rate selectable

And, given my rating, the result is no longer such a surprise. As for the game itself, what can I say about its play? It was fairly passive but still a good challenge. Here's the game:

Ed Borowski vs Novag Super VIP
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 c5 5. c3 cxd4 6. exd4 Nbd7 7. Bd3 Be7 8.Nbd2 O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Ne5 Bb7 11. Ndf3 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Bd6 13. Bg5 Re8 14. Qf3 h6 15. Bh4 Be7 16. Qe2 Nd7 17. Bxe7 Rxe7 18. f4 Nf8 19. Rae1 Rc8 20. Qh5 Qd6 21. Re3 Rcc7 22. Rg3 Kh8 23. Rff3 f6 24. Ng4 Qd8 25. Ne3 Nd7 26. Rg6 Qa8 27. Rxh6+ gxh6 28. Qxh6+ Kg8 29. Rg3+ Kf7 30. Qg6+ Kf8 31. Qg8# 1-0

I hope you had a good weekend!

Ed.