September 1809. Vienna is experiencing hard times after the defeat at Wagram. The Austrian capital and much of the country is occupied by the victorious French army. Napoleon resides in the Schônbrunn Palace, from which Emperor Franz hastily fled. This very palace witnessed one day the defeat of the conqueror of Europe. A 1980s Turk reconstruction (1) Having heard about an extraordinary invention - a chess-playing automaton that could defeat the strongest of chess players - the French emperor expressed his desire to play a game with it. Napoleon's wish was an order; the automaton was brought to the palace, Bonaparte sat down to play, and lost. The automaton, which caused a great sensation at the time, was built in 1769 by a skilled mechanic, Wolfgang Kempel (who later changed his name to von Kempelen, giving it a more aristocratic sound). The Turk's left hand was movable - with it he moved, with the help of a system of levers, the figures standing on a chessboard on top of the chest. The front part of the chest was glazed over, revealing an interior full of gears, levers, and gears that moved with a loud clatter when the dummy made a move. In the other, larger part of the chest, open for viewing before the séance, but closed during the game, there was a strong chess player directing the movements of the "Turk". This part of the chest during the pre-game inspection was also occupied by various mechanisms, giving the impression that a human being could not fit in there. These mechanisms, however, did not work, but could be easily folded, leaving enough space for the player, who during the public pre-screening inspection hid in the hollows of the dummy and the pedestal which served him as a backrest. Operating scheme (1) This trick, primitive in conception, was executed with great skill and the mystery of the "automaton" aroused an understandable sensation for many years, since not once did the audience manage to ascertain the presence of the chess player inside. What was more interesting was the way in which the chess player was informed what move had been made by his opponent - which, after all, he could not see when locked in the box. This problem was solved in an ingeniously simple way. All the pieces standing on a chessboard on top of the chest were equipped with strong magnets, and under each chessboard field there was a metal ball hanging on a short thread. This ball clung to the top of the board when a piece was above it, and fell down when the board was free. This also allowed the player to control the moves made by the "Turk". Chess master inside "Turk" (1) The automaton was first exhibited in Vienna in 1770, and together with its enterprising creator it toured many European cities, creating a sensation everywhere and bringing in substantial profits (H. Murray reports that a ticket for the show of the game in London cost 5 shillings, which was not a trifling sum). The Turk (1) After Kempelen's death in 1804 the machine was purchased by L. Maelzel and continued to travel, hosting some of the greatest chess players of the time (including the Austrian master Allgaier, who won the aforementioned game with Napoleon). The level of interest in the mechanism and its ability to keep a secret is evidenced by the fact that after Napoleon's defeat, Prince Eugene Beauharnais paid 30,000 francs for the "automaton"; however, he was unable to discover its secret. In 1817 Maelzel bought it back again and resumed his wanderings with it. In 1826 the automaton found its way to America, where it also ended its career by burning down during a fire in a museum in Philadelphia. Kempelen's machine did not play with its opponents - the levers of the mechanism were moved by a man hidden inside. Fourteenth move. Black's move. "Turk" or rather chess master Johann Allgaier needed 10 more moves to give Napoleon Bonaparte a defeat. Will you take up the challenge and find a faster way to checkmate the white king? :-) 1. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk

In a collection of problems by the famous "father of composition", Samuel Loyd, the task below is linked to a short story entitled "Charles XII at Bender". This is what happened to the famous Swedish warrior-king. The Swedes had just repulsed an attack by the Turks, who were besieging the army of Charles XII at Bender. At nightfall, the fighting ceased, the cannons fell silent, only the occasional rattle of handguns. In one of the fortress chambers there was a table with chess set up by the open window. At the table the Swedish king and his minister Grothusen were fighting a bloodless battle after the bloodily repulsed enemy assault. The king was playing white. At one moment a position like the one in the diagram below appeared: Diagram 1 Each diagram comes with a small chess engine - allowing you to play against it, ask for hint or the solution (first move). Meanwhile it was getting completely dark and the king ordered to light a candle. The servant placed it on the window sill. Charles XII looked at the chessboard for a moment and announced defeat in 3 moves. But just as he was about to make the right move, a bullet buzzed and fell through the window, shattering the white knight. Grothusen broke off frightened, but the king with a nod commanded him to remain where he was. - This is a very interesting position," he said, "and I have no intention of giving it up for one stupid bullet... The minister sat back and with a somewhat trembling hand reached for the second jumper, handing it to the king in place of the broken one. But Charles XII pushed away the figure that was handed to him. - I can do without this knight. And without it I can give you defeat, admittedly not in three, but in four moves. Diagram 2 As soon as the king finished speaking, the second bullet buzzed, knocking down the h2 pawn. Grothusen jumped on his feet, pale and shaking with fear. Your royal highness ! - He shouted, standing prudently outside the open window - Please, let's move away from here! This candle... If they are shooting at us - answered the king calmly - they are not very good marksmen. It looks rather as if you have some friend among Turks, who doesn't want to let you lose this game... But it won't help you much, because without this pawn I can still give you defeat, although this time only in five moves... Diagram 3 Quoting this story in "Baltische Schachblătter" in 1900, the famous composer F. Amelung points out, that if in the diagram position the first ball had knocked down - instead of the knight - the rook g7, white would have been able to mate anyway... in 6 moves! Diagram 4 And here are further solutions to all problems ( scroll down the page, please ): Diagram1, checkmate in 3 moves: 1. Rxg3 Diagram2, checkmate in 4 moves: 1. hxg3 Diagram3, checkmate in 5 moves: 1. Rb7 Diagram 4, checkmate in 6 moves: 1. Nf3

The position of the study discussed in this story, whose author is D. Przepiórka, went around the world - not only for the subtlety of the solution containing a witty point in a beautiful position, but also because of the ingenious story, which was set against the solution by the well-known composer A. W. Mongredien (1). Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox were almost daily guests at a chess club. Both were great supporters of all kinds of bets, and at chess they always played for stakes - but they preferred various riddles, traps, and unusual problems, which were as if specially arranged for the purpose of making a bet. The clever ways they used to win were a constant source of amusement to their friends. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox were almost daily guests at a chess club. Both were great supporters of all kinds of bets, and at chess they always played for stakes - but they preferred various riddles, traps, and unusual problems, which were as if specially arranged for the purpose of making a bet. The clever ways they used to win were a constant source of amusement to their friends. One day Pitt came to the club before his companion, and showed the assembled people such a position: Diagram 1 Few diagrams come with a small chess engine - allowing you to play against it, ask for hint or the solution (first move). - Fox has won the last two bets - he announced - but to-day it will be my turn. I'll be sure to catch him! Look - the first move is visible: 1. Re2. If black plays 1...h6, then 2. Re8+, Kh7 3. Nf6+, K-at will. 4. Rg8+ Kxf6 Diagram 2 And white will capture the black queen. Black must then play 1...Qg8. - The rest is easy too - remarked someone watching. 2. Nf6 also leads to capturing the hetman. - Of course - agreed Pitt, rubbing his hands together. - After 2. Nf6 white gains the black queen, but cannot win the game. And this is where I catch Fox. See: 2. Nf6, Qg1 3. Re8+, Kg7 4. Rg8+, Kg7 4. Rg8+, Kh6 Diagram 3 And 5. Rxg1 stalemate! This is indeed pretty! And what is the solution? The only one that wins is the 2. Ng7! - explained Pitt. Those gathered around the table were curiously analyzing the position when Fox entered. Not a word! - whispered Pit, quickly setting the initial position on the chessboard. - Good evening, Fox greeted the group. - What have you got here? - Oh, nothing special," replied Pitt in a careless tone. - Just an ordinary position that I should have won, but I couldn't find the right move. Try you. Fox looked at the chessboard for a moment. - It's not very difficult - he said finally. - You have to play 1. Re2. And he moved his rook. Pitt replied by moving the black queen on g8, and in turn Fox played - as Pitt expected - 2. Nf6. - And wins - he added laconically. - Winning? - repeated eagerly Pitt. - Are you sure of that? - Of course! - Shall we bet? - I'd be glad to ! The stakes were fixed. Pitt lit a cigar and for a long moment savored the near triumph. He pretended to be thinking. Finally he played 2...Qg1. There was a moment of tense anticipation - and suddenly Fox answered unexpectedly with 3. Nh5! Diagram 4 On Pitt's face, astonishment slowly gave way to consternation. Having no choice, however, he returned the black queen on g8. - Do you want a draw by repeating moves? - he asked with a forced smile. - Nothing of the sort! - replied Fox. - I'm playing 4. Ng7 now! Diagram 5 And claiming the win, he said: - But you should have made sure beforehand that I hadn't also seen this position before... 1) H. Weenink. „David Przepiórka, a master of strategy”.

In 2022, it will probably come as no surprise to us that a computer plays chess, and not too badly at that ;-) More or less since 2006, chess engines began to surpass the playing strength of the most powerful Grandmasters. It was completely different 60 years ago. In the 1960s, a computer - especially a chess-playing computer - was considered a technological miracle. Although, there were also many skeptics who doubted the "creative abilities" of the then as they were called - electron machines. Remembered is the year 1963, when grandmaster David Bronstein, expressing willingness to take the fight to the computer, decided to play without a Queen ... The game began and the computer began without a second thought exchanging one piece for another destroying all the opponent's forces. Grandmaster understood, that his chances were decreasing, and he wouldn't be able to win this game. Not waiting for defeat, he mixed up the pieces and promised a rematch, but with equal forces. I invite you to watch this chess game, one of the first played by the computer against the Grandmaster. White played the famous and very strong Grandmaster David Bronstein, one of the greatest chess players of his time, but who was not destined to become the World Champion. Grandmaster D.Bronstein won the right to play for the chess throne and in 1951 he played against the then World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The match was very close and ended in a draw. ( David Bronstein, source: Wikipedia ) The blacks were played by an EMC computer (M-20). M-20, was a Soviet digital general purpose mainframe computer developed at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computer Engineering, and manufactured from 1958 to 1964 at Kazan Plant of Computing Machines. M-20 vacuum tube-based computer was designed in 1958 and became the world's champion in operational speed (for only three months, though). Later, M-220, M-222 and BESM-4 semiconductor models were developed, which had increased storage volume and were software compatible with the M-20. They were mass-manufactured until 1974 and used in computer centers all over the Soviet Union. Characteristics: Average performance - 20 thousand instructions per second. Occupied area - 170-200 sq. m. Consumed power - 50 kW (not including the cooling system); the standard 220V/50Hz power circuit was used for M-20. ( M-20 computer, source: Russian Virtual Computer Museum ) Here is the chess game mentioned above. David Bronstein - M20, Moscow 1963. The King's Gambit. 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. f2-f4 A characteristic of the last century - the king's gambit. Not hiding their aggressive intentions, white with the move f2-f4 seems to say: "to battle!" This debit leads to fierce clashes from the beginning of the game, and its numerous variations, worked out very carefully, can quickly lead to complete destruction of each other. Nevertheless, it used to be one of the most popular openings. Today it is out of fashion and is encountered less and less often. Probably because modern experienced chess players have mastered the art of taming the cavalry shaws and giving the game the form of a calmer positional battle. No wonder that in his first serious encounter with a computer David Bronstein reached for a tried and tested debit. Usually it is much more difficult to defend than to attack. Defense requires not only the deciphering of successive variations, but also an accurate assessment of the situation, which 60 years ago in 1963 was not yet the strongest point of computers. 2. e5xf4 3. Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 4. e4-e5 Nf6-g4 5. d2-d4 Grandmaster tries to develop his figures and pawns from the beginning of the game. 5. g7-g5 Computers playing at a not-so-high level, usually play to maintain and increase material gains. Such is the case in this chess game. 6. Nb1-c3 Ng4-e3 7. Qd1-e2 Played in the spirit of the kings gambit. Of course, white would have a pretty good game after 7. Bc1xe3 with the next 7...f4xe3 8. Nc3-d5. 7. Ne3xf1 8. Nc3-e4! No matter the loss - to get the victory! White executes a plan to occupy key points in the opponent's camp. 8. Nf1-e3 9. Ne4-f6+ Ke8-e7 10. Gc1-d2 Certainly the continuation of 10. Bxe3 f4xe3 11. Nf6-d5+ Ke7-e8 12. Qe2-c4 would lead to a strong attack, however the Grandmaster has a bigger appetite - at the cost of another figure (rooks) he wants to give mate. 10. Ne3xc2+ 11. Ke1-f2 Nc2xa1 At the cost of sacrificed figures, Bronstein developed white's figures perfectly. The two Knights, Bishop and Queen are ready to attack the black king directly. 12. Nf6-d5+ Ke7-e6?? 13. Qe2-c4 Black King found himself in a very difficult situation. As Grandmaster David Bronstein said, the computer really "didn't like" the move 13. Qe2-c4. The machine delayed its answer for a very long time exhausting its time and the opponent. M-20 finally played 13...b7-b5, but due to lack of time the game was stopped, although as it used to be years ago, Grandmaster saved his next move 14. Nf3xg5+. 13. b7-b5 14. Nf3xg5+ 1 - 0 White could have also ended the game in a more peaceful and traditional way, but he certainly chose the most impressive one. In the 1960s, work on the creation of a chess computer program took on a multidirectional character almost from the beginning. New algorithms were sought and tried, and different approaches to the subject of chess were tested by the computers of the time. The first games played by calculating machines were published. However, while the first information about these games caused a real sensation, their analysis brought great disappointment, because the level of play of these archaic computers did not differ from the level represented by beginner chess players. It is interesting to note what people considered to be authorities said at the time. For example, the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, PhD in technical sciences, claimed that building a chess-playing machine at the master's level was a matter of several years at the most... ( Mikhail Botvinnik, source: Wikipedia ) ...While another great chess player of those times, the ex-World Champion Max Euwe, professor of mathematics, proclaimed that it would take at least 100-150 years before the machine would play at the master's level. ( Max Euwe, source: Wikipedia ) Well... as we know it today, both excellent gentlemen were wrong, although Mikhail Botvinnik was much closer. Below is the 1994 computer ranking list published by SSDF. THE SSDF RATING LIST 4/94 (28/5-1994) CPU/MHz RATING 1. Mephisto Genius 2.0 486/50-66 2347 2. Chessmaster 4000 Turbo 486/50-66 2322 3. Chess Machine King 2.0 ARM/30-32 2320 4. Chess Machine Schroeder 3.1 ARM/30-32 2316 5. MChess Pro 3.5 486/50-66 2303 6. Chess Genius 1.0 486/50-66 2284 7. Mephisto Gideon Pro 486/50-66 2282 8. Chess Machine Schroeder 3.0 ARM/30 2278 9. MChess Pro 3.12 486/50-66 2276 10. Chess Genius 1.0 486/33 2265 I have great respect for the work of SSDF Testers. Until today (2022-01-31) you can follow the results of their excellent work, for which I thank you very much! Back in the first half of the 1990s, engines started playing at the level of Chess Masters. And that was something great! At that time it was easier and easier to buy a personal computer, the first programs for chess bases and analysis appeared. A great example of this is the Rebel program (creator Ed Schröder), which enjoyed numerous triumphs and was a chess master's nightmare in Aegon tournaments in the 1990s. ( source: rebel.nl ) Rebel was achieving grandmaster-level results! AEGON 94: ELO 2470 (Rebel6) AEGON 95: ELO 2473 (Rebel7) AEGON 96: ELO 2530 (Rebel8) AEGON 97: ELO 2619 (Rebel9) And it finally evolved into an even stronger version: ProDeo. ( source: rebel.nl ) A new era in computer chess had begun for good :-) What happened then is a topic for another story...

One of the most powerful chess engines has been released in version 9. Here's what Jay Honnold wrote about Berserk 9: " Another release for Berserk! This patch sees major changes in NNUE and many minor adjustments in search. This patch introduces a new architecture in Berserk, a horizontally mirrored 8 bucket system. This results in a 6144 -> (512x2) -> 1 final architecture. This network was trained using Koivisto's Trainer using ~8B FENs from Berserk 8.5.1 self play games. Along the way of working on NNUE, many minor search patches have been added. They were all minor, but lots of small changes add up. STC on an imbalanced book ELO | 82.98 +- 5.14 (95%) CONF | 8.0+0.08s Threads=1 Hash=8MB GAMES | N: 10000 W: 3985 L: 1641 D: 4374 LTC on a balanced book ELO | 54.37 +- 2.65 (95%) CONF | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=64MB GAMES | N: 17000 W: 3605 L: 966 D: 12429 Self play results vs Berserk 8.5.1, self play results do not reflect exactly when playing vs other engines. " Source: Berserk 9 on GitHub Berserk 9 download: Compiled by Archimedes Compiled by Darius Compiled by Darius Compiled by Jay Honnold

Nawito22.05 is a free Cuban chess engine derived from Danasah5.07 compatible with the UCI protocol. Here is what the author of the Nawito chess engine Mr. Ernesto Torres wrote: " Greetings friends. After more than a year I announce the new version of the Nawito engine. In terms of strength, I think it is similar to the previous version, but knowledge from the previous version that it does not yet have will gradually be incorporated. For more technical information check the homepage on GitHub Engine version: 22.05 Available versions: Windows/Linux/Android, 64 bits Communication protocol: UCI ELO estimated: 2650 License: GPL " Source: TalkChess Thanks to the author, Nawito is written in such a way that it is easy to compile this chess engine for all popular operating systems. Below to download Nawito source code and compilations for: Android Linux Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel; Darius compilation) Windows The source code is also available for download from GitHub.

New version of the strongest chess engine. The Stockfish team introduces Stockfish 14.1 " Today, we have the pleasure to announce Stockfish 14.1. As usual, downloads will be freely available at stockfishchess.org/download. With Stockfish 14.1 our users get access to the strongest chess engine available today. In the period leading up to this release, Stockfish convincingly won several chess engine tournaments, including the TCEC 21 superfinal, the TCEC Cup 9, and the Computer Chess Championship for Fischer Random Chess (Chess960). In the latter tournament, Stockfish was undefeated in 599 out of 600 games played. Compared to Stockfish 14, this release introduces a more advanced NNUE architecture and various search improvements. In self play testing, using a book of balanced openings, Stockfish 14.1 wins three times more game pairs than it loses. At this high level, draws are very common, so the Elo difference to Stockfish 14 is about 17 Elo. The NNUE evaluation method, introduced to top level chess with Stockfish 12 about one year ago, has now been adopted by several other strong CPU based chess engines. The Stockfish project builds on a thriving community of enthusiasts (thanks everybody!) that contribute their expertise, time, and resources to build a free and open-source chess engine that is robust, widely available, and very strong. We invite our chess fans to join the fishtest testing framework and programmers to contribute to the project. Stay safe and enjoy chess! The Stockfish team " Website: stockfishchess.org Download: developer's webpage

The latest release of the Rodent chess engine has been enhanced with the NNUE rating resulting in a strength increase of about 300 Elo. "Rodent from Pawel Koziol is one of those engines with an excellent HCE evaluation. Rodent IV 0.22 is rated 2988 on CCRL and 2998 on GRL. We decided to move Rodent to NNUE evaluation, created a dataset of 800 million analyzed positions with Rodent 4.022 and moved the 800 million positions into the learner, tested the new created net with Rebel and Rodent NN gained about 200 elo over Rodent 4.022 In reality the Rodent net is actually 300 elo stronger when Pawel will implement the net into his own (Rodent) source code." This is how Ed Schröder described the latest version of the Rodent NN chess engine. I'm glad to see that Rodent is another chess engine that has "built-in" NNUE evaluation in the same single runnable file. This makes it so that users don't have to manually point the engine to the location of the NNUE evaluation file. Rodent NN is released under the GPLv3 licence.

This is another installment of the free, excellent and popular chess program for users of devices running on the Android operating system. "I just released version 6.5.2 of Chess for Android to Google Play. Some new features include: Autosave game on FICS/ICS DGT Pegasus support Certabo Bluetooth Connection (untested!) Internationalization Improvements Position Setup bug fixes (thanks to Daniel for reporting) The DGT Pegasus is the latest addition to the supported electronic chessboards, since I just received my board. The bluetooth to Certabo is new, but completely untested, since I don't have such a board. I basically just put the USB protocol on top of a Bluetooth socket. Please let me know if that works. There are also a few very minor changes. For example, touching the USB/Bluetooth icon while connected with an eboard provides information on the board." source: TalkChess Chess for Android is a program distinguished by stability and great possibilities – especially for chess enthusiasts. It is great that the author, whose nickname is Aart Bik, develops his program and makes it available to a wide audience (for many years now!). With Chess for Android, computer chess enthusiasts can, among other things, test chess engines, organize their matches and tournaments. The program supports modern chess engines as well as the older ones working using the winboard / xboard protocol. You can find more information on the Chess for Android author's website.

With the release of Stockfish 15, the developers stopped providing this engine for Windows 32-bit. According to my experience, there is quite a respectable group of fans of struggling chess engines on older computers or.... on virtual machines with 32-bit Windows on board. Many of us, like to organize matches / tournaments of older 32-bit chess engines from time to time, and watch how interesting chess they play. Why not check and see how the latest Stockfish performs in such an environment ? Will it dominate other engines, or maybe not ? I invite you to download the 32-bit Stockfish and check it out :) Update 2022-12-04 Stockfish 20221202 has been released by developers as Stockfish 15.1 I compiled the official version of Stockfish 15 and Stockfish 15.1. In both of these versions, I give you: Stockfish x86-32, with mmx and sse support, and... Stockfish general-32, for oldest 32-bit machines with the most compatibility. Enjoy :) Windows – Compiled by Darius

The fifth incarnation of an interesting and strong chess engine written in the Go language. About 3100 Elo. Counter by Vadim Chizhov is free, open source and published under the GPL3 license. The latest version is a breakthrough of sorts, as the author has implemented NNUE eval instead of the earlier hand crafted eval. Hopefully, this will be a "springboard" for further fruitful development of this chess engine. According to Darius's tests, the latest fifth version does not bring an increase in strength compared to the fourth version. Details will be published in the next issue of MCERL. Download area: Android – Compiled by Archimedes Linux – Compiled by Darius Mac – Compiled by Darius Windows – Compiled by Darius

This is open source chess engine under the GNU General Public License, written by James Swafford. Another release of a great chess engine with a long history of development. Author Mr. James Swafford is improving his engine more and more. Perhaps already the next version of Prophet will use a neural network which will certainly further enhance this engine. An excerpt from the contents of the readme file: "(...) at this point I'm turning my attention to implementing a neural network." Here's what's changed in the latest Prophet 4.3 " I'm happy to (finally) release Prophet 4.3. It's been 'code complete' for a while but I've been a bit busy lately. Anyway, it should be around 50 ELO stronger than 4.2 (so right around 2500 +/- on the CCRL Blitz list). Only minor eval changes: * passed pawn bonus broken down by rank (was a single value) * mobility is now non-linear (inspired by MadChess) * knight outposts * trapped bishop penalty " Source: Talkchess Feel free to download the Prophet 4.3 chess engine. Mac - Compiled by Darius Linux - Compiled by James Swafford & Darius (ARM64) Windows - Compiled by James Swafford