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Excel 68000 ¹

Excel, (Fidelity Excel, 68000 Mach I, 68000 Mach II, 68000 Mach III, 68020 Mach IV)
a family of the dedicated Chess Challenger series by Fidelity Electronics, produced and distributed from 1987 to 1989. The Excel had a 16-bit Sargon III based 68000 program by Dan and Kathe Spracklen, and was the first dedicated unit featuring a transposition table apparently with BCH hashing of < 16 KiB, 128 KiB for the Mach II, 64 KiB for the Mach III, 512 KiB for the 68020 Mach IV. Due to TTs, the Excel could solve the Lasker-Reichhelm Position in under a minute, but had some issues with color flipped positions, f. i. in KBNK ¹. The Mach III and its successor, the 68020 32-bit Mach IV were also shipped in other housings, such as the Elite Avant Garde V2 ² and Avant Garde V6 ³, and the later Fidelity Designer models ^{4 5}.

Master Rating

Mach III Rating Certificate ¹

The 68000 Mach III was rated 2265 by the United States Chess Federation`s Computer Rating Agency, an independent certifying body. The computer obtained that Master rating by competing 48 tournament games against rated players ⁶. The German Schach-computer Info Wiki mentions an (old) SSDF rating of 1993 ^{7 8}.

See also

• Elite
• Excellence
• Excelsior
• Fidelity
• Fidelity Electronics
• Par Excellence

Selected Publications

• Thorsten Czub (1989). Er weiß, was er weiß - Der Mach III Master glänzt mit Wissen und Geschwindigkeit. Computerschach und Spiele, Heft 2 ,April-Mai 1989, hosted by Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
• Shawn Benn, Danny Kopec (1993). The Bratko-Kopec Test Recalibrated. ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3 » Bratko-Kopec Test

Forum Posts

• Zarkov vs. Mach III (10 games) by Stuart Cracraft, rgc, November 05, 1989 » Zarkov
• Fidelity Excel models by Alain Zanchetta, CCC, May 18, 2004
• Fidelity Excel Mach III design by Alain Zanchetta, CCC, June 22, 2004
• Inside Fidelity Excel Mach III by Alain Zanchetta, CCC, September 06, 2004
• Excel 68000 question by Matthew Hull, CCC, February 07, 2005
• Rare Fidelity Excel Mach II on ebay by Larry, Hiarcs Forum, September 09, 2008
• Difference between Fidelity Excel Mach3 versions... by Larry, Hiarcs Forum, June 24, 2009
• The Fidelity Excel Mach II & The 1987 World Open by Cyberchess, Hiarcs Forum, February 17, 2014

External Links

Chess Computer

• Excel 68000 (Fidelity) from Electronicchess
• Excel Mach III (Fidelity) from Electronicchess
• Fidelity Excel 68000 from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
• Fidelity Excel 68000 Mach II from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
• Fidelity Excel Mach III from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
• Fidelity Excel Mach IV from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)
• Oldie-Artikel 1 by Thorsten Czub (German)

Misc

• Excel (disambiguation) from Wikipedia

Microsoft Excel from Wikipedia

• Excellent (disambiguation) from Wikipedia
• Excelsior (disambiguation) from Wikipedia
• Mach (disambiguation) from Wikipedia

References