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From: ray@rochester.ARPA (Ray Frank)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga,net.games.chess
Subject: Re: Places in Vancouver? Really Chess programs.
Message-ID: <21576@rochester.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 14-Oct-86 08:46:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.21576
Posted: Tue Oct 14 08:46:13 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Oct-86 07:58:05 EDT
References: <2440@garfield.UUCP> <363@ur-cvsvax.UUCP> <3890@amdahl.UUCP> <3942@amdahl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept., Rochester, NY
Lines: 31
Xref: watmath net.micro.amiga:5389 net.games.chess:556

In article <3942@amdahl.UUCP>, kim@amdahl.UUCP (Kim DeVaughn) writes:
> There is a review of Chessmaster 2000 in the most recent issue of
> "Compute!"  (Oct? Nov? ... whatever, the one that just came out).
> 
> It also mentions that Chessmaster 2000 has a "provisional rating"
> of 2000 (Grandmaster, so they say).  What does "provisional" mean
> in this context, and why isn't it an "official" rating?
> 
> Does the USCF rate dedicated chess-playing machines seperately from
> general-purpose machines running a chess program?  Why?
> 

  The Chessmaster 2000 is available for 8 and 16 bit machines.  This program
running on an Atari 800 would certainly not rate as high as when running on
a Mack or Atari ST.  Also a provisional rating is by no means an offical
measure of a chess players' ability.  A provisional rating in simple terms
means that not enough games have been played to represent the true strength
of the player.  The name of this program is extremely misleading.  The word
'Chessmaster' in no way or stretch of the imagination should be intepreted
as meaning this program plays master rated chess.  The number '2000' also
does not mean it plays 2000 rated chess.  There is only one way to determine
how good it is, and that is to have it officially rated by the USCF.  I believe
that only two consumer chess computers have official USCF ratings and they
are:  Par Excellence at 2100 and the Super Constellation at 2017.  Most chess
programs have never been officially rated for one reason or the other.  But
most chess programmers have some rather wild claims as to the ability of their
programs.  
  To my knowledge, there is only one formula used by the USCF for determining
the rating of a chess player, be they human or machine.

ray