In 1986 you could buy the Miphisto Modular chess computer for the “low price of $300” which amounts to over $875 in today’s purchasing power. The cheapest model was only $199 (0ver $290 today).
In 1986, chess computers were starting to become quite strong and top of the line computers were playing at the strong amateur level of, say, 2000-2100 or even a Master level.
The Fifth World Computer Chess Championship took place as part of the Cologne Trade Fair in Cologne, West Germany in June of 1986. Four programs finished with four out of five, and the winner was determined by sum of opponent scores. That is why the tournament was also decided by games from the bottom half.
The program Rebel was close to become the champion against the mainframe programs, but didn't manage to win a won game in the last round against Bebe. T
Cray Blitz lost the second round against Bobby, but managed to win the last round against HiTech, which had a perfect score up until then.
A protest by Hans Berliner, suspicious by a move of Cray Blitz was declined by the arbiter after inspecting Blitz's log-files. Lucky for Cray Blitz was the adjudicated win against Schach 2.7 because years later, Rex’s co-author Sam Sloan started a campaign and claimed cheating by various sides.
Here’s an interesting game by Bobby, program by Hans-Joachim Kraas and Gunther Schrufer. In 1993, Bobby II won the 3rd International Paderborn Computer Championship.
The development of Bobby started in 1982 and was written in Pascal on an IBM computer. In 1987 Bobby II was complete[y redesign in C on an Atari ST microcomputer. Bobby had a sophisticated evaluation with respect to King safety and passed Pawns. The inclusion of certain non-tactical moves helped its play.
Mephisto was a family of dedicated chess computers, produced and sold by Hegener & Glaser since 1980, starting with Mephisto I-III.
In 1985 Richard Lang became primary Mephisto programmer and his programs competed in various World computer championships from 1985 until 1993. In 1994, Saitek Ltd., acquired the Mephisto trademark.
There is some interesting material on old engines and programs on Zarkov Fischer’s old site HERE.
I have a copy of Correspondence GM Robin Smith’s book Modern Chess Analysis which was published in 2004 and at that time engines were significantly stronger than in the past, and they were able to defeat strong humans, but they still had some major weaknesses and Snith showed how to takle advantage of thise weaknesses.
The February, 2004, edition of Chess Life’s cover story was that Garry Kasparov made history in a battle against X3D Fritz which resulted in a bi draw.
In 2004, Saitek Industries “and Garry Kasparov” offered the Master Chess Computer, that was “super strong” and “ideally suited for the advanced club player.” It was “great for problem solving, training
and speed chess.” It came with an AC adaptor, but could also run on 6 AA batteries. Cost: $249.95 which is about $495 today.
[Event "Fifth World Computer Champ, Cologne"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1986.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Bobby"]
[Black "Mephisto X"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A70"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "93"]
[SourceVersionDate ""]
{B03: Alekhine's Defense} 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. exd6 exd6
6. Nc3 Be7 7. h3 O-O 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. Be2 Bf5 10. O-O Qd7 {The end of my
program's book; usual is 10...Bf6} 11. Bf4 {Hardly bad, but 11.d5 was sharper.}
(11. d5 {Stockfish 17.1:} Nb4 12. a3 Na6 13. b4 Bf6 14. Nd4 Bg6 15. Be3 {
White is better by about 1.5 Ps.}) 11... Rae8 12. a4 {Agian, 12.d5 secures a
plus.} Bf6 {Mephisto should have prevented Bobby's next move with 12...a5} 13.
a5 $16 Nc8 14. a6 {Nothing comes from this so connecting his Rs with 14.Qd2
was indicated.} b6 15. g4 {Like the real Bobby, the engine Bobby is aggressive.
} Bxg4 {Moving the attacked B either to e5 or g6 was correct. The sacrifice is
completely unsound and today's engines give white a winning 3 Pawn advantage.}
16. hxg4 Qxg4+ 17. Bg3 {The threat is 18.Ne5.} Nxd4 18. Nxd4 Qxd4 19. Qc2 (19.
Qxd4 {is just a bit weaker. e.g.} Bxd4 20. Rae1 Bxc3 21. bxc3 {but why accept
doubled Ps?}) 19... h6 20. Rfd1 Qc5 21. Nb5 Be5 {With the transparent threat
of ...Bxg3} 22. Rd5 Qc6 23. Bxe5 Rxe5 24. Rxe5 dxe5 25. Bg4 {There is no way
for black to save a P.} Nd6 (25... Qa8 26. Nxc7 Qb8 27. Nd5) (25... e4 26. Bf5
(26. Bxc8 {is mot quite as good.} Rxc8 27. Nxa7 Qg6+ 28. Kf1 Rd8 29. Rd1 Ra8
30. Nb5 Rxa6 31. Nxc7 {White is still winning, but is advantage is not as
great as it is after the tet.}) 26... Re8 27. Re1 Nd6 28. Nxd6 Qxd6 29. Bxe4 {
here white's advantage is about 2 Pawns.}) 26. Nxa7 Qc5 27. Bd7 e4 28. Nb5 Nxb5
29. Bxb5 Qg5+ 30. Kf1 Qh4 {Time for a bit of tactics!} 31. Rd1 Qh1+ 32. Ke2
Qf3+ 33. Ke1 Qh1+ (33... c6 {No doubt Bobby would have the trap and played} 34.
Qe2 (34. Bxc6 Qh1+ 35. Kd2 e3+ 36. fxe3 Qxc6 {with a likely draw.}) 34... cxb5
35. Qxf3 exf3 36. cxb5 {White has a won R+P ending.}) 34. Kd2 Qg2 {If Black
can now play ...c6 this consolidates a bit.} 35. Kc1 {Stockfish puts white's
advantage at 4-5 Ps. The ancient (circa 1998) Fritz 5.32 puts it at slightly
less than 2 Ps.} Qg6 36. Qb3 c6 37. Ba4 c5 38. Qg3 Ra8 39. Qxg6 fxg6 {[%mdl
4096]} 40. Bb5 g5 41. Rd7 h5 42. a7 e3 43. fxe3 Rf8 44. Bc6 h4 45. a8=Q Rxa8
46. Bxa8 h3 47. Rd5 {Black resigned. Compared to Stockfish 17.1, Bobby's
accuracy rating was a decent 72%. Mephisto's was an unspectacular 37%.} 1-0