The Elektronika IM-05 was manufactured at the Svetlana factory in St. Petersburg, Russia. The IM-05 first appeared in 1993, though my one was sold in 1995. Elektronika, the brand name, is mainly associated with calculators, computers, watches and video games, many of them reverse engineered clones. IM stands for microprocessor game.

The Elektronika IM-05 was a significant upgrade on the earlier IM-01 and
IM-01T models with apparently several changes to its features; or so it seems from comparing the keypads of the IM-01T and IM-05 and their manuals. Seven levels are retained with response times which are quicker than the IM-01 but slower than the IM-01T. Perhaps the aim was a better balance between speed and strength. Also three Mate finding levels were added.

This is a pleasant machine to play, even though I do not know what I am doing half the time with the manual written in Russian Cyrillic script and some odd key labels. It seems to be a substantially stronger chess computer than the first of the series and worthy of testing against mid-range Western products.

More Elektronikas are beginning to appear on Ebay as Western European buyers become more comfortable with buying goods from Russian sellers. So I am expecting the IM-01T and IM-05 to feature more often in collections. At present, March 2015, you could say they are still rare.