The Fidelity Chess Challenger Elite Champion is a Classic chess computer. The program won the open group at the World MicroComputer Chess Championship at Travemunde in 1981. For a while the Elite was the strongest and best featured chess computer around. Fidelity supremo, Sid Samole used his well developed marketing skills to sell 500 of them at the premium price of $1000 ( x3 for 2008 prices).

The plaque at the front was to be engraved with the owner’s name. To further encourage buyers there was the numbered and signed Certificate, the World Champion sticker, the quality inspection report and the most detailed manual produced for any chess computer thus far. All emphasising the special status of this product.

With only 500 built this chess computer would be relatively rare whatever. No doubt the majority are stored away in American closets and attics with the elderly owners name engraved on the front. A personal relic of the heady early days of computer chess. Which is why few are seen in chess computer collections today.
 

The main differences between the Elite and the standard Champion are the doubled clock speed (from 2 MHz to 4 MHz) and the enhanced program which had extensions for captures and checks.

My Elite, serial number 045, came from Germany and has a German voice. The combination of the German voice and blank plaque would, I guess, increase it’s rarity value.