Fidelity Elite Premiere

My favourite chess computer.

As a tribute to their acquisition of Fidelity, Hegener and Glaser, the makers of Mephistos, produced a machine with both a strong Fidelity program and a strong Mephisto program. They called it the Elite Premiere.

At the push of a switch you can use either the Fidelity 2265 program of Dan & Kathe Spracklen, or the Mephisto Vancouver 68000 program of Richard Lang on stronger hardware than the original chess computer with that program (Elo 15 pts stronger in quick play according to Computer Chess Reports 1991-92).

It is said that about 500 Elite Premieres were manufactured.

This Elite Premiere was bought from an individual in the USA who contacted me. It is in beautiful condition in all respects.

Amongst the joys of having an Elite Premiere is the huge range of options and features explained in great detail by the manual.
















			The two photos below are mainly included because they show one of my rare wins over a strong chess computer. In this case the (weaker) 2265 program. Trying to avoid losing a pawn the Elite Premiere ends up losing a piece. So the photos show a double rarity !

Another rare sight (left). Two Fidelity Elite Premieres play each other. One has Lang’s Vancouver 68000 program loaded. The other is running Fidelity’s 2265 program. Serial Number 50664 on the left and Serial Number 50628 on the right.

All three of the Elite Premieres I have owned have been original Elite Premieres, but it was possible to send an Elite Avant Garde back to the Fidelity factory in USA and get an upgrade to Elite Premiere specification. At least three such upgrades have been seen on Ebay in recent years.

	Mephisto Vancouver program
Programmer	Richard Lang
Elo Rating	2107+
Processor	68000 16 bit 12 MHz
Memory	256 KB ROM 512 Kb RAM
Opening Book	150,000 ply (17,000 variations) + 1,000 ply programmable
Book Choice	Random/Tournament + Normal - Human/Gambit/Classic/Modern/Blitz
Mode Choice	Active, Solid, Risky + 7 different levels of Selective Search
Problem Solving	Mate in 16
Power	9V 1.5A two prong Fidelity connector
Dimensions	48.3 x 46.0 x 5.5 cm
Chessboard	36.0 x 36.0 cm
King Height	8.3 cm

	Fidelity Mach III 2265 program
Programmer	Dan & Kathe Spracklen
Elo Rating	1983
Processor	68000 16 bit 16 MHz
Memory	64 KB ROM 64 Kb RAM
Opening Book	> 28,000 ply
Book Choice	Tournament/All
Mode Choice	Easy mode stops thinking on opponents time.
Problem Solving	Mate in 8