This Novosibirsk “100 Years” was manufactured in 1992 in Russia. Other than that it is a bit of a mystery. The photographs which appear on Sergei Frolov’s website (link) also show the pcb, manual, label with date of manufacture and box. In layout, features and response this machine is sufficiently similar to the Novag Piccolo to mark it down as a typical Soviet Bloc clone of a Western chess computer. In this case a Novag product which dates from 1985. It is a fairly crude interpretation of the Piccolo, with no speaker, pieces which are hard to distinquish from each other, a separate lid, and buttons which are unforgiving. The “100 Years” has a 5 volt power adaptor and can also run off four AA batteries. The Piccolo is a 9 volt machine.

Novosibirsk (New Siberia) is the third largest city in Russia by population. It is situated not so far from the Kazakhstan and Mongolian borders. Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 and presumably the chess computer’s name celebrates that. The building shown on the machine looks like Novosibirsk Opera House. Apologies if this description is more use to tourists than chess computer enthusiasts. You can tell I am struggling for information on the computer itself. It plays like a Piccolo.