This is an unusual machine, a chess computer with additional chess clock functions. The Playmate-2 was the result of a joint venture  between the Bulgarian computer company SPS and the Riga Radio Factory (RRR), apparently produced in 1989. The manual leads one to the conclusion that it was actually manufactured in Riga, Latvia.

SPS (Software Products and Systems) was responsible for the SPS Partner, a Fidelity Excellence clone, which you can see here (link). The SPS Partner was manufactured in 1986 and appears to have later led to this joint venture using the same hardware and Dan & Kathe Spracklen’s Excellence program in the Playmate-2. The Playmate-2 uses a G65SC02P-3 cpu running at 3MHz. It is date stamped 8916. The 16 KB ROM is a Texas Instruments chip TMS27C128-20JL date stamped 8817, and there is 2KB of SRAM  (HY6116AP-10). The Playmate-2 plays like an Excellence and I have little doubt that it contains the same program as in the SPS Partner. It has exactly the same keys and key functions as an Excellence, apart from the low battery light. It operates either using a mains lead or from 6 ‘D’ batteries.

How the chess clock works and how it interacts with the chess computer I have yet to figure out. The manual is in Russian and therefore hard work for me to interpret.. However the key labels are in English suggesting that this machine was produced with half an eye on export potential. Perhaps the chess clock functions were seen as contributing to what was hoped to be a product of interest to the West at a time when trade links were developing as a result of perestroika?

This is the only SPS/RRR Playmate-2 I have seen, other than a discontinued offer on the Russian Chess House website, which may have been the same machine. Outside of Eastern Europe it is a very rare chess computer.