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Millennium

Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 9:33 am
by Sargon72
Hello All.,

This topic is for the already brought out Millennium Chess computers and in future the new ones

So that means in general, for example if u like to see Blue tooth ore something on the Chess Genius Exclusive u can give your thoughts of course
Ore what is desired if Millennium make a new chess computer in Future

I am also a Official Tester of Millennium ,so i will discuss it with the people of Millennium

That means i have not a 100% vote in what Millennium will do ,but they do listen to their Tester that i can assure u.

I can not reveal any info to u ,of what is coming .But i will try to answer u

Here a Interview with Mr Ossi Weiner from Millennium


1- Introduce yourself

My name is Ossi Weiner, I'm 63 years old and living in Munich, Germany. Already as a teenager I have been an enthusiastic chess player, winning more than a dozen tournaments and playing many years in the German Bundesliga for the Bayern München chess team.

2- How did you get involved in computer chess?

I became involved in computer chess in the year 1978, when I started writing articles about the first chess computers entering the German market.

3- How did you get in touch with Mephisto / Hegener & Glaser?

I met Manfred Hegener the first time in 1980, when I was writing an article for the German SPIEGEL magazine and at the same time also working on my first book about chess computers.

4- How did you get to know Richard Lang?

The first time I met Richard Lang was at the world championship 1984 in Glasgow. A few months later we met again and convinced Richard to work for Hegener & Glaser, the producers of the famous Mephisto chess computers.

5- You did some books for the World Championships of the computers of Richard Lang, was that hard work?

At that time we didn't have PCs available, so my opening books had to be written by hand on large spreadsheets.
As you probably know I did much more than just the openings, of course. Richard and me closely cooperated in order to improve the strategic parameters of the program. I had the idea to define different pawn structures and combine them with fitting game plans. I believe that was quite a progressive concept at that point in time, and so it has strongly determined the successful playing style of Richard’s chess programs.

6- I believe you where good friend with Richard Lang?

Yes, that's true, we always had a very good relation. Over the years we have spent quite a lot of time together, not only in England but also during many chess computer tournaments around the world.

7- Do you know if King Richard may have a comeback with a new chess program for Millennium or for PC ?

Well, Richard is now over 60 years old, under this aspect I’m not sure if he will be interested to start once again from scratch.

8- You were taking part in the “golden age” of computer chess, as they called it, how was it?

The absolute highlight of my professional career was the famous victory of ChessGenius against Garry Kasparov on August 31, 1994 in London (on a Pentium 90 PC). That was a most exciting moment, which I will never forget in my life.

9- From Vancouver you where out of the Richard Lang team as book author, did you have no more time for that?

That's not correct, our successful cooperation continued until Richard's last world championship participation in 1995.

10- At one point you did leave Mephisto / Hegener & Glaser, why?

Already in November 1983 I founded my own company HCC in Munich. In parallel I continued working for H & G until 1994, supporting then with the development of various new Mephisto chess computers. And by the way, I was responsible for winning a few computer chess world championship titles for the company.

11- When you did get involved with Millennium ?

After H & G was taken over by Saitek, Manfred Hegener and me decided to join our forces. We became partners and the company HCC was soon renamed in MILLENNIUM 2000 GmbH.

12- What is your job or role inside Millennium?

As already mentioned I founded the company in 1983 and acted as a managing director until 2014, when I decided to retire for private reasons. Also after that I'm still a shareholder of the company and active as a consultant (mainly for developing new chess computers).

13- For years you made cheap and not so strong chess computers, why?

In the mid-90s we realized that there is a huge market for inexpensive chess computers. In the following 20 years we sold round about 3.5 million pieces of Millennium chess computers all over Europe – quite a successful business indeed.

14- When did Millennium decide to make a stronger chess computer?

In 1995 we received a lot of inquiries from our customers and dealers for stronger machines, and finally we decided to give it a try and to develop the new ChessGenius computer.

15- I assume that the sales did go well, and then you released the ChessGenius Pro, was this a logical choice?

Yes, that's true. We were really surprised about the huge success of our ChessGenius, and so going one step further was quite a logical decision.

16- How important is it for Millennium to have some testers on board? Are their comments useful for Millennium?

We are receiving a lot of feedback from our testers as well as from Internet forums, and as a matter of fact we take such comments very serious.

17- How important are test games for a new product?

Test games can sometimes be important for the purpose of analysing potential weaknesses and trying to find improvements.

18- When did Millennium decide to make your latest product the ChessGenius Exclusive?

Again we had a lot of inquiries from important customers for a higher quality product, which brought us to this decision in 2016.

19- Was it a risk to build a more expensive chess computer like this one?

The development costs for such a sophisticated product are really very high, as you can imagine. But now we are happy that this important business decision has been made.

20- Are you satisfied with the new Millennium product?

For me the new ChessGenius Exclusive is like "my baby", and as a matter of fact I'm very proud about this creation.

21- Can we expect more from Millennium in the future??

All decisions must be made by the Millennium management, of course. If our products continue to become very successful on the market, then I see no reason why we shouldn't go on working into this direction.

22- Do you think there is still a market for chess computers?

Yes, of course! There will always be serious chess players, who prefer to play on a real chess board with real chess pieces, instead of a mobile phone or computer screen.

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Hans, let me thank you for this interview and for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with your readers.

I hope u all enjoyed this Interview

Kr,Hans

Re: Millennium

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:47 am
by CHVL
Dear Ossi,
I was delighted to read your story and to learn so much about the foundation of the Millennium company and your relationship with Hegener.
We must thank Hans to have brought you to our forum.
Just one question: do you plan to have other programmers out of Richard Lang in a near future?
Lang is for sure the best and the most famous programmer by his consecutive victories in the World Championship Tournaments, still others deserve to be selected and would be exciting for our community.
Best regards,

Maurice

Re: Millennium

Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 12:23 pm
by CHVL
Hi Hans,

What could be the future developments of millenium in term of programs embedded in their Exclusive platform?
Best,

Maurice

Re: Millennium

Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 8:53 am
by Sargon72
Hello Maurice,

Well there is a update coming for owners of the Millennium Exclusive ,When ? Q1 2018
So people have to be little patient ,but it is worth the waiting i can tell u
I think ore am sure many people in the chess computer community will enjoy this update

Kr,Hans

Re: Millennium

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:16 am
by Mclane
IMO With the Pgn tool working, it should be possible to connect the exclusive with the pc via normal USB cable and use it as an I/O unit for the pc, e.g. For all Chess GUIs that use UCI i could imagine a MCGE uci engine that is doing nothing but bringing the moves from the MCGE into the GUI so that one could use the MCGE in almost ALL UCI capable chess programs as I/O device.


All the dummy MCGE UCI engine does would be to go into analysis mode and wait for the moves Beeing input and bring the moves from the pc into the chess board while the display of MCGE either shows computation information or only the moves Beeing made or operates as chesss clock.

Re:

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 7:31 am
by CHVL
Mclane wrote:
Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:16 am
IMO With the Pgn tool working, it should be possible to connect the exclusive with the pc via normal USB cable and use it as an I/O unit for the pc, e.g. For all Chess GUIs that use UCI i could imagine a MCGE uci engine that is doing nothing but bringing the moves from the MCGE into the GUI so that one could use the MCGE in almost ALL UCI capable chess programs as I/O device.


All the dummy MCGE UCI engine does would be to go into analysis mode and wait for the moves Beeing input and bring the moves from the pc into the chess board while the display of MCGE either shows computation information or only the moves Beeing made or operates as chesss clock.
I am wondering if it is possible to use the Gavon of Josu with the MCGE.
Dave, did you try the Gavon?
A priori, nothing is missing in the Gavon to succeed to exchange with the MCGE.
I am sure that Josu tried with success to connect his Gavon to some chess boards, but to the MCGE?
Maurice

Re: Millennium

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:59 pm
by DaveC
An excellent idea, Maurice. When I return home (extended trip) I will attempt to connect the Gavon to the MCGE. If it doesn't work maybe we can convince Josu to work his programming magic and issue a software update to Gavon owners.
Dave

Re: Millennium

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:41 pm
by Mclane
How strong is the Millennium chess Genius exclusive ?

If we compare it e.g. with results of old pc chess software:

Pentium 90:

Millennium Chess Genius 48 MHz 2077 ELO
Millennium Chess Genius pro 120 MHz 2180 ELO
Wchess 1.06 2236 ELO
Fritz3 2246 ELO
Chess Genius 3 IPhone 4 800 MHz 2261 ELO (I do believe it is 4s because 4 had 1000 MHz while 4s had 2x 800 MHz )
Genius 3 2312 ELO
Mchess Pro6 2315 ELO
Hiarcs 6 2337 ELO
ChessTiger 11.8 2387 ELO




I do not have a Pentium 90.
But I do have a Pentium 133 MHz .

So it should be possible to find out about the strength of millennium chess Genius exclusive by running it against the above opponents.

Re: Millennium

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:58 am
by Sargon72
Hello Thorsten,

Yes indeed ,i think some interesting matches to look forward to , Personal i think the CGE will have +-2400 elo
I did Test it only with the Hiarcs Book>Human ,and the results where not bad i would say

Hope to see the games
Have fun

Kr,Hans

Millennium ChessGenius Exclusive

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:53 am
by CHVL
Beautiful computer... I like it, but the price seems strange:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Millennium- ... SwUnFZtx~C

Is this seller thinking that he is selling a special model?
I was reassured finding it at a "normal" price:
https://www.chesshouse.com/products/mil ... -exclusive

Crazy things happen on eBay...

Maurice