Radio Shack 1850 Owner's Manual page 6

2. Setting the level of skill
Your Radio Shack 1850 Chess Computer has 17 different skill
levels. The first nine levels are designed for casual play. The
computer will select its move for these levels based on the
following average response times:
Level Average response time per move
0 0.5 second (Handicap Level for beginners)
1 2 seconds (Default setting)
2 5 seconds
3 15 seconds
4 30 seconds
5 1 minute
6 2 minutes
7 3 minutes
8 6 minutes
The actual response time will vary with each level and the
complexity of the current positions.
The next four levels — A, B, C and D — are tournament levels.
These levels are time control games, and are classified as
follows:
Level Primary time control Secondary time control
A 30 moves/1st 30 min. 30 moves/30 minutes
B 40 moves/1st 2 hours 20 moves/hour
C 40 moves/1 st 2
1
/
2
hr 16 moves/hour
D 50 moves/1st 2
1
/
2
hr 20 moves/hour
Taking Level B as an example, the computer would have to
finish its first 40 moves within 2 hours (2 hours computer
time — not including time for your moves), and then make the
following 20 moves within one hour (computer time). The
remaining moves in the game would continue to be limited by
the secondary time control.
NOTE: Any time remaining on the Primary Time Control is
carried forward to the Secondary Time Control, so it is
possible that the secondary time can be longer than indicated.
For example, in Level B, if the computer is fast enough to
complete its first 40 moves using only 1 hour of thinking time,
then it would have a total of 2 hours thinking time for the
next 20 moves. The remaining time for each time control
period will be accumulated until the end of the game.
Level Description
E 5 min/game — The computer will try to complete a
game in 5 minutes time (total computer thinking
time — player time not included). This is sometimes
abbreviated as a 'blitz' game.
F 10 sec/move — The computer will indicate its move
within 10 seconds.
G Infinite Level — The computer will search for a best
move as long as possible (unless it is interrupted by
pressing the 'play' key). In very complicated set-ups
it could take several days to move.
H Problem Solving Level — See Section 14 of this
manual for a complete description.