en computerschaak
The video was probably shot in May 1990. Tom Fürstenberg (importer of Fidelity chess computers for the Benelux) and Anatoly Karpov got to know each other better by collecting stamps with chess motifs! This was the reason for Fürstenberg to let Karpov stay at his home for a few days, and then visit the Chess Collectors conference in New York together.
Fürstenberg informed me that he played 20 to 25 speed chess games against Karpov, of which he drew one and lost the rest (of course). But what is so special about this video? If you pay close attention, you will see that both gentlemen play their mutual speed chess games on the very rare Fidelity Prestige chess table! Fürstenberg had a special chess table made (to order) for his Prestige and had the Prestige Challenger upgraded with a multiprocessor to an Elite Avant Garde version 5.
Fürstenberg believes that the large chess pieces of the Prestige fit comfortably in the hand and that the playing style of the Spracklen's is lively, unlike Richard Lang's program. Ultimately, Fürstenberg sold this chess table with the Prestige Challenger to the German collector Steffen Scholz in the fall of 2006. Scholz had the chess table restored by a woodworker and played in the same year as Fidelity Elite Avant Garde version 7 in the D.A.CH.-tournament in Kaufbeuren.
At the end of 1990, Fürstenberg was added to Karpov's secondary team during the world chess championship against Garry Kasparov. As operator of the brand-new and not yet available Fidelity Elite Avant Garde version 10, he was responsible for the opening preparations and analyzes of aborted chess games. Fürstenberg is now 88 years old and has had a very eventful life. Over the years he has lived in both Belgium and the Netherlands and has lived in 's-Hertogenbosch since 2013.
In 1988 I met him personally and he sometimes came to my house. In the mid-1990s I sold his entire stock of the CXG Sphinx Chess Professor for 99 NLG (€44.92). He was clearly happy to get rid of these new but outdated models. He was already winding down and at the end of 1999 he stopped his commercial trading. The best gift I received from him were some very rare Fidelity brochures from the early 1980s. If you want to know more about Tom Fürstenberg, you can click on some web links below.
External weblinks
Wiki Tom Fürstenberg
EAG 68040 bij de WK-match Kasparov-Karpov
Tom Fürstenberg handelaar in schaakcomputers
Ex handelaar in schaakcomputers
Schaakcomputers achterna
Fidelity brochure 1980
Historical and anecdotal greetings from Hein Veldhuis, dated January 30, 2025