A beautiful, rare and impressive unit
made by Fidelity.
My unit speaks English.
The Grand Master Voice is the precursor of the Decorator: it was
released in 1980.
Differences between the 2 boards:
- the Grand Master Voice has a keyboard and display recovered by a
wooden plaque in the tone of the rest of the board while the
Decorator has the metallic aspect of the keyboard/display of the
Chess Challenger Voice.
- the Grand Master Voice has not the 4 carved legs of the Decorator.
- the Grand Master Voice is lighter than the Decorator: the frame of
the Decorator is more massive. Conversely, the board of the Grand
Master Voice is closer to the aspect of wood than the one of the Decorator.
Similarities:
- both have 2 drawers for the Chessmen.
- both have a cable with 2 prongs to connect to the classical adapter
Fidelity 8.5 VAC, 1.5 A.
- both are equipped with a full Fidelity Chess Challenger Voice
Advanced. However, the Decorator has 12 KB of ROM (8 KB in the Chess
Challenger Voice Advanced).
- the chessmen of the Decorator and Grand Master Voice are classical
Staunton made in France.
Grand Master Wood Board Origins
It was a tradition for the manufacturers of Dedicated Chess
Computers to use the existing wood chess boards.
One of the most beautiful wood boards remains the famous Auto
Response Board (ARB) of Applied Concepts Inc.
This 21 inches wood board was manufactured by the Drueke Company of
Grand Rapids (Michigan).
It was more difficult to find the
origins of the board of the Grand Master.
A little by chance and a lot by perseverance, I finally found the
TRUE original Grand Master board..
The chessmen of this board are taller and bigger than the ones of
the Grand Master.
They are also more sophisticated, more luxurious.
The knights have nacre eyes (look at the photos).
I have other information, but it remains
uncertain...
Maybe somebody would have some information? My e-mail is
open to all the people willing to help (mrcohayon@chesseval.com).
