Peter Auge says his HK produ can only be beaten by masters and ...

#\ $*\ $**•* i i,000 chess cornputers a yearPeter Auge says his HK producan only be beaten bymasters and grand mastersIf asked which city produces thelargest number of Chess Grand Mastersmost people would say Vienna,Moscow or perhaps even Berlin. Butthey would be very wrong. It's HongKong, and the reason for this improbablestatistic is Novag Industries, thecompany established by German entrepreneurPeter Auge and which nowmanufactures 100,000 chess computerseach year.Hot ideaPeter Auge came to Hong Kong inFebruary 1964, from Montreal, visitingthe territory on business since 1957."At that time I saw in a toy showrooma set of plastic tools -- a hammer,hatchet, screwdriver, I had an idea thatif I made the handles transparent andfilled them with sugar pellets peoplewould buy them,"I got a set of samples which Ishowed to a few people in the UnitedStates and Canada. They said yes — itwas a hot idea," he explained.Mr Auge started a factory in HongKong and within three months he employed500 girls doing nothing but fillingthese plastic toys with sugar pellets."In the first year I shipped 55 millionpieces to the U.S., and i figuredout that statistically every thirdAmerican must have had one of mytoys," Mr Auge said.In 1977, when the first primitivechess computers appeared on themarket Mr Auge, an avid chess fan, setup Novag Industries. Today Novag isthe world's leading manufacturer ofchess computers.Novag's original Mark 1 chess computer,basically a black box with anLED display and set of input buttons,was released in 1977. Although theuser needed a chess board to play outthe moves dictated by the computerthe company eventually sold 180,000of them. At the time it was regarded asa novelty — no one had seen anythinglike it.It's different today. The top lineNovag Chess computers feature a stylishwooden board with built-in electronicsthat respond to moves made by thehuman player. They are highlysophisticated machines that can onlybe beaten by strong club players,masters and grand masters.Novag established its factory inKwun Tong nine years ago and thefacility now handles the assembly of"pre-fabricated" parts, testing andpackaging of about 100,000 chesscomputers each year. Originally thefactory employed about 180 workersbut the use of sophisticated productionequipment has reduced that figureto 80 or 90.Although many components arebought in from Japan, the heart of thecomputers, the printed circuit boards(PCBs) are designated in Hong Kongby Novag engineers and fabricated bya local electronics factory. The plasticcabinets are also designed here andfarmed out to a mould maker forfabrication and then delivered back tothe Novag facility."On one hand you have the PCB's,on the other you have the cabinets,the Japanese deliver all the componentsand the printer brings in the boxes andthe instructions. In the factory workerssolder the components onto the PCBs,then the computer is assembled,packaged, tested and shipped," explainsMr Auge.Novag Chess computers range frompocket-sized models designed fortravellers, attractive tabfe-top sets withfull size pieces, to the Chess robot,which won Novag the 1982 Governor'saward for year's best designed HongKong made product."The robot has been quite successfulbut we have stopped it nowbecause next year we will release anew version which, although it maylook exactly the same, will have anew, more sophisticated program. Weexpect it to sell well."To chess fans these machines arelike opium and I know people withten different chess computers. Theyhold a certain fascination to chessplayers. They are driven to beat, or totry to beat the machine," Mr Augesaid.The software that allows Novagcomputers to perform miracles, likeconsistently trouncing grand masters inthe work of David Kittinger, Novag'schief programmer. Kittinger works outof Los Angeles, U.S.A., and PeterAuge believes that he is probably thebest chess programmer around today,Alaska"We found him in Alaska where hewas working as a lineman, climbing uptelephone poles and putting the wiringright. He wrote a chess program as anamateur which struck us as being verygood so we contacted him and relocatedhim to L.A. where he has writtenexclusively for us ever since," Mr Augeexplained.The company ships its chess computersto more than 40 countries allover the world but its three majormarkets are Germany, France and theU.S. West Germany in fact accounts for20-25% of all factors."There are several reasons forthis. I am from Germany, I hayegood connections there and we havevery good relations with all the departmentstores, mail order houses andretail chains, which all makes for goodbusiness," Mr Auge said.Refusing to disclose details ofNovag's annual turnover, Mr Augewould say only that the company shipsapproximately 100,000 chesscomputers of all sizes each year."This year will be a good year for(continued on p.48)46 THE BULLETIN MAY 1986

Rudiger Koppen smokes hisGerman sausage for dinersat the 'Golden Mile'The Holiday Inn Golden Mile inNathan Road opened in 1974 and sincethen its restaurant and delicatessenshave been providing Hong Kong withthe some of the finest German Cuisineto be found in Asia.The man responsible for the GoldenMile's decidedly German flavour, isRudiger Koppen, the Hotel's firstGeneral Manager and as the namesuggests, a very traditional German,gentleman.While setting up the Golden Mile,the Holiday !nn chain's first hotel inthe territory, Koppen discovered thatHong Kong was lacking in venueswhich offered genuine German fare.To correct this serious state of affairshe produced the Holiday Inn GoldenMile, out of which has grown one ofHong Kong's first delicatessens, theDelicatessen Corner, the Vienna Cafeand the Baron's Table Restaurant,The key to the Hotel's "Germanatmosphere" is the smokehouse,essentially a stainless steel closet sixfoot square and eight feet high, builtinto the hotel's kitchens, Measuredquantities of "Sagemehl", the Germanword for wood shavings, are strewnon the floor of the smokehouse, setalight and left to smoulder, and oncethe smoke begins to rise the items tobe smoked are hung inside.The Golden Mile's smokehouse nowproduces 500 to 600 lbs of smokedproduce per day including 43 varietiesof sausage, fish, beef, all kinds of hamsand various meats, all done totraditional Austrian or German recipes.According to Jill Kluge, ManagerPublic Relations at the Holiday InnGolden Mile the, Delicatessen Corneris a genuine German deli, packed withGerman hams and sausages, andwithout the items you'd expect tofind in an English or American styledeli."The Holiday Inn Delicatessen was100,000 chess computers a year (continued from p.46)Novag because we sell in U.S. dollars.Last year, when the U.S. dollar washigh, that was a handicap—this yearthe dollar being low is a big advantage,"he said.However, Novag's activities are notconfined solely to chess computers.program. Within the next few monthswe will have it on the market. Thereare 1.2 billion Chinese, but I hopenot everybody will want one or elseI won't be able to deliver."But demand for chess computers,Novag ones or otherwise, seems toThe company also produces an have reached a steady level andelectronic version of the Japanesegame, Gomoku, and a computerisedChinese Chess set is currently in thefinal stages of development."We are just finished with thealthough some people say the marketis saturated Peter Auge doesn't thinkso,"The cake doesn't get much bigger,but it's a steady cake and we have itevery year. There are always newkids, or adults, who want to have achess computer, so business is steady,"he said.The big problem, Auge says, isthat you have to come up with threeor four new models, even though thecurrent ones work perfectly welland people can't beat them."But you know, my people aregetting quite good at it," he said,with a chuckle.D48 THE BULLETIN MAY 1986