An Early Compiter Tournament

    In 1980 we could buy chess computers. For example, there was the Voice Chess Challenger, The First Thinking Chess Game That Speaks To You. It played 40 openings consisting of 1,200 moves. On some settings it it displayed the best move and it could play itself. You could also set up problems. It had 10 levels of play. The response time for levels 1-9 ranged from 5 seconds to 11 minutes per move plus there was am Infinite level. The cost: $245.95 plus $3.00 for shipping and fondling...that’s the equivalent of almost $950 today. The average wage in 1980 was $12,513.46 a year, so the computer was not cheap.      

    One of the best machines was Belle. It was developed by Joe Condon (the hardware) and Ken Thompson (the software) at Bell Labs. In 1983, it was the first machine to achieve master-level play with a USCF rating of 2250.      

    Belle's final incarnation was the third generation that was completed in 1980. It consisted of further improvements to the speed of move generation and evaluation. Depending on the stage of the game, it examined 100,000 to 200,000 moves per second.      

    CHAOS (Chess Heuristics And Other Stuff) was one of the leading programs since it first appeared in 1973 until the mid-80s. It examines only about about 10,000 movrd per move. Its book contains about 10,000 lines. It was slow, but it evaluated positions accurately. Its weakness was that it missed deep tactics.     

    You will, no doubt, find the following site amusing: 7 Fun and Funky Vintage Chess Computers. I had one of the set listed...Boris which appeared in February 1978. 

    The computer came housed in a very nice wooden box measuring 10” x 7” x 3-1/2” and had a small folding board and a travel size set. The cost was $350, that’s nearly $1,700 in today’s dollars. It wasn’t very strong and I eventually threw away the guts and kept the box which today sits on a dresser and holds loose change, watches, keys, etc.      

    In 1978, in San Jose, California, the First Microcomputer Chess Tournament, held in March. To be eligible to the computer shad to be small enough to attend, that is, no phone hookups were allowd, they had to have less than 32K of memory, and be based on 8-bit microprocessor chips.  

  

    In the event of crashes and games which promised to go on and on without any result the TYD could adjudicate the game. Some of the programs running in the old, simple BASIC programming language could not meet the 50 moves in 2 hour time limit and they were paired in a separate matches. Boris, Chess Challenger and Compu-Chess were off-the-shelf consumer products. Commodore Chessmate was a prototype of a consumer product that was expected to be available later tin the year.

 

 

ChessBase

Process Technology–Sargon0–1B001st Microcomputer Tmt, San Jose1978Stockfish 17

B00: Irregular Defense 1.e4 e5 2.d4 c6 Questionable. 2...exd4 is best. 3.dxe5 Humans have overwhelmingly played 3.Nf3 here although the text and 3. dxe5 are better. b4+ Best is the simple 3...Nxe5 3...h4 4.c3 b4 5.d2 xe5 6.f3 xf3+ 7.xf3 d6 White is considerably better and eventually won. Ulybin,M (2550)-Vlassov,N (2395) Berlin 1996 4.c3 c5 5.f3 e7 6.f4 h6 Thus is one of those rare occasions where ...f6 is actually better. 6...f6 7.exf6 xf6 7...xe4+ 8.e2 xf6 9.xc7 favors white 8.bd2 8.e5 d6 Black is slightly better. 8...xe4 is equal. 7.xh6 gxh6 White has managed to come out of the opening whith a slight advantage assuming his next move is 8.Qd5 or 8.b4 8.b5 g8 Although 8...Nxe5 is perfectly acceptable the R has a great future here! 9.xc6 dxc6 10.0-0 Castling into trouble. 10.g3 was correct. h3 It's somewhat surprising that the white program missed this move. 11.bd2 A major tactical error missing the fact that after this black has a mate in 5. The only chances was 11.g3 which turns out not to be as wretched as it looks! 11.g3 h5 11...xf1 12.xf1 and white actually has sufficient compensation for the exchange! 12.h1 12.e1 h4 13.d4 0-0-0 White has kept the exchange and his f-Pawn is safe, bit at the cost of gicing black a very strong attack. 12...h4 13.bd2 0-0-0 and black has good prospects. 11...xg2+ This wins, but Sargon has also missed the mate. 11...xg2 12.e1 xf3+ 13.f1 g1+ 14.xg1 g5+ 15.f1 g2# 12.h1 g6 13.e1 White is lost, but this allows mate in 5 which could only be avoided by 13.Rg1 13.g1 xf2 14.xg6 hxg6 Black has what should amount to a winning advantage. 13...xf2 Again missing the mate, not that it matters because the text still wins. 13...g2+ 14.g1 xf3+ 15.f1 g1+ 16.xg1 g5+ 17.f1 g2# just like before. 14.g1 xg1 15.c4 15.xg1 g2# 15...d8 15...g2+ 16.xg1 xf3+ picks up the Q 16.fd2 b5 Again, Sargon misses a mate. 16...g2+ 17.xg1 c5+ 18.e3 xe3# 17.a3 xe5 Guess what? 17...Bg2 mates 17...g2+ 18.xg1 c5# 18.e2 g2 Thus forces mate, but it's not the shortest. 18...xd2 19.xg1 xg1+ 20.xg1 xe2 mate next move. 18...g2+ Again! 19.xg1 c5+ 20.f2 h3+ 21.h1 xf2 mate next move. 19.f3 e6 Missing a quicker mate. 19...xe2 20.xg1 xh2+ 21.xh2 xe4+ 22.f3 xf3+ 23.h2 d2+ 24.g2 xg2# 20.e1 c5 20...g4 is quicker 21.f1 dd2 22.xg1 xg1+ 23.xg1 xf3+ 24.g2 xg2# 21.b4 xa2 21...g4 is quicker. 22.f1 f2 23.xf2 xf2 24.h4 xe4+ 25.g2 xg2# 22.bxc5 g2+ 22...xa1 is quicker. 23.xa1 g4 24.f1 d1 25.g1 xe4+ 26.f3 xf1# 23.g1 xf3 24.xa2 xa2 25.f2 d1+ White resigned. Fritz' tactical analysis assigned the progams the following unimpressive ratings, but it was a start. Better programs werte to come. Accuracy: White = 7%, Black = 39%. 0–1

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