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.

 

 

[Event "1st Microcomputer Tmt, San Jose"] [Site "?"] [Date "1978.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Process Technology"] [Black "Sargon"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "50"] [EventDate "1978.??.??"] {B00: Irregular Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. d4 Nc6 {Questionable. 2...exd4 is best.} 3. dxe5 {Humans have overwhelmingly played 3.Nf3 here although the text and 3. dxe5 are better.} Bb4+ {Best is the simple 3...Nxe5} (3... Qh4 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bd2 Nxe5 6. Nf3 Nxf3+ 7. Qxf3 d6 {White is considerably better and eventually won. Ulybin,M (2550)-Vlassov,N (2395) Berlin 1996}) 4. c3 Bc5 5. Nf3 Qe7 6. Bf4 Nh6 {Thus is one of those rare occasions where ...f6 is actually better.} (6... f6 7. exf6 Nxf6 (7... Qxe4+ 8. Be2 Nxf6 9. Bxc7 {favors white}) 8. Nbd2 (8. e5 d6 {Black is slightly better.}) 8... Nxe4 {is equal.}) 7. Bxh6 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. Bb5 Rg8 {Although 8...Nxe5 is perfectly acceptable the R has a great future here!} 9. Bxc6 dxc6 10. O-O {Castling into trouble. 10.g3 was correct.} Bh3 {It's somewhat surprising that the white program missed this move.} 11. Nbd2 {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... Bxf1 12. Qxf1 {and white actually has sufficient compensation for the exchange!}) 12. Kh1 (12. Re1 h4 13. Nd4 O-O-O {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. Nbd2 O-O-O {and black has good prospects.}) 11... Rxg2+ {This wins, but Sargon has also missed the mate.} (11... Bxg2 12. Re1 Bxf3+ 13. Kf1 Rg1+ 14. Kxg1 Qg5+ 15. Kf1 Qg2#) 12. Kh1 Rg6 13. Re1 {White is lost, but this allows mate in 5 which could only be avoided by 13.Rg1} (13. Rg1 Bxf2 14. Rxg6 hxg6 {Black has what should amount to a winning advantage.}) 13... Bxf2 {Again missing the mate, not that it matters because the text still wins.} (13... Bg2+ 14. Kg1 Bxf3+ 15. Kf1 Rg1+ 16. Kxg1 Qg5+ 17. Kf1 Qg2# {just like before.}) 14. Rg1 Bxg1 15. Nc4 (15. Nxg1 Bg2#) 15... Rd8 (15... Bg2+ 16. Kxg1 Bxf3+ {picks up the Q}) 16. Nfd2 b5 { Again, Sargon misses a mate.} (16... Bg2+ 17. Kxg1 Qc5+ 18. Ne3 Qxe3#) 17. Na3 Qxe5 {Guess what? 17...Bg2 mates} (17... Bg2+ 18. Kxg1 Qc5#) 18. Qe2 Rg2 { [%csl Gg1,Gg2][%cal Re5h2] Thus forces mate, but it's not the shortest.} (18... Rxd2 19. Rxg1 Rxg1+ 20. Kxg1 Rxe2 {mate next move.}) (18... Bg2+ {Again!} 19. Kxg1 Qc5+ 20. Qf2 Bh3+ 21. Kh1 Qxf2 {mate next move.}) 19. Nf3 Qe6 {Missing a quicker mate.} (19... Rxe2 20. Rxg1 Rxh2+ 21. Nxh2 Qxe4+ 22. Nf3 Qxf3+ 23. Kh2 Rd2+ 24. Rg2 Qxg2#) 20. Qe1 Bc5 (20... Qg4 {is quicker} 21. Qf1 Rdd2 22. Qxg1 Rxg1+ 23. Rxg1 Qxf3+ 24. Rg2 Qxg2#) 21. b4 Rxa2 (21... Qg4 {is quicker.} 22. Qf1 Rf2 23. Qxf2 Bxf2 24. Nh4 Qxe4+ 25. Ng2 Bxg2#) 22. bxc5 Bg2+ (22... Rxa1 { is quicker.} 23. Qxa1 Qg4 24. Qf1 Rd1 25. Ng1 Qxe4+ 26. Nf3 Rxf1#) 23. Kg1 Bxf3 24. Rxa2 Qxa2 25. Qf2 Rd1+ {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