The great challenge of the 8-bit.

[Carotino]

Who does not remember the old and glorious Commodore 64?
Despite the horrible hardware limitations, the programmers of that time were able to write many chess engines that were playing pretty well. According to the critics of the time, the best engines were as follows:

- Sargon-III
- Colossus Chess 4
- ChessMaster 2100
- MyChess 2.0

With great difficulty, I'm doing play to these engines a mini tournament.
No standard (UCI or WinBoard), no possibility to perform automatic matches, but all the moves must be entered manually, first in an engine, then in the other. Nothing PGN. I have to manually enter the moves in a GUI!
it was fun to see how much these engines were playing innocently!
Here is the result of the first challenge, where MyChess has crushed Colossus. Next challange: Sargon-III Vs. ChessMaster-2100...

Time control: 2 minutes per move.
Emulator: Vice (for Commodore-64)
CPU: AMD 8350-FX (overclocked to 5 GHz)
RAM: 16 GBytes
O.S. Fedora Core ver. 18

[Event "Grande Sfida 8 bit"]
[Site "Attila Computer"]
[Date "2013.04.22"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Colossus Chess 4"]
[Black "MyChess 2.0"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A28"]
[EventDate "2013.04.22"]

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 e4 5.Ng5 Bb4 6.d5 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Nb8 8.Qd4
Qe7 9.e3 O-O 10.c5 h6 11.d6 Qe8 12.Nh3 Nc6 13.Qd2 Qe5 14.Ba3 b6 15.dxc7
bxc5 16.Rb1 Ne8 17.Bb5 Nxc7 18.O-O Bb7 19.Qxd7 Rad8 20.Qg4 Rd2 21.Qf4 Nxb5
22.Rxb5 Qxf4 23.Nxf4 Ba6 24.Rxc5 Bxf1 25.Rxc6 Rd1 26.f3 Bb5+ 27.Kf2 Bxc6
28.Bxf8 Kxf8 29.Kg3 exf3 0-1


[Event "Grande Sfida 8bit"]
[Site "Computer Attila"]
[Date "2013.04.22"]
[Round "2"]
[White "MyChess 2.0"]
[Black "Colossus Chess 4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42p"]
[EventDate "2013.04.22"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 Be7 6.Bd3 Bf5 7.O-O Nc6 8.c4
d5 9.cxd5 Qxd5 10.Bf4 O-O-O 11.Qc2 Nd6 12.Nc3 Bxd3 13.Qxd3 Qf5 14.Qxf5+
Nxf5 15.d5 Nb4 16.Rad1 Bd6 17.Bd2 Nd3 18.Bc1 Nxc1 19.Rxc1 Bf4 20.Rc2 Rhe8
21.Re2 Kb8 22.Rfe1 Rxe2 23.Nxe2 Bd6 24.Rd1 Re8 25.Ned4 Nxd4 26.Nxd4 Re5
27.Nf3 Re2 28.Rd2 Rxd2 29.Nxd2 Kc8 30.Nc4 Kd7 31.g3 b5 32.Ne3 g5 33.Ng4
Ke7 34.Kg2 f5 35.Ne3 Kf6 36.g4 f4 37.Nf5 Ke5 38.Nxd6 cxd6 39.Kf3 Kxd5 40.
h4 gxh4 41.Kxf4 Kd4 42.g5 Kd3 43.Kf3 b4 44.Kg4 Kc2 45.f4 h3 46.f5 Kxb2 47.
Kxh3 a5 48.g6 hxg6 49.fxg6 a4 50.g7 b3 51.g8=Q bxa2 52.Qg2+ Kb3 53.Qd5+
Kb2 54.Qb5+ Ka3 55.Qd3+ Kb2 56.Qe2+ Kb3 57.Qd3+ Kb2 58.Qd4+ Kb1 59.Qb4+
Kc1 60.Qxa4 Kb2 61.Qb4+ Kc2 62.Qa3 Kb1 63.Qb3+ Kc1 64.Qxa2 Kd1 65.Kg3 Ke1
66.Qc2 d5 67.Kf3 d4 68.Qe2# 1-0

[Vinvin]

Thx for this matches !
What's the speed of the emulator ? real time C64 (1Mhz simulated) ? maximum speed (around realtime*100, I suppose)?

[Carotino]

That's right, when performing the move, I activated the "turbo" mode.
Despite this facility, however, the games are very intricate to play... I have launched a task for each of the two engines, and I have to manually enter the moves. Then I insert the moves played in a GUI (SCID, in my case). is quite complicated!

[Carotino]

This is an snapshot of the work: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?myfiles#1e33dulw434rn3u[/url]

[Vinvin]

This is an snapshot of the work: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?myfiles#1e33dulw434rn3u[/url]

Bad link
"Invalid or Deleted File."

[Carotino]

This is an snapshot of the work: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?myfiles#1e33dulw434rn3u[/url]

Bad link
"Invalid or Deleted File."

I'm sorry, these should work:

the work: https://plus.google.com/photos/10873590 ... banner=pwa

Colossus Chess: https://plus.google.com/photos/10873590 ... banner=pwa

MyChess: https://plus.google.com/photos/10873590 ... banner=pwa

[Vinvin]

More informations :
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/commo ... ss_ii.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/commo ... sus_4.html
Here, 15 chess softare for the C64 : http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/commodore_c64.html

[IanO]

Spacious mind also ran his own Commodore tournament in 2009:

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/commo ... hess_.html

[Carotino]

Thx Vincent, very interesting!
@Ian: a tournament ... Gigantic!!

Meanwhile, Sargon-III surprised me, by defeating ChessMaster-2100. Sargon won the first game in a perfect way, then drew the second, playing a sizzling Caro-Kann!
White (ChessMaster 2100) sacrificed quality in exchange for two pawns and the attack, but Sargon defended himself like a Lasker!

The second game was particularly hard for me: 109 moves to be entered manually in the two engines and the external GUI ... Terrible!

[Event "Grande Sfida 8 bit"]
[Site "Computer Attila"]
[Date "2013.04.22"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Sargon III"]
[Black "ChessMaster 2100"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A09j"]
[EventDate "2013.04.22"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 e5 6.O-O Nf6 7.e3 Be7 8.exd4 cxd4
9.Re1 Qd6 10.Nbd2 O-O 11.Ng5 Bf5 12.Nde4 Qd7 13.Bd2 Rac8 14.Rc1 Rfe8 15.c5
h6 16.Nxf6+ Bxf6 17.Ne4 Be7 18.b4 Qe6 19.a4 a6 20.b5 axb5 21.axb5 Nd8 22.
f4 f6 23.fxe5 fxe5 24.Bb4 b6 25.Qf3 Bxe4 26.Qxe4 Bxc5 27.Bd2 Nf7 28.Qe2
Nd6 29.Rb1 Re7 30.Bf4 Nf7 31.Qe4 Qf6 32.Bd2 Nd6 33.Qg4 Rcc7 34.Rf1 Qe6 35.
Qxe6+ Rxe6 36.Bd5 Re7 37.Bxh6 gxh6 38.Rf6 Kg7 39.Rxe6 Rxe6 40.Bxe6 Kf6 41.
Bd5 Ke7 42.g4 Kf6 43.h4 Kg6 44.Kg2 h5 45.g5 Kg7 46.Rf1 Nxb5 47.Rf7+ Kg6
48.Rf6+ Kg7 49.Bf7 Nd6 50.Bxh5 b5 51.Re6 Nf5 52.Kh3 Bf8 53.Rxe5 Nd6 54.Rd5
b4 55.Rxd4 Nf5 56.Rd7+ Kg8 57.Bf7+ Kh8 58.h5 Bc5 59.Rd5 Nd6 60.Be6 b3 61.
Rxc5 b2 62.Ba2 Kg7 63.Kg4 Kf8 64.Rc6 Nb5 65.Rb6 Nc3 66.Rxb2 Nxa2 67.Rxa2
1-0

[Event "Grande Sfida 8 bit"]
[Site "Computer Attila"]
[Date "2013.04.22"]
[Round "4"]
[White "ChessMaster 2100"]
[Black "Sargon III"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B19o"]
[EventDate "2013.04.22"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7
9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Qc7 11.Bd2 e6 12.Qe2 Ngf6 13.c4 Bd6 14.Nf5 Bf4 15.Bxf4
Qxf4 16.Nxg7+ Kf8 17.Nxe6+ fxe6 18.Nh4 Kg7 19.Ng6 Qe4 20.Qxe4 Nxe4 21.Nxh8
Rxh8 22.f3 Ng3 23.Rh3 Nf5 24.O-O-O Ne3 25.Re1 Nxc4 26.Rxe6 Kf7 27.Re4 Nf6
28.Re1 Rd8 29.Rh4 Rd5 30.b3 Nd6 31.Re5 Nf5 32.Rxd5 cxd5 33.Rh1 Nxd4 34.Kd2
Ke6 35.Re1+ Kd6 36.Kc3 Nc6 37.g4 d4+ 38.Kd2 Ne5 39.Rf1 d3 40.a3 Ke6 41.Re1
Kd5 42.Re3 b5 43.Kc3 Kd6 44.Kd2 Nd5 45.Re4 Nxf3+ 46.Kxd3 Nf6 47.Re2 Ne5+
48.Kd4 Nexg4 49.Rc2 Ne5 50.Kc3 Nd5+ 51.Kb2 Nf4 52.Rd2+ Ke6 53.Rh2 Kf5 54.
Kc3 Nd5+ 55.Kc2 Ke4 56.Re2+ Ne3+ 57.Kc3 Nf3 58.a4 Nd4 59.Re1 a6 60.axb5
axb5 61.b4 Nf3 62.Re2 Ne5 63.Kb3 Nd3 64.Kc3 Nf4 65.Re1 Kf3 66.Rh1 Nf5 67.
Rd1 Kg4 68.Re1 Nd5+ 69.Kb2 Nfe3 70.Kb3 Kxh5 71.Rc1 Nc4 72.Rh1+ Kg6 73.Rg1+
Kh7 74.Rg2 Ne5 75.Rd2 Nb6 76.Rg2 Nd3 77.Rd2 Nf4 78.Ra2 Na4 79.Rf2 Ne6 80.
Ra2 Nd4+ 81.Ka3 Nb6 82.Kb2 Nc8 83.Kc3 Nf5 84.Rh2 Nb6 85.Kd3 Nd5 86.Ke4
Nfe7 87.Kd4 Nc7 88.Ra2 Ned5 89.Kc5 h5 90.Rd2 Nf6 91.Kc6 Nfe8 92.Rd7+ Kg6
93.Re7 h4 94.Re1 Kf5 95.Kd7 Kf4 96.Rf1+ Kg3 97.Rg1+ Kf3 98.Rh1 Kg4 99.Re1
h3 100.Re2 Kf3 101.Rc2 Kg3 102.Rc3+ Kg4 103.Rc2 Kh4 104.Kd8 Kg3 105.Rc3+
Kg4 106.Rc2 Kf4 107.Rc3 h2 108.Rh3 h1=Q 109.Rxh1 Kg4 1/2-1/2

[IanO]

Who does not remember the old and glorious Commodore 64?
Despite the horrible hardware limitations, the programmers of that time were able to write many chess engines that were playing pretty well. According to the critics of the time, the best engines were as follows:

- Sargon-III (Dan & Kathe Spracklen)
- Colossus Chess 4 (Martin Bryant)
- ChessMaster 2100 (Spracklens)
- MyChess 2.0 (Dave Kittinger)

(I've added the authors above.)

ChessMaster 2100 used the same engine as Sargon III (and ChessMaster 2000 used the MyChess engine). Other programs in that strata were Cyrus II by Richard Lang and Chess 7.5 by Larry Atkin.

(Fun fact: there was another C64 program called Hypra Chess. It was programmed by Thomas Gaksch who much later went on to fork Fruit to become Toga II!)