chess 7.0

[Will Singleton]

I was looking around the basement, and found a copy of Atkins Chess 7.0, looks like it's about 1983. I loaded it on my Apple 2, and it played a pretty bad game.

Is this the successor program to Chess 4.9 that won the ACM champs in 1979 (or thereabouts?) Doesn't seem like it.

Will

[bob]

I was looking around the basement, and found a copy of Atkins Chess 7.0, looks like it's about 1983. I loaded it on my Apple 2, and it played a pretty bad game.

Is this the successor program to Chess 4.9 that won the ACM champs in 1979 (or thereabouts?) Doesn't seem like it.

Will

there was chess 4.x, then "Nuchess" rather than chess 5.0.. Never was a 6 or 7. Perhaps this is a 0.7 that was an update to the chess 0.0 that was published in personal computing or byte magazine???

[Carey]

I was looking around the basement, and found a copy of Atkins Chess 7.0, looks like it's about 1983. I loaded it on my Apple 2, and it played a pretty bad game.

Is this the successor program to Chess 4.9 that won the ACM champs in 1979 (or thereabouts?) Doesn't seem like it.

Will

No, it's not a direct descendant.

There probably aren't even many ideas from Chess 4.x in there, since Chess 4.x was for a mainframe / super computer.

Here's what Larry Atkin told me some time back.

I did write Capablanca for the Destiny Systems Great Game Machine, but that's not going to do anyone any good. It was written in 6502 assembly language, and interfaced directly to an 8-character 16- segment display, and a 12-key keypad. That was later converted to be CHESS 7.0 for the Apple ][, Atari 800, and Commodore 64. Even later it became "How About a Nice Game of Chess" for the Apple ][e.

So Chess 7.0 was a rework of Capablanca. And considering the hardware limitations of the GGM, I seriously doubt much of Chess 4.x was in there.

[Will Singleton]

I was looking around the basement, and found a copy of Atkins Chess 7.0, looks like it's about 1983. I loaded it on my Apple 2, and it played a pretty bad game.

Is this the successor program to Chess 4.9 that won the ACM champs in 1979 (or thereabouts?) Doesn't seem like it.

Will

No, it's not a direct descendant.

There probably aren't even many ideas from Chess 4.x in there, since Chess 4.x was for a mainframe / super computer.

Here's what Larry Atkin told me some time back.

I did write Capablanca for the Destiny Systems Great Game Machine, but that's not going to do anyone any good. It was written in 6502 assembly language, and interfaced directly to an 8-character 16- segment display, and a 12-key keypad. That was later converted to be CHESS 7.0 for the Apple ][, Atari 800, and Commodore 64. Even later it became "How About a Nice Game of Chess" for the Apple ][e.

So Chess 7.0 was a rework of Capablanca. And considering the hardware limitations of the GGM, I seriously doubt much of Chess 4.x was in there.

Interesting stuff. Here's a link to scans of the front/back of the box.

http://hometown.aol.com/smocfi/chess_amate.html

[Werner]

Here is a picture of
Chess 7.0
running on C64

http://images.foren-city.de/images/uplo ... 70_107.jpg

[Carey]

Intersting pics.

I think Chess 7.0's main selling point was Larry Atkin's name.

That was pretty much all the program had going for it.

[Vinvin]

Chess 7.0 played quite well compare to other contenders on this machine at this time. See here : : http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopi ... 300#515300
May be you set a low level ...

[IanO]

Intersting pics.

I think Chess 7.0's main selling point was Larry Atkin's name.

That was pretty much all the program had going for it.

It wasn't as bad as all that, it fell in the mid-range of available chess programs of the time. Worse than Colossus 4, Cyrus II, MyChess, and Sargon III; but better than Sargon II, Colossus 2, Battlechess, and Microchess. The interface was more arcane that the others though, requiring you to scroll through the pieces, then scroll through its available moves. Only the cheapest of the Excalibur LCD chess toys has an interface like that any more.

There was even an update, Chess 7.5, on the C64. You can download disk images of these programs for Apple ][ and C64 emulators if you want a trip down memory lane.

[Cubeman]

I use to have a C64

[sje]

The venerable MOS Technology 6502, of all the eight bit CPUs available at the time, was certainly the best for chess computing. It might have been even better if it had included a few 16 bit arithmetic instructions.

You can still buy them today. A 14 MHz W65C02S eight bit chip can be gotten from http://www.westerndesigncenter.com as can the even better 8/16 bit W65C816S which addresses up to 16 MB memory. Only US$9 for one of the latter, and I've heard that 20 MHz parts can be had by special order.

But what if instead of a 20 MHz 6502, one could get a 4 GHz 6502? It is certainly possible to design and manufacture such a part. Consider the 1984 Novag Super Constellation running on a 4 MHz 6502 and with an elo of about 1750. Moving to a 20 MHz 6502 is 2.32 doublings. Moving to a 4 GHz 6502 is 9.97 doublings. How many elo points are gained by doubling the CPU speed? At 50 points per doubling, the respective elo values would be 1866 and 2248. At a more likely 70 points per doubling, the figures would be 1913 and 2448. Not bad for an eight bit program, if only the hardware were available.