Don wrote:
I know that it was a DOS question, but there were not many microcomputer chess programs around before DOS and microchess was one of the very few. And they were aggressive about making it available to various architectures.
I think more important than the first DOS chess program is the question for the first serious chess program, and in my opinion these were the 3 programs Rex, Zarkov and MChess (from 1990/91).
They really started a new aera of chess programming - and unfortunately also a new aera for me, because since that time I haven't won a single serious game against those monsters.
F.Huber wrote:The oldest I have in my archive is MyChess by Dave Kittinger, dated 1985.
Spracklens and sargon go back earlier and that. As does Rebel (ChessMachine) I think. I was certainly competing against a few that ran on the PC when it first came out, as porting from CPM was not a challenge...
First 'serious' chess program I saw on a micro (ZX Spectrum) was Colossus 4 by Martin Bryant (cca 1984-5). On a 3.5 Mhz Z80 CPU it searched cca 200 positions per second. It was the first chess program on that platform which knew all rules of chess (plus it had some extra knowledge e.g. how to checkmate KBN vs K).
I still have somewhere in the shelves a full disassembly listing printout...
the late 70's which knew all the rules, including under promotion that even had a small opening book in only 26K memory on a Z80 4MZ processor. Somewhere in this house there's a copy of the original assembler source, which probably won't be found until our children sell the place. It was never made public, and I can't remember what I named, but I know I couldn't beat it. The original microcomputer was lost in a flooded basement a couple of years ago.
Are you David Kittinger? If so, a pleasure to see you here! I had your Wchess and even once I wrote to you showing a game which I won to Wchess and asking you if by chance there was a bug in the code, to what you answered nicely that not, that my game was good enough to get that result. After that I have had Power Chess -buggy to the extreme due to the GUI- and now Majestic Chess.
Every guy here knows about you and wonder from time to time if you are going to deliver, sometime, an UCI version of the engine.
If you are NOT that Kittinger, all the said things are true the same...
I once lived in Switzerland for about 6 months, and i was discussing alot with Novags main representative, and he was always proud of his great David Kittinger. He ALSO complimented ME about a great win i had over scorpio/diablo.
