| Sargon | |
|---|---|
 Book cover art that was also used in the cassette inlays | |
| Developer(s) | Dan Spracklen Kathleen "Kathe" Spracklen |
| Release | 1978 |
| Genre(s) | Strategy |
Sargon (or SARGON) is a line of chess-playing software for personal computers. The original SARGON from 1978 was written in assembly language by Dan and Kathleen "Kathe" Spracklen for the Z80-based Wavemate Jupiter II. [1]
SARGON was introduced at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire where it won the first computer chess tournament held strictly for microcomputers, with a score of 5–0. [2] [3] This success encouraged the authors to seek financial income by selling the program directly to customers. Since magnetic media were not widely available at the time, the authors placed an advert in Byte magazine selling for $15 photocopied listings that would work in any Z80-based microcomputer. [1] Availability of the source code allowed porting to other machines. [4] [5] For example, the March–April 1979 issue of Recreational Computing describes a project that converted Sargon to an 8080 program by using macros. [6] [7] Later the Spracklens were contacted by Hayden Books and a book was published. [5]
When magnetic media publishing became widely available, a US Navy petty officer, Paul Lohnes, ported Sargon to the TRS-80, altering the graphics, input, and housekeeping routines but leaving the Spracklens' chess-playing algorithm intact. Paul consulted with the Spracklens, who were both living in San Diego at the time, to make the TRS-80 version an instant success with the help of Hayden Book's newly established software division: Hayden Software. Paul was not involved in further refinements to the TRS-80 version due to his reassignment to sea duty shortly after signing the deal with Hayden Software.
In the early 1980s, SARGON CHESS was ported to the Nascom (by Bits & PCs, 1981), Exidy Sorcerer, and Sharp MZ 80K. [8] A complete rewrite was necessary later for the Apple II, programmed by Kathleen's brother Gary Shannon. Both were published by Hayden Software.
The Spracklens made significant improvements on the original program and released Sargon II . [1] J. Mishcon reviewed Sargon II in the October 1980 issue of The Space Gamer magazine, stating that the program beat him regularly on level 5, which took 40 minutes per move. [9] He often beat the program at level 3—when it considered moves for about two minutes—and stated that "Level 0 is an idiot but responds instantly". [9] [lower-alpha 1]
Sargon 2.5, sold as a ROM module for the Chafitz Modular Game System, was identical to Sargon II but incorporated pondering. [10] It received a 1641 rating at the Paul Masson tournament in June–July 1979, and 1736 at the San Jose City College Open in January 1980. [3]
Sargon 3.0 finished in seventh place at the October 1979 North American Computer Chess Championship. The competition had improved, but 3.0 drew against Cray Blitz and easily defeated Mychess, its main microcomputer rival. In December, 3.0 easily won the second microcomputer championship in London. [3]
Sargon III was a complete rewrite. Instead of an exchange evaluator, this version used a capture search algorithm. Also included was a chess opening repertoire. This third version was written originally for the 6502 assembler. In 1978, Sargon was converted to Z80 neumonics/assembler code by Paul H. Lohnes, as self taught computer enthusiast while he was still in the US Navy. He sold the publishing rights to Hayden Software for the Radio Shack TRS-80 platform. It was commercially published for other computing platforms by Hayden Software in 1983. Apple contacted the Spracklens and, after a port for 68000 assembly, Sargon III was the first third-party executable software for the Macintosh. [1]
After the demise of Hayden Software, later chess programs were also released under the name Sargon, including Sargon 4 (Spinnaker Software), Sargon V (Activision) and a CD-i title simply named Sargon Chess. The CD-i game received 75% from the French magazine Génération 4. [11] A compilation titled 4-in-1 Fun Pak was released for the Game Boy in 1992. One of the games in the compilation is Sargon Chess. [12]
The Spracklens concurrently wrote the engines for the dedicated chess computers produced by Fidelity Electronics, which won the first four World Microcomputer Chess Championships.
The three-time world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik played a game with Sargon in 1983 at Hamburg. He did not play his best moves but only tested the program's capabilities. Botvinnik himself was also involved in chess program development.
White: Mikhail Botvinnik
Black: SARGON
Hamburg, 1983
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.g3 Be6 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 Nf6 6.f4 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.O-O Qd7 9.e4 Bg4 10.h3 Bxh3 11.f5 Bxg2 12.Kxg2 Nb4 13.a3 Na6 14.b4 c5 15.b5 Nc7 16.Rh1 a6 17.b6 Nce8 18.Ng5 Qc6 19.Rb1 Bd8 20.Nd5 h6 21.Nf3 Nxd5 22.exd5 Qd7 23.g4 a5 24.Nd2 Ra6 25.Ne4 Rxb6 26.Rxb6 Bxb6 27.f6 Nxf6 28.Nxf6+ gxf6 29.Bxh6 Re8 30.Qf3 Bd8 31.Qh3 Qa4 32.Bd2 Kf8 33.Rf1 Kg8 34.Qh6 Qd7 35.Kg3 f5 36.Rh1 f4+ 37.Kf3 1-0
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-molded plastic case, Rod Holt developed the switching power supply, while Steve Jobs's role in the design of the computer was limited to overseeing Jerry Manock's work on the plastic case. It was introduced by Jobs and Wozniak at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, and marks Apple's first launch of a personal computer aimed at a consumer market—branded toward American households rather than businessmen or computer hobbyists.
The Intel 8080 ("eighty-eighty") is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock rate or frequency limit was 2 MHz, with common instructions using 4, 5, 7, 10, or 11 cycles. As a result, the processor is able to execute several hundred thousand instructions per second. Two faster variants, the 8080A-1 and 8080A-2, became available later with clock frequency limits of 3.125 MHz and 2.63 MHz respectively. The 8080 needs two support chips to function in most applications: the i8224 clock generator/driver and the i8228 bus controller. It is implemented in N-type metal–oxide–semiconductor logic (NMOS) using non-saturated enhancement mode transistors as loads thus demanding a +12 V and a −5 V voltage in addition to the main transistor–transistor logic (TTL) compatible +5 V.
The TRS-80 Micro Computer System is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of Tandy Radio Shack, Z80 [microprocessor]. It is one of the earliest mass-produced and mass-marketed retail home computers.
VisiCalc is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979. It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and then prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. More than 700,000 copies were sold in six years, and up to 1 million copies over its history.
Computer chess includes both hardware and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysis, entertainment and training. Computer chess applications that play at the level of a chess master or higher are available on hardware from supercomputers to smart phones. Standalone chess-playing machines are also available. Stockfish, GNU Chess, Fruit, and other free open source applications are available for various platforms.
Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically oriented Byte.
Electric Pencil, released in December 1976 by Michael Shrayer, was the first word processor for home computers.
Microchess, sometimes written as MicroChess, is a chess program developed by Peter R. Jennings and released in 1976 by his publishing company Micro-Ware for the MOS Technology KIM-1 microcomputer. The game plays chess against the human player at a beginner level, with the player entering moves via a keyboard and the computer responding, both in a custom chess notation. The game was ported to many other microcomputers such as the TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET and Atari 8-bit family computers by Micro-Ware and its successor company Personal Software/VisiCorp between 1976 and 1980, with later versions featuring graphics. A dedicated chess computer version of the game, ChessMate, was produced by Commodore International in 1978, and the game engine was licensed to Novag for its dedicated Chess Champion Mk II in 1979.
Chess was a pioneering chess program from the 1970s, written by Larry Atkin, David Slate and Keith Gorlen at Northwestern University. Chess ran on Control Data Corporation's line of supercomputers. Work on the program began in 1968 while the authors were graduate students at the university. The first competitive version was Chess 2.0 which gradually evolved to Chess 3.6 and was rewritten as the 4.x series. It dominated the first computer chess tournaments, such as the World Computer Chess Championship and ACM's North American Computer Chess Championship. NWU Chess adopted several innovative or neglected techniques including bitboard data structures, iterative deepening, transposition tables, and an early form of forward pruning later called futility pruning. The 4.x versions were the first programs to abandon selective search in favor of full-width fixed-depth searching.
Liverpool Software Gazette was a short-lived computer magazine published by Microdigital Ltd, a company who were based in Liverpool, England and run by Bruce Everiss.
The Soviet school of chess was asserted to be a national style of play by Soviet chess players and journalists. Although chess had been a game of the bourgeoisie and upper classes before the Russian Revolution, its popularity among Bolshevik leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, contributed to its being supported by state leaders in the USSR as a national pastime. A keen sportsman, Lenin spent much of his free time outdoors or playing chess.
The 1978 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines from July 18 to October 18, 1978. Karpov won, thereby retaining the title.
The TRS-80 Model II is a computer system launched by Tandy in October 1979, and targeted at the small-business market. It is not an upgrade of the original TRS-80 Model I, but a new system.
Sargon III is a computer chess software. It is a sequel to Sargon II.
Peter R. Jennings is a Canadian physicist, scientist, inventor, software developer, computer chess programmer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for creating MicroChess, the first microcomputer game to be sold commercially in 1976.
The Mean Checkers Machine is a 1980 video game designed by Lance Micklaus for The Software Exchange for the TRS-80 Level II Model I microcomputer.
Sargon II is a sequel to Sargon. Both are computer chess programs for home computers.
The 20th season of the Top Chess Engine Championship began on 1 December 2020 and ended on 1 February 2021. The defending champion was Stockfish, which defeated Leela Chess Zero in the previous season's superfinal. The season 20 superfinal was a rematch between the same two engines. Stockfish once again came out ahead, winning by 6 games.