CHESS COMES HOME FOR GOOD –
IN THE BEGINNING...
The personal computer revolution began with the introduction of
affordable home computers (like the various Tandy, Commodore, and
Atari models) circa 1980. Although I didn't own a computer at that time,
several of my friends bought home computers specifically to be able to
run the new (and proliferating) computerized simulation wargames on
them.
As noted before, chess and computers were a natural match. The first
commercially available chess playing program for these new home
PCs was called Microchess. First released in 1976 for one particular
proprietary computer system, but by the turn of the decade it was
available in versions tailored for all of the major home PC brands.
The idea of computer chess was so seductive that even the game console
market got into the act. Atari, makers of the wildly popular Atari 2600
home video gaming system released a Video Chess cartridge in 1979.
I'm happy to say that I was one of the first customers for this cartridge;
although my family didn't own a personal computer, we did have an Atari
2600 console. The Atari chess game had several playing levels, which
determined the program's thinking time (the amount of time it would
ponder a reply before making its move), ranging from one second to
twelve hours per move. I have to report that it played fairly miserable
chess on any reasonable time setting (any time setting at which a person
would actually feel like waiting around for the computer to move). You
had to use a physical board, too, if you wanted to analyze a position
while the computer was thinking – while the computer pondered a reply,
it rapidly flashed an array of bright colors on the TV screen (which, rumor
has it, could actually induce seizures in players afflicted with epilepsy).
THE BOMBSHELL
By the mid-1980's home computers were still something of a rarity (when
compared to the present day, anyway), but were selling well enough for
computer stores to begin appearing in shopping centers and strip malls
in moderate-sized towns (20,000 population and up). By this time two
generations of potential computer buyers had seen Mr. Spock play chess
against a computer on TV's Star Trek and the malfunctioning computer
HAL 9000 win a chess game in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was
high time for a chess computer program to hit the fledgling mass market
in a really big way.
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