Sargon II Chess

[16KVIC20]

Well, what an unexpected turn of events! In a mammoth match the VIC 20 playing Sargon II in the White Corner, and the ZX Spetrum playing Sinclair/Psion Chess in the Black Corner - and the VIC 20 won!!!!
The VIC 20 was set to level 1 of 7, the Spectrum was set to level 3 of 10, I felt that this should give us some equivalency. It was an epic match, with the VIC coming back from the brink to win in 61 moves, taking 51 minutes to do it.

I don't have time right now to post the moves, but I'll do that tomorrow.

A few words about the Sargon II Program:

For those not familiar with it, this comes in the form of a ROM Cartridge that goes into the VIC 20 Expansion Slot, it retailed for about £15.99 when new. The ROM image is approx 8K. The program loads automatically and instantaneously on power on.
This program allows the user to change the colours of the display. Most of the display is taken by the board, with the moves displayed to the right.
When moving, you can enter the coordinates by hand, or use a joystick to move the pieces. The letters and numbers are displayed on the edge of the board.
When the VIC 20 is thinking, the Commodore sign at the bottom of the screen changes to Red, and also an asterisk occasionally flashes to let you know the game hasn't frozen useful in the highest levels). The VIC also displays how many ply it's thinking ahead, at one point it was 5; it also displays moves as it's thinking of them, and then sometimes changes its mind.

I did have high hopes for Sargon II and the VIC, as it is quite a tough cookie, but I doubted that the VIC, with 8K of expansion could beat a 48K program for the Spectrum. I don't feel that a second game is necessary in this category, I'm calling a win for VIC 20 and Sargon II. Later in the contest I'll try Sargon II against a better Sectrum Chess Program; I think that would tell a different story!

[orion70]

Sargon II is known to be one of the best chess playing programs ever, for that range of computers. I'm not a good player, and it beats me at lower levels, but I guess this doesn't account for a good program

[16KVIC20]

It's certainly one of the better early era Chess programs. I've never beaten it, best I've managed is stalemate, quite often. I'm not a great player though.