Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 15:55:20 12/27/97
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On December 27, 1997 at 17:35:15, Ed Schröder wrote: >>>Until then I will give it my best shot and I am sure Richard will too. I >>>will not be surprised if the next Genius will be a super improvement. I >>>am >>>very impressed by his accurate way of programming. He has dominated the >>>computer chess world for many years and this was no accident. > >>>So better watch out... :)) > >>>- Ed - > >>Hi Ed, > >>I kind of think of you and Richard as the new guard. I was reading >>about Chess4.7 and earlier, the Greenblatt program etc. before I had >>even heard of the two of you. I had the Spracklens book which gave >>the Z80 code for Sargon 1 and was reading of their exploits and MYCHESS >>by Kittinger. You may have been active too at this time, I don't >>remember, but at the time they had the programs to beat. I should >>not forget the Cray/Blitz stuff, Hyatt was around before us too. > >Hi Don, > >I have the Sargon Z80 book too. It's antiquities I will always keep >it. In fact I started on the TRS-80 too. 1.77 Mhz and 16 Kb Ram to >be precisely. I believe it was 1980. My wife said I needed a hobby >and so I did :) > >>But there are guys who will think the stuff I am remembering is recent >>history and will have much older memories. I think Bob Hyatt may be >>one of those. > >>Then Psion came along and a bunch of Lang Mephisto machines and Rebel >>did well in 1986 in Germany. Of course there is no clear way to >>establish generations here, a lot of it I might be imagining and my >>dates and times might be wrong. > >>I put myself as one of the new kids. I haven't written a great program >>yet but I am not in my prime. My first tournament was one YOU >>almost won and I almost finished last with a pascal chess program I >>hacked together. It ran on a 80186 machine. Yours ran on a machine >>that was overheating if I'm remembering the right thing. The really >>new kinds may think I'm an old timmer in chess. > >That was Cologne 1986. I just had moved my program from Z80 assembler >to 6502 assembler developed on an APPLE-IIe 2 Mhz. Those were the >days. The APPLE-IIe machine in Cologne ran on 10 Mhz which was a >miracle these days. But the thing definitely needed a (hair) drier >blowing some cold air after some time. > >>But is my history correct? In MY mind you sort of gradually faded >>in, I don't remember for sure where to place you or when you started. >>Can you fill me in? Your memories may very well be different. > >>I propose a good estimate of "computer chess age" is the first >>organized computer chess tournament that our programs appeared >>in, probably an ACM tournament. If a commercial version was >>released before a tournament was attended we could count that >>too. > >>Kaufman was involved years before in the opening book of a very >>early chess program, I don't know which one. So I do not know >>where to place him. > >>If anyone can help me fill in this chart, it might be a lot of fun. >>I'm placing in the first few names that come to mind and sorry >>I haven't put in the really new guys but feel free to add names: > >>Progrmmer name DATE First event attended with program >>------------------ ------ ------------------------------------- >Greenblatt >Slate/Atkins >Bob Hyatt ?? ??? >Ed Schröder 1980 Second Dutch championship 1982 >Spraklens ??? ??? >Dave Kittinger ??? ??? >Richard Lang ??? ???? >Don Dailey 1986 WCCC Colgne Germany (Pre Rex) >John Stanback >Hans Berliner > >I also tried to participate in the first Dutch championship in 1981 >but my entry was refused. Reason, lack of playing strength because >it was a BASIC program searching 2 plies (already selective then) on >tournament time control :) > >Other names to remember... > >Nietsche ??? ??? >Frans Morsch ??? ??? >Hsu ??? ??? > >- Ed - > > >>Hundreds of other, feel free to add and sorry I missed you! Hsu's first event was the 1986 ACM event. I didn't go as we had a heck of a time getting Cray time for the WCCC in Germany that year. Hsu did very poorly, due to lots of hardware bugs, but the sparkle was there. In 1987 he blew everyone away and basically never looked back after that, although the Fritz problem in 95 did happen...
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