Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 15:18:44 12/26/99
When Sargon V for PC appeared, it was too late to become a darling. A first version for Mac had been a complete failure and in the meantime the mess was fixed and the PC version was in the shells, programs like Mchess, Rex and Zarkov were those whom asked and received the attention. As I.M. Larry Kaufman said in his review - Computer Chess Reports 1991-1992, Vol 2, N°3- “Sargon might have been worth recommending if it had come out three years ago...” , although at the same time he recognized that in his test with his problem set Sargon, running in a 486-33, got 2326 USCF. All this maybe seems old history, a chapter for nostalgics, but you well can get a surprise if you put Sargon V to run in a decent current Pentium computer. Suddenly you realize how good the last programs by Kathe and Dan Spracklen were and how far from obsolescence the best of beginnings of 90’s programs in general were and are if run with modern stuff. And then you have a material demonstration of how much the progress has been based in better equipment and not so much in software after all. Not that progress was not made in source codes, not that new techniques did not appear, but -and this is a very great BUT- sometimes is truly difficult to see the difference between a good current commercial program and Sargon. If you still have it, test it and see how he handles the endings. Etc. Maybe one of the many pals here that likes to pit programs each against other could pit this aparent piece of museum agains, say, Rebel or Genius. Fernando
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