CHESS88 vs chess noob! Revenge after 35 years!
#chessbot #chess88 #history #AlekhineDefense
When I was a boy in primary school in the 1980s, my family owned an Amstrad PC, which was an IBM XT compatible. One of the programs that I used was CHESS88, the very first chess computer program I ever faced against. Back then, I was NEVER able to defeat the computer and it was rather demotivating!
Recently, I remembered the existence of this chess program and I discovered that CHESS88 was a freeware program written by Don Berg, released in 1984. The "88" refers to the Intel 8088 CPU infrastructure, and it can be downloaded and played, either online or through the Dosbox emulator here: https://dosgames.com/game/chess88/
CHESS88 responded with the very interested Alekhine's Defense: Scandinavian Variation against e4 and then Nc3. Perhaps the engine does show its age as by move 5, it had made a blunder [+2.18] and on move 8, the evaluation had deteriorated to [+6.17]. Perhaps it is the trauma of losing repeatedly and relentlessly as a child, but I never thought that I was winning to that degree in the opening!
Sensible moves afterwards mostly allowed me to hold the advantage and I won by checkmate on move 28. After over 35 years, I finally got my revenge on CHESS88!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4rtKs9sqsL?tab=analysis
