Stockfish bench in i486 & Pentium 75mhz !

[mwyoung]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

[lkaufman]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

Were there any estimates at the time of what human rating it would earn in a tournament? I think that MacHack, which played Fischer around that time, was probably in the 1800 to 2000 range then (it was 1540 or so a decade earlier when I worked on it), but that doesn't tell us much about
Sargon, running on vastly cheaper hardware.

[mwyoung]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

Were there any estimates at the time of what human rating it would earn in a tournament? I think that MacHack, which played Fischer around that time, was probably in the 1800 to 2000 range then (it was 1540 or so a decade earlier when I worked on it), but that doesn't tell us much about
Sargon, running on vastly cheaper hardware.

I could not find any human games, only a reported Elo of 1200. And that is clearly bunk in 1978. You did get very close to the CCRL rating. You gave Sargon 1275 est CCRL. Sargon's rating on CCRL is 1254.

https://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4 ... _1978_1_00

[lkaufman]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

Were there any estimates at the time of what human rating it would earn in a tournament? I think that MacHack, which played Fischer around that time, was probably in the 1800 to 2000 range then (it was 1540 or so a decade earlier when I worked on it), but that doesn't tell us much about
Sargon, running on vastly cheaper hardware.

I could not find any human games, only a reported Elo of 1200. And that is clearly bunk in 1978. You did get very close to the CCRL rating. You gave Sargon 1275 est CCRL. Sargon's rating on CCRL is 1254.

https://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4 ... _1978_1_00

I guess I should have checked the list first! I just assumed it had no rating on CCRL. Well, the obvious question is this: if we assume that the 1200 estimate in 1978 was at least in the right ballpark, how can it only be 1275 on an i7, which is like a gazillion times faster than 1978 hardware (does anyone know the actual speed ratio, or at least an estimate?)? I know that human ratings are compressed relative to engine ratings, so 1275 may really mean 1500 or 1600 human elo, but still, something seems very wrong here. Maybe a 1200 human now is much stronger than a 1200 human in 1978? It would have to be 1200 USCF in 1978, FIDE didn't go below 2200, but at the time FIDE and USCF ratings were comparable. Only in 1980 did they diverge.

[mwyoung]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

Were there any estimates at the time of what human rating it would earn in a tournament? I think that MacHack, which played Fischer around that time, was probably in the 1800 to 2000 range then (it was 1540 or so a decade earlier when I worked on it), but that doesn't tell us much about
Sargon, running on vastly cheaper hardware.

I could not find any human games, only a reported Elo of 1200. And that is clearly bunk in 1978. You did get very close to the CCRL rating. You gave Sargon 1275 est CCRL. Sargon's rating on CCRL is 1254.

https://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4 ... _1978_1_00

I guess I should have checked the list first! I just assumed it had no rating on CCRL. Well, the obvious question is this: if we assume that the 1200 estimate in 1978 was at least in the right ballpark, how can it only be 1275 on an i7, which is like a gazillion times faster than 1978 hardware (does anyone know the actual speed ratio, or at least an estimate?)? I know that human ratings are compressed relative to engine ratings, so 1275 may really mean 1500 or 1600 human elo, but still, something seems very wrong here. Maybe a 1200 human now is much stronger than a 1200 human in 1978? It would have to be 1200 USCF in 1978, FIDE didn't go below 2200, but at the time FIDE and USCF ratings were comparable. Only in 1980 did they diverge.

It has been so long since I owned Sargon. Or a TRS-80, or as I called it the Trash-80. I looked up the instructions.

Hardware needed: one TRS-80 level II with 32k of memory minimum.

Levels of Play (time per move average)

0 - Immediate response
1 - 20 seconds
2 - 1 minutes
3 - 2 minutes
4 - 6 minutes
5 - 40 minutes
6 - 4 hours

I would guess, as I don't remember anymore. You would get about 3 ply of search on level 3.

[mwyoung]

I find the old programs very interesting. And yes it is great we can have Sargon playing on a modern PC. But Sargon could play good chess for those days long past.

Dan and Kathe Spracklen from their oral history on the Sargon 2 vs Awit game, round 4, ACM 1978

"I think the most exciting part for us was the last round of the tournament, when we played Tony Marsland’s program Awit. It was a 6 million dollar Amdahl computer. And we won the game. And we were just amazed. I remember, at the time, we won it. And there was a huge audience there. There was like a hundred people sitting out there, watching it, and they just all started cheering and clapping. And then we woke up the following morning to a big article in the Washington Post that says, Microcomputer Beats 6 Million Dollar Machine, or something like that."

[pgn][Event "ACM 1978"]
[Site "Washington USA"]
[Date "1978.12.05"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Sargon 2"]
[Black "Awit"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 dxc6
9.Bd2 Ng4 10.Qf4 Nf6 11.O-O O-O 12.Rad1 b5 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd4 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Qxa2
16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qxf6 Qc4 18.Qg5+ Kh8 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Rd8 Rxd8 22.Qf6+
Kg8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Qxd8+ Kg7 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qd8+ Kg7 27.Qd4+ Qxd4 28.Nxd4 Bb7
29.Re1 Kg6 30.Re3 Rd8 31.Rd3 c5 32.Nxe6 Rxd3 33.Nf4+ Kg5 34.Nxd3 Bxe4 35.Nxc5
Bxc2 36.Nxa6 Bb3 37.Nc5 Bd5 38.g3 Bf3 39.Nb3 b4 40.Nd4 Be4 41.f3 Bb7 42.Kf2 h6
43.Ke3 Bd5 44.Nc2 b3 45.Nd4 Kg6 46.Kd3 Kh7 47.f4 Kg8 48.Kc3 Kg7 49.Nxb3 Bxb3
50.Kxb3 Kf6 51.Kc4 Ke7 52.b4 Kd7 53.Kd5 h5 54.b5 Kc7 55.Kc5 Kb7 56.b6 Kb8 57.Kc6
Kc8 58.b7+ Kb8 59.Kb6 h4 60.gxh4 f6 61.h5 f5 62.Kc6 Ka7 63.Kc7 Ka6 64.b8=Q Ka5
65.Qb3 Ka6 66.Qa4# 1-0[/pgn]

And Sargon also finished in 1st place at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire tournament.

Code: Select all

#	Program	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	P	Class
1	Sargon	9_1	4_1		5_1	2_1	8_1	5	A - 1
2	Commodore ChessMate		8_½	3_1	9_½	1_0	5_1	3	B - 1
3	Boris	5_½		2_0	bye½	9_1	4_1	3	B - 1
4	Chess Challenger	6_1	1_0		8_1	7_1	3_0	3	B - 1
5	8080 Chess	3_½	10_1		1_0	8_1	2_0	2½	A - 2
6	SD Chess	4_0	9_0		11_1		7_1	2	C - 1
7	Tenberg Basic Chess	11_1			10_1	4_0	6_0	2	C - 1
8	Steve Stuart Chess	10_1	2_½		4_0	5_0	1_0	1½	B - 2
9	CompuChess	1_0	6_1		2_½	3_0		1½	B - 2
10	Compucolor Chess	8_0	5_0		7_0		11_1	1	A - 3
11	Mark Watson Chess	7_0			6_0		10_0	0	C - 2

Were there any estimates at the time of what human rating it would earn in a tournament? I think that MacHack, which played Fischer around that time, was probably in the 1800 to 2000 range then (it was 1540 or so a decade earlier when I worked on it), but that doesn't tell us much about
Sargon, running on vastly cheaper hardware.

I could not find any human games, only a reported Elo of 1200. And that is clearly bunk in 1978. You did get very close to the CCRL rating. You gave Sargon 1275 est CCRL. Sargon's rating on CCRL is 1254.

https://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4 ... _1978_1_00

I guess I should have checked the list first! I just assumed it had no rating on CCRL. Well, the obvious question is this: if we assume that the 1200 estimate in 1978 was at least in the right ballpark, how can it only be 1275 on an i7, which is like a gazillion times faster than 1978 hardware (does anyone know the actual speed ratio, or at least an estimate?)? I know that human ratings are compressed relative to engine ratings, so 1275 may really mean 1500 or 1600 human elo, but still, something seems very wrong here. Maybe a 1200 human now is much stronger than a 1200 human in 1978? It would have to be 1200 USCF in 1978, FIDE didn't go below 2200, but at the time FIDE and USCF ratings were comparable. Only in 1980 did they diverge.

It has been so long since I owned Sargon. Or a TRS-80, or as I called it the Trash-80. I looked up the instructions.

Hardware needed: one TRS-80 level II with 32k of memory minimum.

Levels of Play (time per move average)

0 - Immediate response
1 - 20 seconds
2 - 1 minutes
3 - 2 minutes
4 - 6 minutes
5 - 40 minutes
6 - 4 hours

I would guess, as I don't remember anymore. You would get about 3 ply of search on level 3.

I did find one human game. And Sargon had no chance against this player.

[pgn][Event "Offhand Game"]
[Site "Detroit, MI USA"]
[Date "1979.10.29"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Max Euwe"]
[Black "Sargon (Computer)"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "101"]

1.e4 {Notes by Charles Sullivan, printed in Chess Notes 7949}
g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 d6 5.Ne2 O-O 6.O-O e5 7.c3 c5 8.d5
b6 9.f4 Bb7 10.fxe5 dxe5 11.Nd2 Nbd7 12.a4 Qc7 13.Nc4 Rae8
14.Qb3 Ng4 15.a5 bxa5 16.Rxa5 a6 17.h3 Ngf6 18.g4 Rb8 19.Qa2
Rfe8 20.Ng3 {Mr Sullivan points out the possibility 20 g5 Nh5
21 Rxf7.} Bf8 21.g5 Nh5 22.Nxh5 gxh5 23.h4 Nb6 24.Nxb6 Qxb6
25.Be3 Rbd8 26.b4 Rc8 27.Qf2 Qg6 28.bxc5 Rcd8 29.c6 Bc8 30.Bb6
Rd6 31.Bc7 Re7 32.Bxd6 Qxd6 33.Qf6 Qxf6 34.Rxf6 Bg7 35.Rf1 Ra7
36.d6 Be6 37.d7 Ra8 38.Rxa6 Rb8 39.c7 Rf8 40.d8=Q h6 41.Rxe6
fxe6 42.Rxf8+ Bxf8 43.Qxf8+ Kxf8 44.c8=Q+ Kg7 45.Qxe6 hxg5
46.hxg5 Kf8 47.Qf6+ Ke8 48.g6 Kd7 49.Bh3+ Ke8 50.Qf7+ Kd8
51.Qd7# 1-0[/pgn]