David Broughtons Philidor Chess for Parker Brothers IBM PC

[mclane]

David Broughton made the Chess program Philidor for Parker Brothers in an IBM PC version for dos in 1983.

He was known for producing an engine for the dedicated chess computer from SciSys Chess Champion Mark V in 1981 where he won the micro championship title.

https://www.schach-computer.info/wiki/i ... ton,_David


There was a successor module called Mark VI Philidor.

The search strategy behind these dedicated chess computers were B-strategy.

It must be arround that time when he did this chess software for the IBM PC.

At that time the PCs were only known as 8088 XT machines with 4.77 MHz.


They had maybe 64 KB ram and had to work with overlays if the software needed more space.
2 floppy drives with only 160 KB were giving the data.

I spoke with a programmer who knew David from tournaments and he said that this PC program used
“Interest search”.

http://aifactory.co.uk/newsletter/2014_ ... inimax.htm

The program of David Broughton runs in any dosbox or virtual machine,
the story behind the program we searched for a long time can be found here:
http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9941

[mclane]

[pgn]
[Event "40/120 David Broughton"]
[Site "SCW max speed QEMU"]
[Date "2020.06.14"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Mephisto Polgar 1.50"]
[Black "Philidor B1502 QEMU"]
[ECO "E12"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5
Nxd5 7. Qc2 Bd6 {"} 8. Nb5 {"} Nf6 9. Bg5 O-O 10. Rc1 Nc6
11. e4 Be7 12. Bf4 Ne8 13. Bd3 a6 14. Nxc7 Nxc7 15. d5 exd5
16. Bxc7 Qxc7 17. exd5 Rac8 18. dxc6 Qxc6 19. Bxh7+ Kh8
20. Qxc6 Bxc6 21. Bf5 Bd7 22. Rxc8 Rxc8 23. Bxd7 Rc1+
24. Kd2 Rxh1 25. Bf5 Bf6 26. b3 Ra1 27. a4 Ra2+ 28. Bc2 b5
29. g4 g5 30. Kd3 bxa4 31. bxa4 Kg7 32. Nd2 Rb2 33. Nb3 Ra2
34. Nd2 Rb2 35. Nb3 Kf8 36. Nc5 Rb4 37. Nxa6 Rxg4 38. Nb8
Rg2 39. Nd7+ Ke7 40. Nxf6 Kxf6 41. Ke3 Rxh2 42. Be4 Rh3+
43. Kd4 g4 44. Bc6 Ra3 45. Bd5 Rxa4+ 46. Ke3 Rb4 47. Kd3
Rf4 48. Ke2 Rb4 49. Kd3 Rf4 50. Ke2 Ke5 51. Bb3 f5 52. Bc2
Rb4 53. Bd1 f4 54. Kd3 {"Ich gebe auf!"} 0-1
[/pgn]

[tsmiller1]

I love this program. I am conducting a 10-game match with it against the dedicated computer Mephisto Master Chess (from Saitek) over at this forum, if anyone is interested: https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic ... 1&start=60. Philidor has a very interesting, dynamic style. I am running it on DOS through VirtualBox.

[mclane]

MEPHISTO Master Chess is a strong H8 cpu machine with an engine of frans morschs and Nullmove usage.

It replaces knowledge with search .


David broughtons chess engine uses interest search
http://aifactory.co.uk/newsletter/2014_ ... inimax.htm


It’s a pity that David Broughton changed his work computerchess and got a job in the TV business,
we do not know how computerchess could have developed if b strategy programs would have made it longer then it finally was in history,