Albatross

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[ Short-tailed Albatross [1] Albatross,

a chess program by Michael Parker written in Z80 assembly. Albatross participated at the WMCCC 1980 [2], the European MCC 1981 and European MCC 1983, running on a Nascom 1 computer.

Don’t shoot the Albatross

[3] [4] Quote by Tony Harrington on the Albatross during the 4th European MCC 1983 [5]

Mike Parker's program, Albatross, which finished the Tournament with one and a half points - much to its author's delight - turned out to be vulnerable to spectators. Someone took a flashlight photo rather too close to it and the Nascom 1, on which the Albatross was running, promptly had a seizure. This prompted cries of 'Don't shoot the Albatross' for the next seven rounds whenever anyone with a camera appeared on the scene.

Selected Games

WMCCC 1980 round 1: Sargon 2.0 - Albatross [6] [7]


[Event "WMCCC 1980"]
[Site "London, United Kingdom"]
[Date "1980.09.04"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Sargon 2.0"]
[Black "Albatross"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Be7 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Qd5 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.Nxd5 exd5 8.Bf4 Bd6 
9.Bxd6 Bf5 10.Bxc7 a5 11.Bd3 Be4 12.O-O Nf6 13.Be5 h6 14.Bxf6 O-O 15.Be5 Nb4 
16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.Nd2 b5 18.Nxe4 f6 0-1 {time}