Tiny Chess 86

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Intel SDK-86 [1] Tiny Chess 86 (TC86),

a chess program by Jan Kuipers written in 8086 assembly. Tiny Chess 86 played the Second PCW Microcomputer Chess Championship 1979 in London [2], where it ran on an Intel SDK-86 [3] with the program in a 4 KB EPROM only taking 1 KB of RAM, and became tied third. A slightly modified version was used by Murray Lane to play the Microcomputer-Chess Tournament 1980 in San Jose, California, which was the most powerful unit there, but finished last also due to the weak evaluation only based on material - causing weak random opening play [4]. At the first DOCCC 1981 it ran on an Elektuur processor board with an 8088 CPU [5]. A special version of TC86 dubbed “Intellect” was published in Elektuur March 81.

Selected Games#

MCC 1980, round 1, Lane’s Tiny Chess 86 vs. Boris 2.5 [7]

[Event "Microcomputer Chess Championship 1980"]
[Site " San Jose, CA"]
[Date "1980.09.05"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Lane's Tiny Chess 86"]
[Black "Boris 2.5"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.a3 Nc6 2.h4 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.Bh3 Bg4 5.Nf3 Bxh3 6.Rxh3 e5 7.b3 e4 8.Nh2 Qd7 9.g4 
Nxg4 10.Nxg4 Qxg4 11.Rh1 Qg2 12.Rf1 Qh3 13.Nc3 O-O-O 14.d3 Qxh4 15.dxe4 d4 16.Nb5 
a6 17.Nxd4 Rxd4 18.Bd2 Bd6 19.Rg1 Bf4 20.e3 Bxe3 21.Qg4+ Qxg4 22.Rxg4 Bxd2+ 23.Ke2 
Bc3 24.Ra2 f5 25.Rxg7 Rxe4+ 26.Kf3 Bxg7 27.a4 Nb4 28.Ra3 Bb2 29.c3 Bxa3 30.cxb4 Rxb4 
31.a5 Rxb3+ 32.Kf4 Rb5 33.f3 Bc1+ 34.Kg3 Rxa5 35.Kh4 Bf4 36.Kh3 Ra2 0-1

Publications#

• Editor (1980). A Chess Program & Random Openings. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 75 » Murray Lane
• Jan Kuipers (1981). Tiny Chess 86 - Een schaakprogramma voor de 8088/8086. Databus 06-81, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis

External Links#

• World’s smallest Handmade Chess Set ever, November 18, 2006
• Tiny chess set built between heartbeats, May 01, 2008
• Fidelity Tiny Chess (1991) by Eric van Riet Paap, from The Spacious Mind
• Frank Zappa - City of Tiny Lites, 1979, YouTube Video

lineup: Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf, Patrick O’Hearn, Terry Bozzio, Ed Mann

References#

1. ↑ Image of Intel SDK-86 from Wikipedia
2. ↑ Kathe Spracklen (1979). Second Annual European Microcomputer Chess Championship - Results and Authors. ICCA Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 2
3. ↑ Prehistorie van het Nederlandse Computerschaak (Dutch)
4. ↑ Editor (1980). A Chess Program & Random Openings. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 75
5. ↑ Eerste Nederlands Kampioenschappen Computerschaken (Dutch)
6. ↑ Jan Kuipers (1981). Tiny Chess 86 - Een schaakprogramma voor de 8088/8086. Databus 06-81, pdf hosted by Hein Veldhuis
7. ↑ Editor (1980). A Chess Program & Random Openings. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 75

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