Vaxchess

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[ DEC MicroVAX CPU die [1] Vaxchess,

a chess program by Tony Guilfoyle and Richard Hooker, running on a MicroVAX II minicomputer. It played two tournaments in 1986, the WCCC 1986 in Cologne, and the ACM 1986 in Dallas. Vaxchess was written in C and assembly [2], and searched about 1K nodes per second [3].

Vaxchess - Lachex

The game Vaxchess vs Lachex, round 3 [4], WCCC 1986 was mentioned by commentator GM Vlastimil Hort, who announced three different Mate threats with no adequate defence, which somehow did not occur [5]:


[Event "WCCC 1986"]
[Site "Cologne, Germany"]
[Date "1986.06.13"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Vaxchess"]
[Black "Lachex"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.e3 c6 6.Nf3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4
9.Rc1 h6 10.Bf4 O-O 11.Bg3 c5 12.Bd3 f5 13.O-O cxd4 14.exd4 f4 15.Qe1 N7f6 
16.Bh4 g5 17.Bxg5 hxg5 18.Qe5 Nxc3 19.bxc3 Bxc3 20.Qxa5 Bxa5 21.Rc5 Bb4 22.Re5 
g4 23.Rg5+ Kf7 24.Ne5+ Ke8 25.Rc1 Kd8 26.Rg7 Ba3 27.Rb1 f3 28.Rb3 Bc1 29.gxf3 
gxf3 30.Nf7+ Ke7 31.Bg6 Nd5 32.Ne5+ Kf6 33.Rh7 a5 34.Rxf3+ Bf4 35.h4 Ra6 36.Kf1
Rc6 37.Be4 Rc1+ 38.Ke2 Rg1 39.Bxd5 Kf5 40.Rh5+ Kf6 41.Be4 Kg7 42.Nd3 Bd6 43.Rxf8 
Kxf8 44.Rg5 Rxg5 45.hxg5 b6 46.g6 Ba6 47.a4 e5 48.dxe5 Bxe5 49.Ke3 Bc7 50.f3 Bc8 
51.Nf4 Bxf4+ 52.Kxf4 Bd7 53.Bc2 Kg7 54.Kg5 b5 55.axb5 Bxb5 56.f4 Bc4 57.f5 Kg8 
58.f6 Kf8 59.Kf4 Ke8 60.Ke5 Kf8 61.Kd4 Ba2 62.g7+ Kf7 63.Bh7 Kxf6 64.g8=B Bxg8
1/2-1/2

Vaxchess - Chat

WCCC 1986, round 5, Vaxchess - Chat [6]


[Event "WCCC 1986"]
[Site "Cologne, Germany"]
[Date "1986.06.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Vaxchess"]
[Black "Chat"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nf3 Ng4 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 
Bd7 10.h3 Nf6 11.d5 Ne5 12.Qb3 Nxf3+ 13.Bxf3 b6 14.Rd1 e5 15.dxe6 Bc6 16.e5 Bxf3 
17.exf7+ Rxf7 18.gxf3 Qe8 19.f4 dxe5 20.f5 gxf5 21.Rg1 Qe6 22.Bxf6 Qxf6 23.c5 
Rd8 24.Rxd8+ Qxd8 25.Rg6 Qh4 26.cxb6 cxb6 27.Qd5 Qxh3 28.Rg3 Qh4 29.Qa8+ Kh7 
30.Qd5 Rc7 31.Qf3 f4 32.Qe4+ Kh8 33.Qa8+ Kh7 34.Qe4+ Kh8 35.Qa8+ Kh7 36.Qe4+ 
1/2-1/2