Note
Origin and Development: The Chess Challenger series began with the Chess Challenger 1 in 1976, invented by Sidney Samole and featuring a program by Ron Nelson. It ran on an Altair 8800 Microcomputer with an Intel 8080 CPU. Later versions of Nelson’s program ran on a more advanced Z80 CPU. The Chess Challenger 7, released in 1979, was a great commercial success1.
Technical Details: The Chess Challenger 7 used microprocessors to analyze chess positions.
It made decisions based on all possible moves and selected the best available move.
The program’s alpha-beta implementation was improved by Ed English, doubling its playing speed1.
Tournament Success: In 1980, the Chess Challenger 7 won the 1st World Microcomputer Chess Championship in London. It notably defeated three out of four other Sargon incarnations, showcasing its strength. Despite some confusion about the CPU (Z80A or MOS Technology), it was a significant achievement for Fidelity Electronics1.
