Download 1K ZX Chess (ZX81)

BenRedic 2024-10-09 0 point

OK, so this is something. I guess. This game plays chess, on an unexpanded 1K ZX81. That is, if you can call this chess. Sure, it *mostly* knows how the pieces move. And displays the current position on a miniscule black and white board with characters representing the pieces. But that's it. It does not know or support all the rules of chess. And by that I don't refer to not understanding complexities such as 50 move draws or insufficient material, or even en passant. I mean it does not understand castling, and it does not understand pawn promotion. That's right. If you successfully push a pawn to the eitgth rank (and the only thing that will ever stop you from doing this is if you mate your opponent before getting a pawn this far) it will *remain* a pawn stuck on the eight rank!

Playing strength is equally weak. This is a monkey that will push pawns and grab any material it can, but totally oblivious to whatever threat you are making. A beginner can steamroll over this program with simple one-move threats.

This program was available on a tape. The tape consisted of the same program on both sides, but with one slight difference: The program played white with e2-e4 as the first move, or the program played white with d2-d4 as the first move. In my mind a better choice would have been one side with the program playing white, and the other side the program playing black, but hey, what do I know.

An interesting attempt at implementing chess on the 1K ZX81, but not much more.

Also worth noting is that decades later (in 2016) a full chess program has actually been made available for the ZX81. Super Micro is a chess engine that aims to be the worlds smallest, and there is a ZX81 version of it.