Video Chess, the First Chess Video Game?

[SoulBlazer]

OK, here's Level 6! Yet again, I managed to reach victory in fewer moves than the previous game, despite playing against a higher level. However, it certainly wasn't a "quick" win in terms of time: the game itself took almost five hours, and that's with Stella running at 300fps (which I assume is roughly equal to 5x normal speed). The computer's first 22 moves went by at a reasonable pace, but the 23rd and 24th took a while, and the computer took at least 3.5 hours of real time to make its 25th move. If I were playing on an actual VCS, that one move would've taken over 16 hours!!

 

Anyway, this is a more typical anti-computer victory, with the computer underestimating my kingside attack until it's much too late.

 

[Date "2012.06.17"]

[White "thegoldenband"]

[black "Atari Video Chess, Level 6"]

[Result "1-0"]

 

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 d6 5. h3 Be6 6. Bb3 Be7 7. f4 O-O 8. Nf3 Nd4 9. Nxd4 exd4 10. Ne2 c5 11. O-O Re8 12. f5 Bd7 13. Nf4 b5 14. Nd5 a5 15. a4 Nxd5 16. Bxd5 Ra7 17. axb5 Bxb5 18. Bd2 Bd7 19. Qh5 Rf8 20. g4 Bf6 21. g5 Be5 22. g6 hxg6 23. fxg6 {long think here, and on the next move} Bh2+ 24. Kxh2 Qh4 25. Qxh4 {computer thought for at least 3.5 hours, real time} Re8 26. Qh7+ Kf8 {the only move, but the computer thought for 8 minutes before playing it...} 27. Rxf7# 1-0 {...and it thought for 12 minutes before acknowledging the checkmate!}

 

 

Wow, what a great game! I like Chess and enjoy playing some old school Battle Chess (the animations crack me up each time!) or some of the new Chessmaster game that XBox Live has, but I'm not very good at it. Your skills are clearly above mine.

[Nukey Shay]

So it's definitely possible to run much faster.

 

But how would you move? You could spend all the time you are attempting to avoid just from trying to position the cursor where you want!

Or is it possible to make the framerate variable without exiting the game?

[+stephena]

So it's definitely possible to run much faster.

 

But how would you move? You could spend all the time you are attempting to avoid just from trying to position the cursor where you want!

Or is it possible to make the framerate variable without exiting the game?

 

Yep, that's exactly the problem I experienced; it was like running on steroids. Just touching the directions caused the 'X' to quickly move across all the spaces. I guess that's for thegoldenband to work out There's currently no way to vary the framerate dynamically, but I suppose it would be relatively easy to add.

 

I think the better approach would be to somehow make the virtual console run faster at the same framerate (eg, increase the CPU MHz). But I don't think that's possible, because of the way a ROM is written.

[NE146]

There's currently no way to vary the framerate dynamically, but I suppose it would be relatively easy to add.

 

Oooh!..Next Stella release? No but seriously, that'd be a nice feature.

[Pioneer4x4]

There's currently no way to vary the framerate dynamically, but I suppose it would be relatively easy to add.

OOH, can we make this an actual feature request

1 - a "fullest speed possible" toggle

2 - ability to change emulation speed whil running

[+thegoldenband]

Wow, what a great game! I like Chess and enjoy playing some old school Battle Chess (the animations crack me up each time!) or some of the new Chessmaster game that XBox Live has, but I'm not very good at it. Your skills are clearly above mine.

 

@thegoldenband: Nice game 5 & game 6 man.. your skills are obviously far and above mine. Definitely the right guy to check it out. Looking forward to your eventual game 7 and to see if the darn thing really does glitch out.

 

Thanks very much, guys!

 

There's currently no way to vary the framerate dynamically, but I suppose it would be relatively easy to add.

OOH, can we make this an actual feature request 1 - a "fullest speed possible" toggle 2 - ability to change emulation speed whil running

 

I heartily second that emotion -- that'd be great.

[+thegoldenband]

I'm working on Game 7 (playing the Black pieces), but I've come to realize that my aging computer just isn't up to the challenge of running Stella at accelerated framerates. I don't have a hard count, but based on the CPU usage, I'm estimating that it can only manage 200fps, or a little over 3x normal speed, before topping out. So Game 7 is taking a long time, but thanks to the magic of multitasking and savestates, I'm chipping away at it...one move at a time...

[Tin_Lunchbox]

I'm working on Game 7 (playing the Black pieces), but I've come to realize that my aging computer just isn't up to the challenge of running Stella at accelerated framerates. I don't have a hard count, but based on the CPU usage, I'm estimating that it can only manage 200fps, or a little over 3x normal speed, before topping out. So Game 7 is taking a long time, but thanks to the magic of multitasking and savestates, I'm chipping away at it...one move at a time...

 

Hope you don't mind, friend, but I'm rooting for Video Chess.

[Rybags]

Maybe running the PAL version would be better - assuming it puts the extra non-display time to use and doesn't just use longer wait loops.

[Retro Rogue]

The book Racing the beam states that the first Chess game was on a computer in 1951.

 

Correction just double checked it was a Checkers game, not Chess

 

Computer != video game of course, but yes, there is a long history of chess programs on computers:

 

 

1957, The first programs that can play a full game of chess are developed, one by Alex Bernstein and one by Russian programmers using a BESM.

1962, The first program to play credibly, Kotok-McCarthy, is published at MIT.

1967, Mac Hack Six, by Richard Greenblatt et al. introduces transposition tables and becomes the first program to defeat a person in tournament play chessville. This was actually widely distributed for pdp computers via the DECUS catalog.

1970, The first year of the ACM North American Computer Chess Championships.

1977, The first microcomputer chess playing machine, CHESS CHALLENGER, was created.

 

[+thegoldenband]

Hope you don't mind, friend, but I'm rooting for Video Chess.

 

No offense taken! Hard not to root for the VCS's last stand, as it were...

 

Computer != video game of course, but yes, there is a long history of chess programs on computers:

 

1957, The first programs that can play a full game of chess are developed, one by Alex Bernstein and one by Russian programmers using a BESM.

 

Depending on one's definition of "computer", one could nominate this 1952 game as an example of the earliest chess-playing computer program (written by Alan Turing). It's not a jewel of the literature, but still: 1952!

[Retro Rogue]

Hope you don't mind, friend, but I'm rooting for Video Chess.

 

No offense taken! Hard not to root for the VCS's last stand, as it were...

 

Computer != video game of course, but yes, there is a long history of chess programs on computers:

 

1957, The first programs that can play a full game of chess are developed, one by Alex Bernstein and one by Russian programmers using a BESM.

 

Depending on one's definition of "computer", one could nominate this 1952 game as an example of the earliest chess-playing computer program (written by Alan Turing). It's not a jewel of the literature, but still: 1952!

 

Since Turing was his own 'computer' (i.e. there was no electronic device involved and he was simply mentally processing his algorithm to play), it'd be a little hard to classify that as a program or computer.

[Tin_Lunchbox]

I'm working on Game 7 (playing the Black pieces), but I've come to realize that my aging computer just isn't up to the challenge of running Stella at accelerated framerates. I don't have a hard count, but based on the CPU usage, I'm estimating that it can only manage 200fps, or a little over 3x normal speed, before topping out. So Game 7 is taking a long time, but thanks to the magic of multitasking and savestates, I'm chipping away at it...one move at a time...

 

Either real life got in the way and the save-state filed until there's time to continue, or Golden's locked in a pitched and dramatic days-long battle with Video Chess at level 7. I figure the former, but tell us if it's the latter and you need an urgent pizza call or anything.

[+thegoldenband]

It's the latter!

 

I've been playing off-and-on all week, which almost exclusively means "letting Video Chess run in the background while I do other things (or am not even at my computer)". Thanks to the magic of multitasking operating systems -- and multitasking human beings, i.e. me -- I'm staying well-fed.

[+thegoldenband]

Well, it took about a week of playing off and on, but I finally beat Level 7! I took the Black pieces this time, and I'm pleased to report that the computer didn't cheat at all. The game itself was a relatively quick knockout, culminating in a piece sacrifice the computer shouldn't have accepted (19. Nxc5) as it led to an immediate checkmate.

 

So that's it for Atari Video Chess. It put up a decent fight, but ultimately didn't have the tactical ability to withstand aggressive play. Still, not bad at all for the hardware and the era!

 

Total game time was roughly 37.5 hours, with Stella running at around 3.5x realtime (possibly a bit less), so a real hardware VCS would've taken at least 100 hours to complete the game. My moves took me no more than 15 minutes total to choose and play.

 

[Date "2012.06.21"]

[White "Atari Video Chess, Level 7"]

[black "thegoldenband"]

[Result "0-1"]

 

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. dxc6 Nxc6 5. Nf3 e5 6. Nc3 e4 7. Ng5 Bf5 8. Be2 h6 9. Nh3 Bxh3 10. gxh3 Bc5 11. O-O Qe7 12. Re1 O-O-O 13. Bg4+ Kb8 14. Nb5 Ne5 15. Be2 a6 16. Nc3 Rhe8 17. Qc2 Qd7 18. Na4 Qxh3 19. Nxc5 Nf3+ 20. Bxf3 exf3 21. Nd7+ Nxd7 22. Rxe8 Qg2# 0-1

 

[Tin_Lunchbox]

Well, it took about a week of playing off and on, but I finally beat Level 7! I took the Black pieces this time, and I'm pleased to report that the computer didn't cheat at all. The game itself was a relatively quick knockout, culminating in a piece sacrifice the computer shouldn't have accepted (19. Nxc5) as it led to an immediate checkmate.

 

So that's it for Atari Video Chess. It put up a decent fight, but ultimately didn't have the tactical ability to withstand aggressive play. Still, not bad at all for the hardware and the era!

 

Thegoldenband, your series of games against Video Chess has been absolutely epic. It was like anticipating a good movie or a big sports event to wait for your battle against level 7. I'm sure several of us watched them all. The animation moves quickly but I see what looks like a very poor move by a White rook at the end, which I think you refer to. I'm a little surprised Video Chess didn't "see" the result, since I thought during all that waiting and flashing at the higher levels it was thinking ahead and analyzing bunches of the opponent's potential moves. Perhaps it was thinking only of what could happen with its rook. But its king was in such proximity to danger! That move didn't determine the outcome though, in my opinion you've demonstrated you'd probably have found another way to win anyhow.

 

Yeah, I was hoping Larry Wagner and Bob Whitehead put some miraculously genius artificial intelligence inside that 4K cartridge, a genius that would somehow become apparent after those screen-flashing hours the VCS took to make its moves. Bah, kind of a silly thing to imagine they'd overcome those hardware limits any more than they did, as you demonstrated the game plays decently and no more.

 

It's also very interesting to hear that Video Chess did not accidentally or purposely move any of your pieces (except of course to take them off the board when appropriate). I suspected that was going to be the case. The "Video Chess cheats" legend has an urban quality to it. I've websearched about it more than once, but yours is the only first-hand account I've seen.

 

Thanks again! This series is one that will be remembered I bet.

[NE146]

you demonstrated the game plays decently and no more.

 

Then again he's obviously a good player.. Personally I think any of the higher levels would kick my butt, but I aint that good.

 

As said many times before though, getting the 2600 to play even a DECENT game of chess on a 4k cart is still an amazing achievement. Now that we've seen the best the 4k cart could do, it'd be interesting if someone decided to write a brand new 2600 Chess game from scratch today as an 8k or 16k game using current computer chess algorithms.. like you see on website flash versions, etc..

 

But yes, great series, and great games. You are the man!

[+thegoldenband]

Thanks so much for your kind words, Tin_Lunchbox and NE146! I had a good time doing this, and knowing that people like yourselves were following & interested in these battles made it all the more fun.

 

FWIW, here's how I would annotate the game. Video Chess made at least one major blunder, but also a series of smaller mistakes that put it at a disadvantage (though not necessarily a losing one until somewhere around move 15-17):

 

[Date "2012.06.21"]

[White "Atari Video Chess, Level 7"]

[black "thegoldenband"]

[Result "0-1"]

 

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. dxc6? {This move is well known to be bad for White, who wins a pawn but loses control of the d4-square, making it very difficult to develop his pieces; meanwhile Black gets a huge lead in development} Nxc6 5. Nf3 e5 6. Nc3 e4 7. Ng5 Bf5 8. Be2?! {This makes it easy for Black, giving him a target in the doubled h-pawns; 8. Qe2 would be more testing} h6 9. Nh3 Bxh3 10. gxh3 Bc5 11. O-O Qe7 {reinforcing the e-pawn and enabling Q-side castling} 12. Re1 {threatens the e-pawn and the Queen, but weakens f2} O-O-O 13. Bg4+ Kb8 14. Nb5? {a waste of time; 14. d3 would be better} Ne5 {aiming at c4 and f3} 15. Be2? {yet more time wasted} a6 16. Nc3 Rhe8 {Black is now fully developed} 17. Qc2 Qd7 {targeting h3} 18. Na4?? {this move was plausible earlier, but now it leads to a forced checkmate; White is probably lost anyway, though} Qxh3 19. Nxc5 {19. Qxe4 would hold out a bit longer, but it's hopeless} Nf3+ 20. Bxf3 exf3 21. Nd7+ {just delaying the inevitable} Nxd7 22. Rxe8 (or 22. Qg6 Rxe1#) Qg2# 0-1

[Pioneer4x4]

I know it would take some serious time, but have you tried each level several times? I wonder if there really is that much more to the higher levels. It would be neat to get a chess rating for each level. If you could wild guess, that would help.

I used to know someone in expert or master ranking, and he easily handed me my butt every time, but he did concede that I did not suck either.

[+thegoldenband]

Well, I think the best way to do that would probably be pitting Video Chess against a computer program with a built-in "rating calculator" function. My sense is that it actually doesn't get much stronger on higher levels, but that'd be definitive. I can say I'm surely not taking it on until I have a computer capable of at least 30x speedup!

[+thegoldenband]

If anyone's curious, today I took on and defeated Intellivision's USCF Chess on the highest difficulty (Level 6), with both White and Black pieces. This is actually a continuation of a project I've been working on for a couple years; I'd beaten all the lower difficulties on real hardware, but ran into a game-breaking bug that kept the CPU from moving. I was able to reproduce the same bug in emulation, so that took the wind out of my sails. (Ironic that the Atari didn't cheat/bug out, but the Intellivision did!)

 

However, for whatever reason, today's games didn't trigger the same bug, so I was able to play both games out to checkmate. The victory with the White pieces was relatively routine, but I really should've lost the game where I had Black -- I was completely on the ropes, in a horribly cramped position thanks to a serious error on move 15. However, the Intellivision lost its way and dropped a pawn, and I was slowly able to claw my way back. It probably still should have been able to draw the game but I gradually built up the pressure, as the Intellivision committed several inaccuracies, until it finally cracked.

 

Anyway, the games follow below, complete with animated GIF attachments for replaying them. Both were played in the jzintv emulator with the "macho" setting that increases game speed by a factor of 20 -- which made selecting the pieces with my cursor rather difficult!

 

Game 1:

 

[Date "2012.06.30"]

[White "thegoldenband"]

[black "Intellivision - USCF Chess - Level 6"]

[Result "1-0"]

 

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Be6 6. Nxe6 fxe6 7. Bc4 e5 8. Be3 Be7 9. O-O Nc6 10. a4 Qd7 11. a5 Rf8 12. a6 b6 13. Bb5 O-O-O 14. Bg5 h6 15. Bxf6 gxf6 16. Nd5 Rf7 17. c3 Qe8 18. Nb4 Rg7 19. Nxc6 Qg6 20. Nxa7+ Kb8 21. Nc6+ Ka8 22. g3 Qxe4 23. Nxd8 Bxd8 24. Ra4 Qf5 25. Qd5+ c6 26. Qxc6+ Ka7 27. Rfa1 Qe6 28. Bc4 Qd7 29. Qd5 f5 30. Bd3 Bf6 31. Rc4 e4 32. Bf1 Be5 33. Rb4 Rg5 34. Rad1 Qc7 35. Rc4 Qe7 36. Rc8 b5 37. Qa8+ Kb6 38. Rc6+ Ka5 39. Ra1# 1-0

 

[+thegoldenband]

And now the game with the Black pieces:

 

Game 2:

 

[Date "2012.06.30"]

[White "Intellivision - USCF Chess - Level 6"]

[black "thegoldenband"]

[Result "0-1"]

 

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 c5 3. dxc5 Na6 4. Qd4 Qa5+ 5. c3 Qxc5 6. b4 Qxd4 7. Nxd4 e5 8. Nb5 d5 9. e3 Be6 10. Nd2 Be7 11. Be2 O-O 12. O-O Rfc8 13. Rd1 Nc7 14. Nxc7 Rxc7 15. Bb2 Bf5 16. c4 e4 17. Be5 Rd7 18. c5 a6 19. h3 h6 20. f4 Ne8 21. g4 Bh7 22. Nc4 Bd8 23. Rd2 f6 24. Bc3 Kf8 25. Rad1 Bg8 26. Rd4 Re7 27. Nd6 Nxd6 28. cxd6 Rd7 29. R4d2 Rxd6 30. Bd4 Bb6 31. a4 Bxd4 32. Rxd4 Rad8 33. f5 Ke7 34. Rc1 Bf7 35. Rd2 R8d7 36. b5 a5 37. Rd4 Kd8 38. Rcd1 Kc7 39. R4d2 Kb6 40. Bc4 h5 41. Rd4 Kc5 42. Bb3 R7d8 43. Rc1+ Kb6 44. Rd2 hxg4 45. hxg4 g6 46. Rcd1 gxf5 47. gxf5 Kc7 48. Rc2+ Kd7 49. Rg2 Ke7 50. Rd4 Rg8 51. Rxg8 Bxg8 52. Kf2 Kd7 53. Rd2 Kc7 54. Ke2 Kb6 55. Bc2 Kc5 56. Rd1 Bh7 57. Rf1 Rd7 58. Kd2 Kd6 59. Bd1 Ke5 60. Bg4 d4 61. Rf2 d3 62. Bh3 Rc7 63. Rf4 Rc2+ 64. Kd1 Ra2 65. b6 Rxa4 66. Rf2 Ra1+ 67. Kd2 Ra2+ 68. Ke1 Rxf2 69. Kxf2 Bxf5 70. Bxf5 Kxf5 71. Ke1 a4 72. Kd2 a3 73. Kc3 a2 74. Kb2 d2 75. Kxa2 d1=Q 76. Ka3 Qb1 77. Ka4 Qb2 78. Ka5 Ke5 79. Ka4 Kd5 80. Ka5 Kc5 81. Ka4 Qb4#

 

[SoulBlazer]

Cool games, thanks for sharing!

 

So what kind of bug does the game have that you normaly experience?

[+thegoldenband]

Essentially, I found that after a certain sequence of moves (starting from the opening), the game would go into a deep think for a couple hours, then suddenly throw an error and act as if you'd tried to force it to move before it had a move ready (which the game doesn't allow -- it has to reach a certain stage in its thinking process before it'll move).

 

The same sequence of moves triggered this error in emulation and on real hardware, so it must be a bug causing some kind of overflow that the Intellivision interprets as a move prompt. It also clears out the Intellivision's search tree, so it starts over from scratch, triggers the same error, and basically gets stuck in an endless loop of irritable buzzes.

[+thegoldenband]

Thread revive, a little bit OT, but I've taken another console chess game to the mat (pun intended). This time it's Battle Chess for the 3DO, which proved to be a surprisingly mediocre contender, especially given the difference in CPU power we're talking about here -- it wasn't really much better than the Intellivision or Atari, and would certainly be bested by NES Chessmaster.

 

First, the game I won on difficulty level 5, with the White pieces. As always, click the animated GIF to replay it. This ended in a piece sacrifice and mating attack, something you can't often do against computers (and certainly not nowadays):

 

[Date "2012.12.09"]

[White "thegoldenband"]

[black "3DO Battle Chess, Level 5"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B30"]

 

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. b3 Nf6 4. e5 Ng4 5. Bb2 f6 6. Qe2 fxe5 7. Nxe5 Ngxe5 8. Bxe5 d6 9. Bb2 Nd4 10. Bxd4 cxd4 11. Qe4 e5 12. Bb5+ Kf7 13. Qd5+ Kg6 14. O-O Bf5 15. Qxb7 Bxc2 16. Na3 Qb8 17. Qf3 d5 18. Qxd5 Bxa3 19. Qe6+ Kg5 20. h4+ Kxh4 21. g3+ Kg5 22. f4+ exf4 23. gxf4+ Kh4 24. Kh2 Qc8 25. Bd7 Bf5 26. Qxf5 Qd8 27. Qh3# 1-0

 

 

And now here's the game I won on the highest difficulty, level 9, with the Black pieces. This was a subtler affair in which I slowly took advantage of the computer's positional mistakes, tightening my grip until I had a forced win via pawn promotion. The computer averages 20-25 minutes per move on this level, and the whole game took over 20 hours of CPU time (most of which I spent doing other things, naturally), but at least it has a savegame function!

 

[Date "2012.12.15"]

[White "3DO Battle Chess, Level 9"]

[black "thegoldenband"]

[Result "0-1"]

 

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. dxc5 Na6 4. Qd4 Qa5+ 5. Bd2 Qxc5 6. Nf3 Qxd4 7. Nxd4 e5 8. Nb5 d5 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. e4 Ndb4 11. N1a3 Be6 12. Bc3 f6 13. b3 Bc5 14. Bxb4 Bxb4+ 15. Ke2 O-O 16. Nc2 Bc5 17. Rd1 Rfd8 18. f3 Rxd1 19. Kxd1 Rd8+ 20. Ke2 Rd7 21. Nc3 Nb8 22. Na4 Be7 23. Nc3 Nc6 24. Nb5 a6 25. Nc3 b5 26. Ne3 Nd4+ 27. Kf2 Bc5 28. Bd3 f5 29. exf5 Nxf5 30. Bxf5 Bxf5 31. Re1 Rd3 32. Ne4 Bb6 33. Ng5 h6 34. Ne4 Kf7 35. Re2 Ke6 36. Re1 Kd7 37. Re2 Bd4 38. Re1 Kc6 39. Re2 Kb6 40. Ng3 Bg6 41. Ne4 Bxe4 42. fxe4 Ka5 43. g4 Kb4 44. a4 Rxb3 45. axb5 axb5 46. h3 Rxe3 47. Rxe3 g5 48. Kf3 Bxe3 49. Kxe3 Kc3 50. Ke2 Kc2 51. h4 b4 0-1