Sargon II

Sargon II is one of the most storied names in computer chess. Written by the husband-and-wife team of Dan and Kathe Spracklen, it dates back to the late seventies and tied for third place at the 1978 North American Computer Chess Championship, beaten only by the mainframe giants Belle and Chess 4.7. Those ran on expensive institutional hardware; Sargon II was something you could take home. The Commodore 64 version reviewed here was published by Hayden Software in 1983.

Unlike the original Sargon, which searched every position to a fixed depth, the sequel can follow promising lines deeper, and it shows in its play. You get several difficulty levels that mostly differ in thinking time: on the lowest the computer replies almost instantly and plays weakly, while on the higher ones it ponders for long minutes and could give a decent club player of the eighties a genuinely hard game.

The presentation is strictly business: a full-screen board, moves entered by coordinates, full rule checking, a hint function, and the option to flip the board or play out either side of a position. No animations, no music — just chess.

Is it worth playing today? As a sparring partner it no longer holds up; any phone app will crush it without breaking a sweat. But that is exactly what makes it interesting. This is the opposition an entire generation of chess players grew up against, and on the lower levels you can still enjoy the old, satisfying feeling of beating the machine. Historically it is a milestone: the Sargon series carried serious chess from research labs onto home computers, and the published source listing of the original taught a generation of programmers their craft.

You can start a game against Sargon II on oldgame.cz directly in your browser, no emulator setup needed.