Microchess

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For a chess variant called 'Microchess', see Minichess.

Microchess, by Peter R. Jennings, was originally a microcomputer Chess Program for the MOS Technology KIM-1 microcomputer, first released on December 18, 1976. Microchess, as small as it was in terms of program size, could still play passable chess on the KIM-1 with its 6502 microprocessor, 1 kibibyte of memory, simple hex keyboard and tiny segment display.

Microchess was later expanded into a more fully-featured program with graphics for the Commodore PET, Apple II and Atari 400/800 computers. It was also licensed to Novag for its dedicated Chess Champion Mk II in 1979. [1] It was the first microcomputer software package to sell 50,000 copies, almost exclusively on cassette tape. Jennings founded VisiCorp together with Dan Flystra, and the new company published Microchess to the growing microcomputer market. Microchess gave the company enough success to launch VisiCalc which would be its greatest success.