Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a zip
archive of roughly 1 MB.


Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess alone.
Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've done a
number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.

On 16 May 2004, (Bob Newell) wrote:
Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a zip
archive of roughly 1 MB.

Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess alone.
Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've done a
number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.

I use TSCP and MSCP for just that purpose. SCP stands for Simple
Chess Program (Tom's and Marcel's version, respectively - they are not
related). You can easily google for them. They are each about 2K
lines of C, and compile and run under any C compiler I've tried, and
on any OS, be it M$ or *nix. TSCP even comes with a DOS executable.
You won't get winboard or xboard on the floppy, though. I usually
carry a chess set if I am using them from a floppy.

Patzer


-=-
This message was posted via two or more anonymous remailing services.

I think one of the early DOS incarnations of MChess was among the strongest
DOS chess programs.

"Patzer" wrote in message
news:25D4JTYM38123.8838773148@anonymous...

On 16 May 2004, (Bob Newell) wrote:
Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a zip
archive of roughly 1 MB.

Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess
alone.
Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've done a
number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.

I use TSCP and MSCP for just that purpose. SCP stands for Simple
Chess Program (Tom's and Marcel's version, respectively - they are not
related). You can easily google for them. They are each about 2K
lines of C, and compile and run under any C compiler I've tried, and
on any OS, be it M$ or *nix. TSCP even comes with a DOS executable.
You won't get winboard or xboard on the floppy, though. I usually
carry a chess set if I am using them from a floppy.

Patzer


-=-
This message was posted via two or more anonymous remailing services.

Bob Newell a écrit :

Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a zip
archive of roughly 1 MB.


Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess alone.
Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've done a
number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.


http://www.gambitchess.com/progr.htm

ChessGenius 3 for Dos

I had a chess program called Psion Chess.

It had a 3d screen, and ran under DOS on my 8088.

It was pretty strong, and would fit on a DD 720kb floppy.

--
-Netsock

"It's just about going fast...that's all..."
http://home.insight.rr.com/cgreen/
"Bob Newell" wrote in message
...
Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a zip
archive of roughly 1 MB.


Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess alone.
Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've done a
number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Why limit yourself to small space size floppy disk?
You can create a chess programs CD that you can carry around and play in
most of the modern computer (with CD-ROM drive).

--
WebWalker

PGP Key ID : 0xB3F1A279

"WebWalker" wrote in message
...
Why limit yourself to small space size floppy disk?
You can create a chess programs CD that you can carry around and play in
most of the modern computer (with CD-ROM drive).


Why not simply a USB Flash disk? Much smaller, far more robust (no scraching
problems). Virtually any computer has a USB port and they are really cheap
for 64MB or 128MB versions. Many good chess programs would fit in 64MB so no
need for the limited space of the floppy and (relatively) big size of a CD.

In article , CeeBee wrote:
(Bob Newell) wrote in
rec.games.chess.computer:

Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a
zip archive of roughly 1 MB.


Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess
alone. Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've
done a number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.


Sargon V. Google for "Sargon" and "abandonware".



Fritz 3 was possibly the strongest of all the old DOS programs where this
could be done. The early Windows CD editions of Fritz (Fritz 4) continued
also to include a copy of Fritz 3 on the CD, one that, obviously, lacked
the annoying 3-install copy protection that the original floppy issue of
Fritz 3 was so notorious for. You may be able to track down a copy of the
Fritz 4 CD.

My favorite would be the rebel dos program still available free to
version 12.

On 18 May 2004 14:25:07 GMT, Kevin Croxen
wrote:

In article , CeeBee wrote:
(Bob Newell) wrote in
rec.games.chess.computer:

Seriously - could anyone recommend what they feel is the best small
chess playing program that runs under good old MS-DOS? By "small" I
mean that the program and all necessary files can be contained in a
zip archive of roughly 1 MB.


Why? I want to build a bootable floppy that is for chess and chess
alone. Something that can be carried around and used anywhere. (I've
done a number of these for various applications.)

Any suggestions much appreciated.


Sargon V. Google for "Sargon" and "abandonware".



Fritz 3 was possibly the strongest of all the old DOS programs where this
could be done. The early Windows CD editions of Fritz (Fritz 4) continued
also to include a copy of Fritz 3 on the CD, one that, obviously, lacked
the annoying 3-install copy protection that the original floppy issue of
Fritz 3 was so notorious for. You may be able to track down a copy of the
Fritz 4 CD.

Chet Marino
Westminster, CO

Thanks to all who responded to my question about small, DOS chess programs
to put on a bootable floppy. I tracked down some of these and tried them out
and here are some final comments.

1. The idea of a bootable CD to contain larger programs is not at all
a bad one. My purpose with a bootable floppy, though, is to be able to run
almost anywhere, such as the old Gateway 486 Handbook that I leave in
another city to use on visits. And, a writable medium for saved games is
important (although perhaps an unclosed CD-RW might serve that purpose,
on machines that have CD writers).

2. Sargon V, which is now *quite* hard to find (there are some defective
copies out there but a working one was a challenge) seems to be really
good, I'd say the best of the lot. It's compact, relatively fast and
relatively strong, with a decent enough opening book. A lot of value in
a 400k zip file.

3. ChessGenius 3 for DOS is nice.

4. Chess Tiger is OK.

5. The rest trail by some margin. Rebel is excellent but doesn't fit on
a floppy. I have yet to get hold of Fritz 3 (but I haven't tried very
hard either).

While modern up-to-date programs are surely a fair deal stronger, with
more example games and features, and better and more current opening
books, this little exercise showed me once again that some of the older,
smaller, and simpler programs provided, and still provide, tremendous
value and playing ability. I think Sargon V, for the average woodpusher
such as I, provides quite the worthy opponent.