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When I was a boy in primary school in the 1980s, my family owned an Amstrad PC, which was an IBM XT compatible. One of the programs that I used was CHESS88, the very first chess computer program I ever faced against. Back then, I was NEVER able to defeat the computer and it was rather demotivating!

Recently, I remembered the existence of this chess program and I discovered that CHESS88 was a freeware program written by Don Berg, released in 1984. The “88” refers to the Intel 8088 CPU infrastructure, and it can be downloaded and played, either online or through the Dosbox emulator here: https://dosgames.com/game/chess88/

CHESS88 responded with the very interested Alekhine’s Defense: Scandinavian Variation against e4 and then Nc3. Perhaps the engine does show its age as by move 5, it had made a blunder [+2.18] and on move 8, the evaluation had deteriorated to [+6.17]. Perhaps it is the trauma of losing repeatedly and relentlessly as a child, but I never thought that I was winning to that degree in the opening!

Sensible moves afterwards mostly allowed me to hold the advantage and I won by checkmate on move 28. After over 35 years, I finally got my revenge on CHESS88!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4rtKs9sqsL?tab=analysis

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "CHESS88"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteUrl ""]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]

1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Qe2 $2 Bg4 $2 4. f3 $6 Be6 5. e5 $6 Nh5 $2 6. d4 Na6 $2 7. g4 Ng3 $6 8. hxg3 c5 9. dxc5 Nxc5 10. Qb5+ Nd7 11. Be3 b6 12. O-O-O a6 13. Qd3 d4 14. Qxd4 Nc5 15. Qxd8+ Rxd8 16. Rxd8+ Kxd8 17. Bxc5 bxc5 18. Bxa6 f6 19. exf6 exf6 20. Nge2 Bd6 21. Rd1 Kc7 22. Nb5+ Kb6 23. Rxd6+ Ka5 24. Rxe6 Rd8 $2 25. Rd6 $2 Re8 26. Nec3 Kb4 $6 27. a3+ Kc4 $6 28. b3# 1-0