Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Single Comment

Los Alamos variant. Chess on a 6 by 6 board from the early days of computing. (6x6, Cells: 36) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Tue, Jul 22, 2003 05:14 AM UTC:
'At the time Los Alamos chess was invented, computing power was at a
premium.'

I did some quick research, and came up with these facts about the MANIAC,
on which this variant was played.

Memory - 1 k
Storage - 80 k
I/O - paper tape
Time to multiply two numbers - 1 sec.
Contained 2,400 vacuum tubes

In those days there were no compilers, programmers wrote directly in
machine code.  I think they deserve a LOT of credit.