HP-minichess

With the HP41C programmable calculator, Hewlett Packard handed out an example program that played a small chess variant on a 5 by 5 board. This calculator came out around 1980. The opening setup used in this program was the following:

White:
King a1; Queen b1; Bishop c1; Knight d1; Rook e1; Pawn a2, b2, c2, d2, e2.

Black:
King a5; Queen b5; Bishop c5; Knight d5; Rook e5; Pawn a4, b4, c4, d4, e4.

There is no castling; pawns cannot make an initial double step.

Comment

This variant was sent to me by Ross Crawford, who remarked:

Very simple, very quick, and the calculator actually played a reasonable game (after I modified it a bit!)

WWW page made by Hans Bodlaender, based on an email of Ross Crawford.

WWW page created: August 13, 1997.