First post, by clb
Scouring old PC / DOS games, I find that one of the oldest games is Chess written in 1980, released in 1981 on IBM PC by International PC Owners. Here's a YouTube video (not mine) for illustration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX9SxYhYgpc
I think my chess skills are around 900-1200 ELO. Played the computer on easiest difficulty setting, and was about to win, but then it pulled an extra special move, shown in the attached photo.
I am white, moved queen from E2 to capture on E7. Black's king was on E8. My queen is guarded by the bishop on the right, so I felt gleefully happy to best the 8088 CPU, until it outsmarted me with some creative out of the box thinking to escape mate - That really surprised me out of my seat!
I've already run the CPU through extensive test battery to verify it is not breaking down, so I conclude I must have caught it running something that was certainly not programmed into it..
If you have a 8088 rig, watch out for its surprising behavior in the coming 2022. 😉
Happy new year!