Sargon II Player Count and Stats (2024)

Game Description

Sargon II is a chess-playing computer program created by Dan and Kathe Spracklen in the early 1980s. The Spracklens named the program after the ancient Mesopotamian king Sargon II, who they admired for his military prowess. Sargon II was one of the earliest chess programs to use the bitboard representation of the chessboard, which allowed for efficient move generation and evaluation.

Sargon II was first released for the 6502-based Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P computer in 1978. It later became popular on other home computers of the era, such as the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, and Commodore 64. Sargon II was known for its strong playing style and was one of the top chess programs of its time.

The Spracklens continued to develop and improve Sargon II over the years, releasing new versions for various computer platforms. They also developed other chess programs, such as Sargon III and IV, as well as other games and software. The Spracklens’ contributions to computer chess helped pave the way for modern chess engines and the development of artificial intelligence more broadly.

Game Details

Here is pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about Sargon II.