A Chess Playing Program

Also known as the Kotok-McCarthy-Program after its creators is a chess game that is credited to be the first that would play a convincing game. It was being worked on at MIT between 1959 and 1962 and based on the 1957 Berstein program, but with added routines for alpha-beta pruning. It was later further developed at Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford and lost an epic 9 month match against a Russian M-2 computer in 1966 by 3-1 despite running on faster hardware.

Programmed by: John McCarthy, Alan Kotok, Elwyn Berlekamp, Michael A. Lieberman, Charles Niessen, Robert A. Wagner
Based on routines by: Alex Bernstein, John McCarthy, Paul W. Abrahams