Sargon (or SARGON) is a line of chess-playing software for personal computers.
The original SARGON was written by Dan and Kathe Spracklen in a Z80-based computer called Wavemate Jupiter IIIusing assembly language through TDL Macro Assembler.
The name "Sargon" was taken from either of the historical kings Sargon of Akkad (the first king to use his empire to try to conquer the known world) or Sargon of Assyria. (Ironically, neither ruler would have been able to play chess since it was not invented until long after their reigns.) The name was originally written entirely in capitals since early computer operating systems such as CP/M did not support lower-case text (nor files with names more than six letters long, as with ADVENT).
SARGON was introduced at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire, where it won the first computer chess tournament held strictly for microcomputer. This success encouraged the authors to seek financial income by selling the program directly to customers. Since...
