Lars Karlsson

Home * People * Lars Karlsson



Lars Karlsson, a Swedish electrical engineer, computer scientist and technologist, in 1970 founder of Dataindustrier AB , which had the card computer Data Board 4680 as first product, incorporating an Intel 4004, a Motorola 6800 and an Intel 8080, later eventually a Zilog Z80, followed by the ABC 80 home computer. Starting in 1977, within about one man-year, Karlsson wrote a chess program in Z80 assembly for that card computer, dubbed Rook. Rook 4.0 played a strong WMCCC 1980, and Rook 4.5 lost from Boris Spassky during his simultaneous exhibition at the 1981 CeBIT fair in Hanover, Germany.

=Quotes= from an Lars Karlsson interview in MikroDatorn, February 1981 What have you earned from your chess programs?

Attention, maybe. The chess programs are a pure hobby business. It is interesting to do them because it requires that you know something about chess and know something about computers. Characteristic of my programs is that they imply a greater knowledge of computers than of chess. This is probably why I am now in the position that I have achieved a program that I can no longer beat by myself.

=External Links=
 * Lars Karlsson's ICGA Tournaments
 * Historien om DIAB - Dataindustrier AB (Swedish)
 * Vem är den där Karlsson? - IDG.se, November 21, 2010 (Swedish) Interview with Lars Karlsson, MikroDatorn, February 1981

=References= Up one level