TASC

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TASC B.V., (Tasc) The Advanced Software Company, a Dutch company dedicated to development of chess related products, software and hardware. Located in Rotterdam, TASC is owned by Wil Sparreboom.

=Products= TASC started playing chess in the late 80s with the The Final Chesscard by Marc Derksen, released in 1989 for Commodore 64 and Commodore 128, and continued with its successor, the famous ChessMachine extending an IBM PC with a pluggable ISA card on board the ARM2 RISC processor, either running the WCCC 1992 champion Gideon by Ed Schröder or The King by Johan de Koning. They produced the Mephisto RISC module for Hegener & Glaser, and went in the chess database market with TascBase, developed by Hans and Nico Kuijf. The TASC Chess System, which consists of the TASC SmartBoard connected to a PC, along with its native chess program Chessica by Frans Morsch, Marc Derksen and Jessica Harmsen, and the TASC Chess Tutor were further milestones, so were the mighty TASC R30 and TASC R40 dedicated chess computers with De Koning programs. It seemed, TASC would have had a bright and successful future with their innovative chess products.

=Patent Infringement= In 1994, TASC, and their primary US distributor ICD Corporation were impeached by a New Jersey company, Brehn Corporation, due to patent infringement. According to a New York federal court, TASC took the patented concept of piece recognition for their SmartBoard, invented by Bruce F. Bogner, and used it without permission and despite signing non-disclosure agreements. The judge ordered TASC to pay $581,000 , the affected boards and computers disappeared from the market soon after, and TASC B.V. became practically defunct in the early 2000s.

=Forum Posts=
 * TASCBOARD by Arjen Oudheusden, CCC, November 26, 1998
 * Re: Tasc R30 v 2.5? by Steven Schwartz, CCC, September 08, 1999
 * Re: What happened to TASC? by Steven Schwartz, CCC, October 27, 2001
 * support for tasc board by Vincent Diepeveen, CCC, January 29, 2005
 * The patent that killed Tasc by Ismenio Sousa, Chess Computer Community Forum, May 10, 2005

=External Links=
 * Tasc.ChessSystem Home (archived version by Ismenio Sousa)
 * Ismenio's archive of the Tasc Chess System
 * Ismenio's archive of the Tasc Chess System - SmartBoard


 * Tasc Electronic Chess Computers, The Spacious Mind
 * TASC from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)

=References=

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