Chafitz

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Chafitz (Chafitz Inc.), a marketing and retail enterprise founded in the early '70s by Arleen and Steve Chafitz, located in Rockville, Maryland. Chafitz Inc. dominated the consumer electronics market when that industry segment was in its infancy with products such as electronic calculators, digital watches, handheld TVs, video games, consumer video recording equipment, telephone answering machines, pocket recorders and numerous other items. They have been credited with pioneering electronic games employing the early advances in Artificial Intelligence such as dedicated chess and Backgammon computers.

=Boris= Chafitz Inc. launched their first dedicated chess computer called Boris in February, 1978, running on a Fairchild F8 8-bit microprocessor. The computer was manufactured by Applied Concepts and had a program by David Lindsay. =Chafitz Modular Game System= By the end of the '70s Chafitz teamed up with manufacturer Applied Concepts Inc. and the German company Sandy Electronic by Rainer Bäurle. Beside their dedicated computers they produced and marketed the Chafitz Modular Game System (MGS), also called Multi-Game-System, as well the akin Great Game Machine by Applied Concepts, had exchangeable modules with programs written by Dan and Kathe Spracklen, and later under the steering of Applied Concepts, by John Aker, Larry Atkin and David Slate, all for the 6502 microprocessor. There were also other game modules available, such as Checkers, and the Othello program Odin by Peter W. Frey and Larry Atkin.

=Sargon= After Chafitz teamed up with Applied Concepts, they recruited Dan and Kathe Spracklen who were already renowned of their Sargon programs. Improved with the help of Terry Fredrick, Sargon appeared in 1979 as Chafitz Sargon 2.5 MGS module, and in 1980, the Chafitz ARB Sargon 2.5 with a 6502 processor was launched to became a milestone for electronic chess computers and starts the era of sensory board chess computers. =Chafitz Experience= Kathe and Dan Spracklen on their experience with Chafitz and Applied Concepts, from their Oral History :

=Applied Concepts= After the lawsuit between Chafitz and Applied Concepts, and the Spracklens left for Fidelity, Applied continued with the Chafitz brand name and programmers John Aker, David Slate and Larry Atkin on their Great Game Machine and the Chafitz Modular Game System with the Morphy program in conjunction with the Gruenfeld and Capablanca modules, and the Destiny Prodigy computer. =e-End= After discontinuing Chafitz, Arleen and Steve Chafitz came to the full circle from producing and selling electronic devices to recycle them, to found e-End, headquartered in Frederick, Maryland  , offering businesses in recovery and remanence of data, as well as hazardous waste disposal of all types of electronics of any size, and computer recycling.

=Associated People=
 * Arleen Chafitz
 * Steve Chafitz
 * Rex Kent
 * David Lindsay
 * Alan Mead
 * Dan Spracklen
 * Kathe Spracklen

=See also=
 * Applied Concepts
 * Excalibur Electronics
 * Fidelity Electronics

=Publications=
 * Editor (1978). Black-box war. Personal Computing, Vol. 2, No. 11, pp. 17 » Boris, Chess Challenger
 * Harry Shershow (1979). Chafitz' Big Move in Computer Chess. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 59 » Boris, Sargon
 * Editor (1980). The battle of Boris 2.5 vs Sargon 2.5 Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 10, pp. 83 » Applied Concepts

=External Links=
 * Chafitz/Applied Concepts/Destiny | Photo collection by Chewbanta
 * Chafitz from Schachcomputer.info Wiki
 * Chafitz Electronic Chess Computers from The Spacious Mind
 * 7.Chafitz/Applied Concepts/Destiny: Flickr
 * e-End - How We Started
 * Seci Inc. v. Chafitz Inc., June 14, 1985, FindACase™

=References=

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