SPOC

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SPOC, (SPOC, the Chess Master) an early chess program for the IBM PC by Jacques Middlecoff, written in 8086 assembly. SPOC stands for Selective Pruning Optimization Chess, claiming a new algorithm for the game, and was commercially released in 1983 by Silicon Valley based SDL Cypress Software, San Jose, California. In his review, along with the Chess Partner program, chess player and programmer Dave Whitehouse's recommendation was to wait for something better to come along. However, SPOC 2.0 was able to take back moves, to enter positions, and to promote pawns to any piece.

=Tournament Play= SPOC played the ACM 1985, searching about 300 nodes per second, with a good result versus two Canadian programs where some repetition issues occurred, further losing from the third Canadian entry Phoenix and from CHAOS.

=Selected Games=

Awit
ACM 1985, round 2, Awit - SPOC [Event "ACM 1985"] [Site "Denver USA"] [Date "1985.10.13"] [Round "2"] [White "Awit"] [Black "SPOC"] [Result "0-1"]

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.d4 Bb4 5.e3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Rb1 O-O 8.Ba3 Re8 9.Bd3 c6 10.Qh5 Ng6 11.Nf3 Nd7 12.Rb3 Nf6 13.Qg5 h6 14.Qg3 Nh5 15.Qd6 Ngf4 16.Bf1 Qf6 17.Qxf6 Nxf6 18.Ne5 Ng6 19.Nxg6 fxg6 20.Bd3 Re6 21.Bxg6 Ng4 22.Bf5 Rf6 23.Bxg4 Bxg4 24.Rxb7 Bc8 25.Rb3 Ba6 26.Bc5 Bd3 27.f3 Re8 28.Kd2 Bc4 29.Rb7 Rfe6 30.Re1 Rg6 31.Rg1 Rge6 32.Re1 Rg6 33.Rg1 Rge6 34.Rxa7 Rxe3 35.a4 Rd3+ 36.Kc1 Rxc3+ 37.Kb2 Rce3 38.a5 Rb8+ 39.Kc1 Reb3 40.Re1 Rb1+ 41.Kd2 R8b2+ 42.Kc3 Rb3+ 43.Kd2 Rd3+ 44.Kc2 Rxe1 45.Ra8+ Kh7 46.Rc8 Re2+ 47.Kc1 Bb3 48.Rh8+ 0-1

Ostrich
ACM 1985, round 4, Ostrich - SPOC [Event "ACM 1985"] [Site "Denver USA"] [Date "1985.10.15"] [Round "4"] [White "Ostrich"] [Black "SPOC"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d4 exd4 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 Nf6 8.O-O Bc5 9.c3 Nxe4 10.Re1 f5 11.f3 O-O 12.fxe4 Rd8 13.exf5 Bxf5 14.Be3 Bxd4 15.Bxd4 Rd7 16.Rc1 Re8 17.Kf2 Rde7 18.Kf3 Rf7 19.Nd2 Be4+ 20.Ke2 Bxg2+ 21.Kd3 Bh3 22.Re1 Bf5+ 23.Kc4 Be6+ 24.Kd3 Bf5+ 25.Kc4 Be6+ 26.Kd3 Rf4 27.Be5 Rd8+ 28.Ke3 Rf7 29.Nf3 Bc4 30.Nd2 Rd3+ 31.Ke2 Rxc3+ 32.Kd1 Rd3 33.Bc3 Rf2 34.Rg1 Rf7 35.Kc2 b5 36.b3 b4 37.Bxb4 Bb5 38.a4 Rd4 39.axb5 cxb5 40.Bc3 Rd6 41.Raf1 Re7 42.Bb4 c5 43.Bxc5 Rc6 44.b4 Re8 45.Kd1 Rd8 46.Rf3 Rcc8 47.Rg4 Rd5 48.Ke1 Rcd8 49.Be3 Rd3 50.Re4 Rc3 51.Nb1 Rb3 52.Nd2 Rb2 53.Re6 Rxb4 54.Rxa6 Rh4 55.Nf1 Re8 56.Ra7 Rhe4 57.Rg3 g6 58.Rh3 h5 59.Ra6 Rg4 60.Rg3 Rxg3 61.hxg3 Kf7 62.Rb6 Re5 63.Rb8 g5 64.Rc8 b4 65.Rb8 Re4 66.Rb7+ Ke6 67.Kd2 Rc4 68.Bxg5 Rd4+ 69.Kc2 Rd5 70.Bf4 Rd4 71.Be3 Re4 72.Kd3 Rg4 73.Bd4 h4 74.gxh4 Rf4 75.Ne3 Rxh4 76.Rxb4 Kf7 77.Ke2 Re4 78.Ke1 Kg8 79.Kd2 Rh4 80.Ke1 Re4 81.Rc4 Re8 82.Rc7 Re4 83.Bc5 Re5 84.Kd1 Rg5 85.Ke1 Re5 86.Kd1 Rg5 87.Ke1 Re5 88.Kd1 1/2-1/2

=See also=
 * Chess Monster

=Publications=
 * Dave Whitehouse (1983). Biding Your Time With Computerized Chess. PC Magazine, September 1983, pp. 449-458 » Chess Partner

=External Links=

Chess Program

 * SPOC the Chess Master (1983) DOS credits - MobyGames
 * SPOC The Chess Master v1.0 · Digital Game Museum Collection
 * SPOC The Chess Master v2.0 · Digital Game Museum Collection
 * SDL Cypress Software hosted by the Internet Archive

Misc

 * SPOC (disambiguation page) from Wikipedia
 * SPOC Stream Processing in OCaml, Main Developer: Mathias Bourgoin » GPU
 * Home - SPOC website of truth and justice
 * Spock (disambiguation) from Wikipedia
 * Spock (fictional character) from Wikipedia

=References= Up one Level