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Awit
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a chess program written by [[Tony Marsland]]. The original program, which played in the first [[ACM 1970]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City New York] was called '''Wita'''. The name was derived from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witenagemot Witan], which was for a ''meeting of wise men''. The inspiration for Wita came from the ''1966 Fall Joint Computer Conference'' <ref>[http://openlibrary.org/b/OL14154396M/1966_Fall_Joint_Computer_Conference_November_7-10_San_Franciso_California. 1966 Fall Joint Computer Conference, November 7-10, San Franciso, California]</ref> in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco San Francisco] and had been impressed by [[Richard Greenblatt|Richard Greenblatt's]] talk about [[Mac Hack]].
In about 1977, the name was changed to Awit for two reasons. First, to put the program nearer the top of an alphabetical list and second (more importantly) to reflect the program's propensity to play subtle moves that were rife with fatal flaws. Awit-Wita was written in [[Algol|Algol W]] <ref>[http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/%7Etony/Public/Awit-Wita-ComputerChess/AlgolwSupport/awit.pdf Awit source code] (pdf)</ref> and ran on [[IBM 370]] under the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Terminal_System Michigan Terminal System] (MTS) <ref>[[Mike Alexander]] was principal architect of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Terminal_System Michigan Terminal System] (MTS)</ref> . Awit is a selective [[Type B Strategy|Shannon type B searcher]] with a lot of chess [[Knowledge|knowledge]] implemented, and therefor with 8 [[Nodes per Second|Nodes per second]] <ref>[http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=doc-431614f6c9575 The Fifteenth ACM Computer Chess Championship, San Francisco California, October 7-9, 1984], [http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/3-1%20and%203-2%20and%203-3%20and%204-3.1984_15th_NACCC/1984%20NACCC.062303012.sm.pdf pdf] from [[The Computer History Museum]], covers [[WCCC 1983]]</ref> extremely slow with an impressive [[Playing Strength|strength]] / [[Node|nodes]]-evaluated ratio, despite its inherent tactical flaws up and then.
=Quotes=
=See also=
* [[Sargon#Awit|Sargon vs. Awit]] at [[ACM 1978]]
* [[Tony Marsland]] ('''1974'''). ''A users guide to WITA, a chess program''. Technical report, [[University of Alberta]] <ref>[http://www.canadianchess.info/canadianchesshistory/CanadianChessPublications.html Canadian Chess - Publications (Books, CDs, Videos, Periodicals, Columns)]</ref>
* [[Harry Shershow]] ('''1979'''). ''A Little Bit is a Little Better''. [[Personal Computing#3_4|Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 4]], pp. 61 » [[Sargon#Awit|Sargon - Awit]]
* [[Tony Marsland]] ('''2020'''). ''Computer loses in king-size blunder''. [[ICGA Journal#42_23|ICGA Journal, Vol. 42, Nos. 2-3]] <ref>John C. Devlin ('''1970'''). ''[https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/02/archives/chess-computer-loses-game-in-a-kingsize-blunder.html Chess Computer Loses Game in a King‐Size Blunder]''. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times New York Times], September 02, 1970</ref>
=Forum Posts=
=References=
<references />
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