Chessmaster, popular series ofelectronic games for playingchess against a computer; it was originally released in 1986 by the Software Toolworks, which wasacquired by the Learning Company.Chessmaster featured extremely competitiveartificial intelligence engines—with later versions named “the King”—that challenged all but the most skilled of players and helped bring the game to virtually every make of computer and gaming system over the years. Featuring 2-D and 3-D game play, later versions applied technology from other popular chess games to makeChessmaster a universal favourite.

(Read Garry Kasparov’s Britannica essay on chess & Deep Blue.)

Early versions ofChessmaster were released for nearly every type ofpersonal computer, including Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Macintosh, and DOS-based machines.Chessmaster 4000 saw the first incarnation of the King, which allowed players to create chess “personalities.” These personalities, which a player would assign to his opponent, could be adjusted down to the smallest detail. By placing certainemphasis on a particular aspect of the game, such as king protection or aggressiveness, players were able to compete in a variety of game types and improve their own personal chess abilities. Personalities could be adjusted to mirror actual players, such as the former world chess championsBobby Fischer orMikhail Botvinnik. In 2002Chessmaster 9000 even won a game against the reigning U.S. chess champion,Larry Christiansen.