What was the name of the chess program written by Alan Turing?

The chess program written by Alan Turing was called Turochamp. Turing developed it with his friend and colleague David Champernowne in 1948, making it one of the earliest serious attempts to design a computer program capable of playing a complete game of chess.

Turochamp was not initially run on a functioning computer. The calculations were too demanding for the machines available at the time, so Turing and others carried out the program’s instructions by hand using paper and pencil. The system evaluated possible moves by assigning them values based on factors such as material, mobility, and the safety of the king.

The name combines parts of “Turing” and “Champernowne.” Turochamp is often described as the first computer chess program, but it should not be confused with later programs that actually ran on stored-program computers. Turing’s work helped establish chess as a useful test case for machine intelligence.