I read "Chess Skill in Man and Machine" when I was in college.

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-machine-monographs-computer-sci...

It wasn't so much that I was interested in chess, but the book really opened my eyes to how to write computer programs. For example, a 64 bit vector was used for the board, and for each piece type for each location another 64 bit vector was used to specify the legal moves.

I know all this sounds routine today, but I had only the most rudimentary programming skills at the time, and this stuff was fascinating.

I finally gave up on playing chess because instead of thinking about my next move, I'd think about writing a program to calculate the next move. Hence I played pretty badly.

I stunk at chess in college because I'd spend my time thinking about how to write a program to play chess rather than my next move. My favorite book was:

"Chess Skill in Man and Machine" https://www.amazon.com/Chess-machine-monographs-computer-sci...

which inspired parts of the computer strategy in the game Empire.

Chess playing programs have gotten so good these days, there's not really any percentage in writing one.

I bought a copy of "Chess Skill in Man and Machine"

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-machine-monographs-computer-sci...

back in the 70's, and it's descriptions of how a game could be mapped into a program was very illuminating to me. I still have a function in the DMD D compiler named evalu8() as tribute to that book.

Sadly, I lost my copy somewhere. I just ordered another from Amazon, I'm curious as to how it appears 4+ decades later.