Description of file wita-awit.1969-1970.pdf

1.  Clipping from the New York Times, September 1970
    "Computer Loses in King-sized Blunder"
2.  Clipping from the New York Times, 2 September 1970
    Photo of participants and spectators at the First Computer Chess Event.
    New York, Hilton Hotel, ACM Conference.
3.  Part of a compilation listing for WITA 3, dated 11 August 1970, 
    Burroughs B-5500 XAlgol.  Text states, in part,
    Wita, a chess playing program by T.A. Marsland
    Most of the I/O routines were taken from a Fortran program completed by 
    R.W. (Bob) Stubblefield in 1967.
    Work on the current version began at the University of Washington
    in March 1968 and is being continued as a hobby while at Bell Labs., Holmdel.

It was from this compilation listing that the source for Wita 3 was generated.
After more than 40 years the source listing had deteriorated significantly.
Most of the code was re-typed by Nigel Williams of Tasmania, from a poor xerox copy.
Several lines could not be deciphered exactly, because holes had been 
punched in the listing to facilitate storage.  Steve Sutphen (University of
Alberta) made scanned images of the fanfold parts.  In the end Nigel managed 
to gain access to a B-5500 XAlgol compiler and I did my best to figure out 
what the missing characters were, by examining the compilation errors.

The significance of this restoration was not only to help with the creation 
of a B-5500 emulator (by providing a substantial program for compilation tests),
[see also http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/members/nw-retrocomputingtasmania-com]
but also to re-produce the August 1970 version of Wita 3, which is the version
that participated in the First ACM North American Computer Chess Championship,
under the (incorrect) name of Marsland CP.

Tony Marsland, Qualicum Beach, May 2011.