Early Computer Chess Ratings

Continuing the look at early chess computer news on rec.games.chess (rgc), my previous post 'The Chips Are Down!' ended,

The long explanation indicates the importance of ratings in choosing a chess computer. I'll look at ratings in my next post in this series.

One of the longest running computer rating lists has been maintained by the Swedish Chess Computer Association, SSDF [chessprogramming.wikispaces.com]. The first reference to the SSDF that I can find on rgc is

• 1989-04-24: ICCA Journal • 'Volume 12, number 1 of the ICCA Journal is now available. This issue contains: [...] The Swedish Rating List'

The first list I can find is

• 1990-11-26: Kamsky in Tilburg • 'This are the ratings calculated by the swedish chess computers federation.'

An excerpt of that list is shown below.

A rating list that corresponds to the computer models from 1995 mentioned in 'Chips Are Down' is

• 1995-06-04: Swedish Elo list for computers

Is anyone really interested in computer chess ratings from 20 years ago? If my early-2004 page on FIDE historical ratings is any guide, then the answer is 'Yes!'.