Play Sargon 5 - World Class Chess Online

Game Overview

Sargon 5 was the chess game that made my old MS-DOS machine feel like a grandmaster’s study. No fancy graphics—just a crisp, green-on-black board and an AI that didn’t mess around. I remember cranking the difficulty down to "beginner" and still getting steamrolled by its opening moves. (Turns out "beginner" in 1980s chess software meant "will politely checkmate you in 12 moves.")

What I loved was how stripped-down it felt. No hand-holding, no pop-ups explaining en passant for the hundredth time—just you and a brutally efficient opponent. The higher difficulty levels were like playing against a library’s worth of strategy books. If you’ve ever wanted to experience chess software before it got all touchscreen-friendly and chatty, this is like digging up a time capsule. Just don’t expect mercy.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".