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A "chess computer" is an electronic contrivance made exclusively to play chess and do nothing else. The memory unit, processor and every electronic part of it is tailored for that purpose and non of them can be changed. So, normally, the term is referred not to scientific machines than can be used or has been used in laboratories for research or endeavours of any kind related with playing chess, but it is proper of commercial units of discrete size, usually not bigger than a common chess board, though actually there are also models not bigger than a celullar phone. When big computers -mainframes- has been used to run chess programs, normally it has been as part of research in the field of artificial intelligence and in any case they are always general-purpose machines capable of being programmed before and after with any other kind of software to accomplish several different tasks. The "chess computer" as a sizeable object available for general public with prices - at first- in the order of magnitude of hundred of dollars, were first developed around 1977 and had his peak in the 80's, being, after those years, gradually outperformed by the emergence of the PC computer with processor dozens and even hundred or thousands of times faster that the units provided and in use in chess computers. As a result of such superior hardware any current PC can run chess programs that are not only more complex but, running faster, have a huge superior chess strenght. The most famous brands of chess computers in the years of the highest commercial succes were Fidelity, Mephisto, Novag and Saitek, but eventually several other brands produced and provided his own models. Models were many, with huge differences of sophistication, elegance and perfomance, some of them with luxurious wooden parts to approach the owner to the experience to play chess in a "real" board. The more expensives of those units were sometimes of prices well above the mark of 1000 dollars. In the first years, from end of the 70's to end of the 80's, these machines were, in the best of cases, not better players than a decent average club player and in most were definitively inferior. After that, in the 90's, better processing units and better programs gave room to the emergence of chess computers capable of higher perfomamce, sometimes almost of master level but usually "just" expert level strenght, although in both cases they were good enough to defeat most of the time most of the human players. Actually there are still factories that produces a variety of models of chess computers, but they are not anymore in the front edge of non-human chess perfomance and so has became considered less as tools and highly priced objects for serious chess player but as toys for casual games and/or initiate children to the game. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. ...