Worst Chess Program Ever - a new contender

I thought I'd try downloading a chess program for my wife's new mobile phone. Turns out that there aren't that many via the Telstra games sight. In fact I found exactly one, which was part of a bundle of games including Backgammon, Checkers etc But it was only $3, and it wan't going on my phone bill so I thought "Why not?"

Now I have quite an interest in 'bad' chess programs, because I can't work out how anyone can write one (or more importantly, why a developer would pay someone to write one). There are enough good programs out there (with source code) that it shouldn't be difficult to program one that isn't completely stupid. And yet such programs exist, and people charge for them.

Even though the program in question was on the easiest level, I figured that it might provide a small challenge. It did not. The game began 1.e4 d5 (A opening choice of many weak programs) 2.exd Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qxd2+ So I took the queen and won in another 6 or 7 moves. But as I was playing I discovered something else that raises the level of this program to beyond pathetic. I went to move my light squared bishop to c4 an realised it wasn't a light squared bishop. The board was the wrong way round, in that h1 was a dark square, rather than a light one. The developer couldn't even get this simple task right. They did however place the pieces on the right squares at the start, so the King's started on their own coloured squares.

So if you are looking to buy one of the worst chess programs on the market (and you have a Telstra phone), search for 'chess' in the games section. You will be disappointed.