One of his first endeavors into computers was writing a computer chess program and then later working on a global optimizer for C at Bell Labs. This computer chess program competed in multiple computer chess tournaments such as the Toronto chess tournament in 1977 (2nd place) and the Linz tournament in 1980 (3rd place).
In his early computer work, he developed a chess program that participated in various tournaments such as the Toronto chess tournament in 1977 and the Linz tournament in 1980. He also later worked on improving this program to create a global optimizer for C at Bell Labs.