Chessmaster (originally The Chessmaster) is a chess-playing video game series which is owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise with more than five million units sold as of 2002. The same cover art image featuring Will Hare was used from Chessmaster 2000 to Chessmaster 9000. The Chessmaster chess engine is called The King written by Johan de Köning of the Netherlands. It was introduced in Chessmaster 4000; the first edition featured a chess engine written by David Kittinger who went on to develop the engines for Interplay's USCF Chess WChess for the German company Millennium 2000 and Sierra Entertainment's Power Chess Majestic Chess and Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures. The second edition had an engine designed by Kate and Dan Spracklen of Sargon fame.