Fun_People Archive
3 Oct
Computer chess update

Date: Mon,  3 Oct 94 18:18:41 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Computer chess update

Forwarded-by: <joeha@microsoft.com>
From: WhiteBoard News for October 03, 1994

Boston, Massachusetts:

Bobby Fischer, we need you.

For the first time in a major grand master chess
tournament, a computer program stands unbeaten against
the best U.S. players.

Software called WChess, designed by David Kittinger,
Mobile, Alabama, scored four wins and two draws at the
fifth Harvard Cup Human vs. Computer Intel Chess
Challenge last weekend in Boston.  "Computers are now
playing chess at the grand master level," says
tournament co-founder Chris Chabris.

Six grand masters played eight computer programs; Joel
Benjamin, 30, of New York, was top-scoring human;
overall, humans outscored their techno-foes.

"Computers have great technical capability," says
Benjamin, "but they're not good at strategy at all.
They don't have a feel for the game."

Benjamin gets $1,000 and his name engraved on a cup.
WChess just gets its name on the cup.  "We don't give
computers money," says Chabris.  "They'd just blow it
on chips -- not beer and chips, just chips."

© 1994 Peter Langston