Man vs. Computer

/ chuck / 13 March 2009 / Leave a comment

Playing computer chess is a favorite pastime for many people around the world. Those who play chess enjoy the idea of playing with a computer because it gives them the freedom to play the game whenever they want to, without having to look for a human opponent. For a long time, people just played computer chess for recreation, but as computer technology continued to advance, it seemed more possible that a computer chess program may be able to defeat chess players at the highest level of competition. Even though it is a very competitive game online, it probably won't be gambled on like online football betting anytime in the near future.

An international chess master, David Levy, said in 1968 that computer chess programs would not be able to defeat him within the next decade. In 1978, he proved that he was right by defeating Chess 4.7, but the computer chess program played so well that he admitted that it was just a matter of time before a chess computer would defeat him. In the year 1989, he played Deep Thought in an exhibition match, and he met with defeat.

In 1989, Garry Kasparov, who was the world chess champion at that time, took on Deep Thought twice, and he won both matches. However, Kasparov would meet his match in IBM's Deep Blue, which became the first chess computer to beat a world champion by taking the first game of an exhibition match. Then again, Kasparov managed to make a comeback by winning three and drawing two of the remaining games. In a rematch in 1997, Kasparov lost to a more advanced Deep Blue 3.5 - 2.5.

As chess computers became more advanced, many more interesting Man vs Computer match-ups followed. In the year 1998, second-ranked world master Viswanathan Anand played with Rebel 10, and he lost 5 out of the 8 games that were played. In this match, however, the games were played with different time controls, and it was clearly seen that the chess computer had an edge in blitz games, while the human player was better when games were played with classic time controls.

Vladimir Kramnik, who was the 'classical' world champion, played Deep Fritz in the Brains of Bahrain match in 2002. Although the match ended in a draw, chess experts regarded Kramnik as the better player. Garry Kasparov continued to compete with chess computers by playing Junior and X3D Fritz in 2003, and he had to settle for draws in both matches. Kramnik had a rematch with Deep Fritz in 2006, but this time, he lost to the computer by a score of 2 - 4.

Links:

Information about Computer Chess

Man vs Computer Chess Competition

History of Computer Chess

Playing Chess with Computers vs Playing Chess with Humans

The Basics of Chess

World Chess Champions

Man vs Computer: Who is Winning?

Kasparov vs Deep Blue (1997)

Kasparov vs Deep Blue Rematch

Viswanathan Anand vs Rebel 10

Vladimir Kramnik vs Deep Fritz