Computer Science for Education

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
====== Computers and Chess: The Battle to Make Computers Better Than Humans ======

Chess is an incredibly complex game that has been around for hundreds of years. Since then, many people around the world have dedicated large portions of their lives to mastering this game. But could a computer beat man at this game? Could a machine outsmart and outplay a human being? These were questions that took years to answer.

When computers first started out, they couldn't do much except some simple math. As the technology got better, computers could do more things faster. Eventually people began to wonder if computers would ever be smarter than humans. Around 1950, thoughts of a computer one day being able to play chess came about. For the next 25 years, much progress was made. Programs were created that actually could play a game of chess. It took 25 years for technology to get to the level where they could run the human written programs to play chess. It also took 25 years of human thought and work to come up with the proper algorithms for the computer to play chess.

===== Deep Thought =====

In 1975, computer chess had become a reality. Computers had reached the "noob" level of chess playing. Computer chess tournaments had been going on for 5 years. These computers were starting to win against humans in tournaments, however chess masters could still defeat a computer with little effort. In 1978, David Levy won a bet he had made 10 years prior against the computing community. Levy (a chess master) remained undefeated against computers even after beating Chess 4.7, which was the best chess computer of the time. Chess 4.7 was actually so powerful for it's time that it ran on a supercomputer. Levy would continue to remain undefeated until 1989 when he lost to IBM's Chess Computer "Deep Thought".

Deep Thought was still not good enough to defeat the world's best players. World champion Garry Kasparov easily defeated the computer twice. A computer would not be able to win a game against the world's best human player (Kasparov) until 1996. This IBM computer named "Deep Blue" would then lose the match to Kasparov. But it was proof that computers could defeat the best of the best at chess. It was proven yet again a year later when the same computer had a rematch against Kasparov and won the match. After almost 50 years, the goal was reached.

Why is it that computers finally managed to get the upper hand? A computer has the power to look at almost every possible move and it's possible consequences in order to pick the most logical move. A human does not have that power, but yet it took the computer 50 years and hundreds of our brightest programming minds to beat our best chess player. The edge that man had for so long was experience. A lifetime's experience playing chess gave the human brain the know how of what worked and what didn't, where as the computer had to learn all of that in time to make one move.

----

[[ci2010:team5|BACK]]
Computer Science for Education

User Tools

Site Tools

Page Tools
