The Kasparov-World Match

The Kasparov-World match was initiated by Microsoft with sponsorship from the bank First USA. The concept was that Garry Kasparov as White would play the rest of the world on the Web: one ply would be played per day and the World Team was to vote for its move. The Kasparov-World game was a success from many points of view. It certainly gave thousands the feeling of facing the world’s best player across the board and did much for the future of the game. Described by Kasparov as “phenomenal ... the most complex in chess history”, it is probably a worthy ‘Greatest Game’ candidate. Computer technology has given chess a new mode of play and taken it to new heights: the experiment deserves to be repeated. We look forward to another game and experience of this quality although it will be difficult to surpass the event we have just enjoyed. We salute and thank all those who contributed - sponsors, moderator, coaches, unofficial analysts, organisers, technologists, voters and our new friends

Collaborative computer personalities in the game of chess

Computer chess has played a crucial role in Artificial Intelligence research since the creation of the modem computer. It has gained this prominent position due to the large domain that it encompasses, including psychology, philosophy and computer science. The new and innovative techniques initially created for computer chess have often been successfully transferred to other divergent research areas such as theorem provers and economic models. The progress achieved by computers in the game of chess has been illustrated by Deep Blue’s famous victory over Garry Kasparov in 1997. However, further improvements are required if more complex problems are to be solved. In 1999 the Kasparov versus the World match took place over the Internet. The match allowed chess players from around the world to collaborate in a single game of chess against the then world champion, Garry Kasparov. The game was closely fought with Kasparov coming out on top. One of the most surprising aspects of the contest was the high quality of play achieved by the World team. The World team consisted of players with varying skill and style of play, despite this they achieved a level of play that was considered better than any of its individual members. The purpose of this research is to investigate if collaboration by different players can be successfully transferred to the domain of computer chess

On the Impact of Information Technologies on Society: an Historical Perspective through the Game of Chess

The game of chess as always been viewed as an iconic representation of intellectual prowess. Since the very beginning of computer science, the challenge of being able to program a computer capable of playing chess and beating humans has been alive and used both as a mark to measure hardware/software progresses and as an ongoing programming challenge leading to numerous discoveries. In the early days of computer science it was a topic for specialists. But as computers were democratized, and the strength of chess engines began to increase, chess players started to appropriate to themselves these new tools. We show how these interactions between the world of chess and information technologies have been herald of broader social impacts of information technologies. The game of chess, and more broadly the world of chess (chess players, literature, computer softwares and websites dedicated to chess, etc.), turns out to be a surprisingly and particularly sharp indicator of the changes induced in our everyday life by the information technologies. Moreover, in the same way that chess is a modelization of war that captures the raw features of strategic thinking, chess world can be seen as small society making the study of the information technologies impact easier to analyze and to grasp

The Roles of recognition processes and look-ahead search in time-constrained expert problem solving: Evidence from grandmaster level chess.

Chess has long served as an important standard task environment for research on human memory and problem-solving abilities and processes. In this paper, we report evidence on the relative importance of recognition processes and planning (look-ahead) processes in very high level expert performance in chess. The data show that the rated skill of a top-level grandmaster is only slightly lower when he is playing simultaneously against a half dozen grandmaster opponents than under tournament conditions that allow much more time for each move. As simultaneous play allows little time for look-ahead processes, the data indicate that recognition, based on superior chess knowledge, plays a much larger part in high-level skill in this task than does planning by looking ahead

Can Deep Blue™ make us happy? Reflections on human and artificial expertise

Sadly, progress in AI has confirmed earlier conclusions, reached using formal domains, about the strict limits of human information processing and has also shown that these limits are only partly remedied by intuition. More positively, AI offers mankind a unique avenue to circumvent its cognitive limits: (1) by acting as a prosthesis extending processing capacity and size of the knowledge base; (2) by offering tools for studying our own cognition; and (3) as a consequence of the previous item, by developing tools that increase the quality and quantity of our own thinking. These ideas are illustrated with chess expertise

FinalGen revisited: new discoveries

Romero’s FINALGEN of 2012 creates designer endgame tables for specific chess positions that feature no more than one non-pawn piece per side. Larger hard discs and faster solid-state discs have extended the reach of this software and encouraged its greater use. Some new discoveries illustrate here what is now feasible and how FINALGEN may be combined with other tools to reach definitive and likely truths

KQQKQQ and the Kasparov-World Game

The 1999 Kasparov-World game for the first time enabled anyone to join a team playing against a World Chess Champion via the web. It included a surprise in the opening, complex middle-game strategy and a deep ending. As the game headed for its mysterious finale, the World Team re-quested a KQQKQQ endgame table and was provided with two by the authors. This paper describes their work, compares the methods used, examines the issues raised and summarises the concepts involved for the benefit of future workers in the endgame field. It also notes the contribution of this endgame to chess itself

TO WHAT EXTENT DID SOCIALISM INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT AND WIDESPREAD OF CHESS IN THE USSR UNTIL ITS COLLAPSE IN 1992 ?

This essay is based on the research question “To what extent did socialism influence the development and widespread of chess in the USSR until its collapse in 1992?” While examining this particular question, firstly the context before the October Revolution will be analysed, when chess was a leisure activity of the wealthy upper class individuals as in Europe. Then, the period between the revolution and World War II will be investigated, in which chess was adopted by the Bolshevik government as a tool of increasing the culture of the public, and was introduced to large masses by state-sponsored campaigns. After that, the Cold War period will be investigated, in which chess was used as a socio-cultural weapon by the Soviet Government and turned into a symbol of the struggle for supremacy of the USSR and the Western Block. After this investigations, the factors which led to the USSR hegemony in chess in the 20th century, which is still continuing in the 21th century by the former Soviet countries are clearly observed. Mainly, those are the state sponsored programmes and tournaments that aided the development and widespread of chess. Another reason is the chess becoming politicised in the USSR to be used as a tool of socialist propaganda and demonstrating the Soviet excellence to the world, which exceeded its limits in the Cold War period when it also became a matter of prestige and was taken more seriously than any other kind of sports. The last reason is the self motivation of the individuals for becoming professional chess players, which had numerous advantages, since chess was seen as a very prestigious profession in the USSR, and many opportunities were involved such as travelling abroad for international tournaments, which was not possible for regular citizens