| <p>The history of chess-playing computers is long and rich, partly because chess-playing ability has long been thought (by some) to be a sign of general intelligence.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-1-1638"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-1-1638" title='For a good history of chess-playing computers, see <a href="https://thebestschools.org/magazine/brief-history-of-computer-chess/">this article.</a> It says: &#8220;It was in this context that Turing, Von Neumann, and Shannon posed an ancient question in a now modern guise, in what came to be called “Artificial Intelligence” in the coming decade: can a machine be made to think like a person? And the answer to the question&#8212;the question of machine intelligence&#8212;was from the start tied to the question of whether a machine could be made to play chess. Turing began the investigation of chess playing computers with a system written out with paper and pencil, where he played the role of the machine. Later Shannon extended Turing&#8217;s work in a 1949 paper, explaining about his interest in chess that: “Although of no practical importance, the question is of theoretical interest, and it is hoped that…this problem will act as a wedge in attacking other problems&#8212;of greater significance.” As became clear in later writing by the two computer pioneers, “greater significance” was no less than the quest to “build a brain,” as Turing had put it. The quest for Artificial Intelligence, then, began with the question of whether a computer could play chess. Could it?&#8221; <br>Best_Schools. &#8220;A Brief History of Computer Chess.&#8221; TheBestSchools.org. September 18, 2018. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://thebestschools.org/magazine/brief-history-of-computer-chess/. </p> <p>Another example: The tenth Turing Lecture, <a href="http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/2-3.Computer_science_as_empirical_inquiry/2-3.Computer_science_as_empirical_inquiry.newell_simon.1975.ACM.062303007.pdf">available here</a>, mentions chess 20 times and uses it as a central example of how the field of artificial intelligence has progressed over the years. Newell, Allen, and Herbert A. Simon. &#8220;Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search.&#8221;&nbsp;<em>ACM Turing Award Lectures</em>: 1975. doi:10.1145/1283920.1283930. '><sup>1</sup></a></span> The first two ‘chess-playing machines’ were in fact fakes, with small human chess-players crouching inside.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-2-1638"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-2-1638" title="1769 – Wolfgang von Kempelen builds the Automaton Chess-Player, containing a human chess player hidden inside, in what becomes one of the greatest hoaxes of its period.<br>1868 – Charles Hooper presented the Ajeeb automaton — which also had a human chess player hidden inside.</p> <p>&#8220;Computer Chess.&#8221; Wikipedia. July 10, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_chess. "><sup>2</sup></a></span> It was not until 1951 that a program was published (by Alan Turing) that could actually play the full game.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-3-1638"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-3-1638" title=' &#8220;1951 – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing">Alan Turing</a>&nbsp;is first to publish a program, developed on paper, that was capable of playing a full game of chess (dubbed&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turochamp">Turochamp</a>).<sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_chess#cite_note-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_chess#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup>&#8221; <br>&#8220;Computer Chess.&#8221; Wikipedia. July 10, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_chess. '><sup>3</sup></a></span> There has been fairly regular progress since then.<span class="easy-footnote-margin-adjust" id="easy-footnote-4-1638"></span><span class="easy-footnote"><a href="#easy-footnote-bottom-4-1638" title="See Wikipedia&#8217;s page on the history of computer chess. < |