How Computers Play Chess [Paperback]

David N. L. Levy (Author), Monty Newborn (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 4871878015 | ISBN-13: 978-4871878012 | Publication Date: April 14, 2009

It now appears possible - even likely - that within a few decades and within certain specialized domains, the computer will be more intelligent than we ourselves. What was unimaginable a few years ago is happening today with alarming rapidity. A small piece of silicon, no larger than a thumbnail, can exhibit more “intelligence” than the best human brains. This book attempts to satisfy two different goals. It presents a comprehensive history of computer chess along with many rare examples of the play of early programs. These examples contain both amazing strokes of brilliance and inexplicable catastrophes; they will give the reader a dear perspective of the pioneer days of computer chess. In contrast, contemporary programs are capable of defeating International Grandmasters; the text contains several recent examples including a remarkable victory over former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The remainder of the book is devoted to an explanation of how the various parts of a chess program are designed and how they function. Readers who have no knowledge of computers will gain insight into how they “think”. Readers who own a personal computer and who want to write their own chess programs will find sufficient information in this book to enable them to make a good start.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Neil Lawrence Levy (b. March 14, 1945, in London), is a Scottish International Master of chess, a businessman noted for his involvement with computer chess, and the founder of the Computer Olympiads and the Mind Sports Olympiads. He has written more than 40 books on chess and computers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ishi Press (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4871878015
• ISBN-13: 978-4871878012
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars State-of-the-art, clear and entertaining computer chess book, September 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: How Computers Play Chess (Paperback)

This excellent book was and still is one of the state-of-the-art books in computer chess literature, dealing with both a very interesting history of computer chess, including many rare examples of the play of early programs, and several recent examples of the best actual programs, as well as discussing in sufficient detail the quite complex technical aspects of programming a computer to play chess.

In "The Challenge Is World Champion Kasparov", we are introduced to one of the first encounters between Garry Kasparov and the former incarnation of Deep Blue, then called Deep Thought, through the detailed discussion of the proceedings and analysis of both games. A game between Karpov and Deep Thought is also carefully analyzed.

Next, "The Early Ideas" present historically the pioneer works of Shannon, Turing, Zuse, and many others, whose theorical works provided the basement for writing procedures to allow a machine to play chess.

Then, in "The First Working Programs", we see Bernstein, Kotok, McCarthy, and other AI specialist, as they struggled to implement Shannon's ideas to make Jurassic computers play some passable chess. Several games between both computers and humans are discussed.

After these preliminary attemps, "The Formative Years" discusses more advanced programs, such as Greenblatt's MacHack VI program, Botvinnik's Pioneer, and specially Slate & Atkin's Chess program and soviet Kaissa, focusing both on the internal of the programs and on relevant sample games.

The following chapter, "The Challenges for the Levy Bet", tells us all the details of the famous Levy bet, nicely commented by co-author David Levy himself. The best games between him and Chess are commented, as well as a particularly beautiful miniature of Blitz against Belle.

As the field advances, "The Computer Becomes a Master" discusses the ever increasing achievements of the new generation of stronger hardware-assisted chess programs, such as Belle (written by Ken Thompson, who also has developed many Endgame Databases) and Cray Blitz (written by Bob Hyatt, who is also the author of Crafty, a strong freeware chess program), which use their incredibly fast underlying hardware to compensate for their lack of chess sophistication. We can also read all about how the first International human Masters began to know defeat against them on a regular basis.

The next step, the defeat of strong human Grandmasters, is introduced in "Eyeball to Eyeball with Grandmasters", where we see several commented games between the strongest chess programs, such as Deep Thought and Hitech, and human grandmasters such as Miles and Larsen. Also, microprocessor commercial chess program Mephisto has a close encounter of the 3rd kind against macroprocessor non-commercial Deep Thought, and far from ashamed, beats him hands down !

Once those historical details have been dealt with, the book enters into a discussion of the more advanced chess techniques there are, such as "Endgame Play and Endgame Databases", an area pioneered by Ken Thompson's Belle, where computers have conquered new grounds, and become invincible players. The development of a K+R vs K database is discussed in detail enough to allow anyone to program it, and then both games of the mini-match between grandmaster Walter Browne and Belle, the former trying to mate the computer with K+Q against K+R, are commented in detail.

A very technical chapter follows, "Search Techniques Used by Chess Programs", where the most advanced techniques are explained, such as Minimaxing, Alpha-Beta prunning, Iterative Deepening, and a large, detailed, and complete explanation of Hash tables, with many diagrams and examples, to make it crystal clear. Other aspects such as Time management, Evaluation functions, Move generation, etc. are thoroughly discussed as well.

The next chapter, "The Evolution of Computing Systems for Chess Programs", explains what lies ahead: faster processors, chess-specific hardware, multiprocessors, and makes dire predictions on the increment of playing strength all these advances will bring.

Once these almost unearthly machines have been shown, it is the time for down-to-earth-ones, the ones everyone can buy, and "Commecially Available Chess Computers and Software" introduces them all, from the primitive, very early Chess Challenger, to Mephisto Almeria announcing mate in 7 to a 2350 ELO player under tournament conditions.

On "Writing a Chess Program" gives a concise advice on how to write a chess program oneself, and by way of comparison shows a table with the ELO rating of the best chess programs as compared to that of their programmers and more chess-profficient technical advisors.

Finally, closing the book with a gem, "Stop Press" shows commercial program Mephisto Portoroz defeating former World Champion Anatoli Karpov during a simultaneous exhibition. That such a machine, which anyone could buy, without any special ultrafast hardware, can defend successfully against as superb a grandmaster as Karpov, says much about how far computer chess has progressed.

The book closes with an extensive bibliography given in "Additional Reading", and some information on the ICCA, given in "Appendix A: The International Computer Chess Association", and a table with complementary data in "Appendix B: Results of Major Tournaments".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for the Computer and Chess Enthusiest., May 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: How Computers Play Chess (Paperback)

If you like to program computers and you love chess then "How Computers Play Chess" is for you. This easy to read and intuitive book by Chess Master David Levy takes you on a tour guide of man's attempt to create a machine that can master that ancient game of strategy, Chess. You'll gain an introductory view of how computers go about playing the game of chess including the types the algorithms that are used and the general theorys behind these "thinking machines". Levy also introduces some of his own thoughts on the strenghts of computer chess and even includes a few pradictions on when a computer will be able to defeat a human world champion. I read this book in an attemp to satisfy a life long desire I've had to create a computer program that could be me in chess. I've found that this book as gotten me off to an excellent start

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could it have been better for a second reprint 18 years later, April 4, 2010

By 

JuanPablo Jofre "jpj" (Issaqua, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Computers Play Chess (Paperback)

I was expecting that this new April 2009 reprint of the book, 18 years later, would have included some of the state-of-the-art techniques on how computers play chess these days (circa 2010).But, aside some interesting historical perspectives in the central chapters of the book, there is little new in this book when compared to David Levy's "The Joy of Computer Chess" 1984; that was a huge breakthrough, at that time, on how computers used play chess (IMHO).
It is an interesting book if you are searching the early history of "How Computers used to Play Chess"; but it is not a book on how today (2009~2010) computers play chess.