Kasparov Versus Turing!
Written by Alex Armstrong   
Wednesday, 04 July 2012

No the headline isn't an error. The well-known Russian Chess Grand Master took on Alan Turing's TurboChamp chess program at a recent live event at the University of Manchester's Turing 100 Celebration. What happened next...

                             ...is unfortunately predictable -

Garry Kasparov beat the program in just 16 moves.

It is predictable because Turing started work on the program over 60 year ago and it only uses a two-move look ahead. Kasparov estimates that he looks around ten moves ahead - but probably with a lot of heuristic pruning. The game lasts a remarkably short time:

 

 

Given that Turing never finished the program, this is a chess match from beyond the grave - similar to hearing long gone composers playing their own music on a player piano.

Turing was a chess enthusiast and stories of him inventing different ways to play the game to combine it with his love of running are well-known. He invented a game where each move had to be completed after running around the building. As a proponent of computing and the early stages of AI, it seems only reasonable that Turing should have considered chess an ideal testing ground.

He wrote the program without the help of a computer, by hand. He even managed to run the program - without a computer. A game was played where Turing read the program to simulate the computation. The game lasted three hours and ended in a checkmate for the human player after 29 moves.

Eventually a computer large enough to run TurboChamp was available and he attempted to implement it on a Ferranti Mark I at Manchester in 1950 The program used a two-move look ahead with heuristics to pick likely moves to concentrate on.

Kasparov commented:

“I suppose you might call it primitive, but I would compare it to an early car – you might laugh at them but it is still an incredible achievement.

Later Kasparov unveiled a plaque on the Manchester University building where Turing worked. 

 

turingchesskasparov

 

Related Articles

Alan Turing Year Events

The Manchester Computers

 

raspberry pi books

 

Comments




or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info

 

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, install the I Programmer Toolbar, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Linkedin,  or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 

Banner


Microsoft Is Ending Support For Windows Android Subsystem
07/03/2024

Microsoft has announced that it is ending support for running Android applications under Windows 11. The support will cease next year. This announcement was followed rapidly by Amazon announcing the e [ ... ]



Visual Studio 17.9 Now Generally Available
18/03/2024

Visual Studio 17.9 is now fully available with AI assistance and better extensibility. The first preview of 17.10 has also been made available in preview.


More News

 

 

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 July 2012 )