13 July 2015

Deep Thought/Blue in the Early 1990s

I signed off Computer Chess in the Early 1990s with,

Twenty years ago people still had a fighting chance against a chess playing machine, but that would soon change.

Let's develop an early chronology of the machine that would eventually dethrone the reigning World Champion. From the rec.games.chess newsgroups:-

  • 1989-03-30: Challange Match • M Valvo: 'Now that my match with Deep Thought is winding down...'; Michael Valvo [Wikipedia]
  • 1989-11-01: Kasparov visits Harvard • 'An IBM rep announced that some of the Deep Thought team was going to be working for IBM on a 1 billion moves/sec machine, to challenge Kasparov, who said that when computers got strong enough for him to worry about, he'd take the time to find a way to deal with them - as for now, they're not a threat to the world champion.'
  • 1989-12-14: Levy - Deep Thought (game 4) • 'In the final game, Deep Thought easily defeated David levy to win the match 4-0.'
  • 1990-02-03: Karpov over DT • 'GM Karpov beat Deep Thought tonight at Harvard University in a game with time controls one hour per side.'
  • 1990-10-17: Feng's (Deep Thought) article in Scientific American
  • 1990-11-18: ACM computer chess chp • '21st North American Computer Chess Championship; 1 Deep Thought 4.0; 2 Mephisto 4.0'
  • 1991-03-19: DT2 in Hannover • '"Deep Thought 2 vs. 7 German GMs" at Cebit in Hannover'
  • 1991-11-21: ACM CCC Albuquerque 11/17-11/20 Final Round Comments & Standings • '22nd ACM Computer Chess Championship ... 1 DEEP THOUGHT'
  • 1992-12-12: IBM Deep Blue • '"IBM Deep Blue" will be presented to the world in Copenhagen, Denmark, in February 24-27, 1993' • 1995-01-22: Old Deep Blue News -- since we're all parched • Feng-Hsiung Hsu - 7 Mar 1993: 'Some time in late 1992, IBM Denmark talked with us about arranging chess exhibition matches, possibly in conjunction with IBM Sweden.'
  • 1993-08-22: Deep Blue/J. Polgar • 'IBM's newest chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, scored its biggest victory yet, defeating the world's top-ranked woman chess player in an informal match.'
  • 1993-08-23: Judit Polgar at IBM T. J. Watson • Feng-Hsiung Hsu: 'Danny Edelman of USCF contacted us back in March about a potential match with Judit Polgar.'
  • 1994-02-06: GM Orlov plays Deep Blue? • 'Georgi Orlov of Seattle played an arranged six-game match with Deep Blue.'
  • 1995-05-30: Fritz Wins World Championships! All games from 8WCCC • 'Final Standings: 1 Fritz (4/5, 5/6): Fritz won the title on the playoff versus Star Socrates; 2 Star Socrates (4/5, 4/6); 3-5 Deep Blue Prototype, Frenchess, Junior (3.5/5)'
  • 1995-12-06: Deep Blue vs. Robert Byrne • 'Yesterday, at supercomputing, Deep blue defeated GM Robert Byrne in a mini-match 3.5-.5 they are playing four more games today.'

The first Kasparov - Deep Blue match took place in February 1996.

No comments: