Computer chess

The idea of creating a chess-playing machine dates back to the eighteenth century. Around 1769, the chess playing automaton called The Turk became famous before being exposed as a hoax. After that, the field of mechanical chess research languished until the advent of the digital computer in the 1950s. Since then, chess enthusiasts and computer engineers have built, with increasing degrees of seriousness and success, chess-playing machines and computer programs.

Related Topics:
Chess - Eighteenth century - 1769 - Automaton - The Turk - Hoax - 1950s

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Chess-playing computers are available for negligible cost, and there are many programs (even the free GNU Chess, Amy, Pepito, Crafty, Beowulf and more) that play a game that, with the aid of virtually any modern personal computer can defeat most master players under tournament conditions, while top commercial programs like Shredder or Fritz have surpassed even world champion caliber players at blitz and short time controls.

Related Topics:
GNU Chess - Amy - Pepito - Crafty - Personal computer - Shredder - Fritz

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Hydra beat Shredder by 5.5 to 2.5 in 2004 running on 16 nodes; and would seem to be the strongest chess system. One should note however that Hydra was running on technically superior, specially designed hardware architecture, whereas Shredder was running on a conventional computer.

Related Topics:
Hydra - Shredder

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