Beyond Deep Blue Chess in the Stratosphere
More than a decade has passed since IBM’s Deep Blue computer stunned the world by defeating Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion at that time. Following Deep Blue’s retirement, there has been a succession of better and better chess playing computers,
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Monty Newborn
Beyond Deep Blue Chess in the Stratosphere
Prof. Monty Newborn School of Computer Science McGill University McConnell Engineering Building University Street 3480 H3A 2A7 Montreal Québec Canada [email protected]
ISBN 978-0-85729-340-4 e-ISBN 978-0-85729-341-1 DOI 10.1007/978-0-85729-341-1 Springer London Dordrecht Heidelberg New York British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2011925548 © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2011 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc., in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Thirteen years have passed since IBM’s Deep Blue stunned the world by defeating the human world chess champion at that time, Garry Kasparov. The purpose of this book is to initially reconsider Deep Blue’s achievement and then to survey subsequent milestones in the world of computer chess. Following Deep Blue’s retirement, there has been a succession of better and better chess engines, that is, computing systems programmed to play chess. Today, there is little question that the world’s best chess engines are stronger than the world’s best humans. We have seen a steady progression of talent, from Deep Blue to Fritz and Junior and Shredder to Hydra and Zappa and Rybka and …. There are now a number of chess engines better than the world’s best human. Each of the 21 chapters in the book — except the final one — covers a milestone of some sort. There are 20. The first chapter looks back at Deep Blue’s matches with Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997. Ten other chapters are concerned with the ten World Computer Chess Championships that have taken place: in 1999 and then yearly beginning in 2002 and ending in 2010. Three chapters are concerned with man–machine matches: between Fritz and Kramnik (2002), Kasparov and Deep Junior (2003), and Fritz and Kramnik (2006). Three historical matches between the leading engines each occupy a chapter: Hydra versus Shredder in 2004 in Abu Dhabi, Junior versus
