Software Chess History

Computer Chess History

It was around the 18th Century that ideas of chess playing machine started seeping into the chess world. In the year 1912 serious efforts were been taken with machines like El Ajedrecista, which proved to be extremely complicated. After the advent of digital computer during the 1950s researches on chess computers started heavily. Chess lovers and engineers all over the world went on to program and design chess playing machines with regained enthusiasm. Since, then several computer programs have been built for playing chess.

During the late 1990s, world saw brilliant chess programs, which gained instant popularity with the chess fanatics. The human-machines were events of interest and curiosity. Eventually new computers programs were designed which were commercially available to the common consumers. There are chess programs available on the Internet, which can be downloaded for free. Some of these programs are Crafty, Fruit, GNU, Rybka and many more. There are also games available on the Internet that doesn’t have to be downloaded and can be played online.

Computer vs. Human

The success story of computer chess programs is very interesting. With its advent during the 1970s to 1980s, experts were apprehensive if any chess program would ever win against human. After his win in the year 1978 against Chess 4.7, the strongest computer program of the time, International Master David Levy’s belief was reconfirmed that “no chess computer would be able to beat him within ten years”. However, his confidence was broken in the year 1989 when Deep Thought, a computer program, defeated Levy in an exhibition match. It was Kasparov who defeated Deep Thought in the year 1989. Kasparov’s loss to IBM’s Deep Blue in the year 1996 marked a new beginning for computer chess programs. Deep Blue defeated Kasparov again in the year 1997 and slowly the strength of machines dawned upon the world.

The saga of humans defeated by computers began… year 1998, Viswanathan Anand, was defeated by Rebel 10. Within few years some commercially available programs like Junior and Fritz tied matches with World Champions like Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. October 2002, Vladimir Kramnik played against Fritz and resigned after the 6th game. In the year 2003, Garry Kasparov played against Junior and tied the match with a score of 3 to 3. Year 2003, Garry Kasparov played against X3D Fritz and the match was ended with a tie of 2 to 2. In 2005 a computer chess program Hydra defeated Michael Adams. Year 2006, Vladimir Kramnik played against Deep Fritz, and lost the match. As days went by it was proved that computer programs stand better than human when it comes to chess, as professor Monty Newborn of the McGill University rightly said, “the science is done”.

Chessmaster 10th edition running on Windows XP

At present the computer programs like Fritz or Shredder have given the World Champions a tough competition within short time controls. As recorded till October 2008, Rybka has the highest rating as per CCRL (Computer Chess Rating Lists), CEGT (Chess Engines Grand Tournament), SSDF (Swedish Chess Computer Association), and WBEC. It has performed brilliantly in tournaments like CCT 8 and 9 (Corus Chess Tournament), Dutch Open Computer Championship, 16th IPCCC and the 15th World Computer Chess Championship that was held in the year 2007 in Amsterdam. It also won the 16th World Computer Chess Championship that was held in the year 2008 in Beijing, China.