perm filename SIGART.2[2,JMC] blob
sn#060967 filedate 1973-08-30 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
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2 NIC DOCUMENTS
2A ARPA NETWORK RESOURCES NOTEBOOK NIC 6740
2B CURRENT DIRECTORY OF ARPA NETWORK PARTICIPANTS NIC 5150
2C CURRENT NETWORK PROTOCOLS NIC 7104
2D GLOSSARY
2E INDEXES TO NIC JOURNAL ITEMS
2F INDEXES TO THE NIC CATALOG COLLECTION NIC 5145
2G BBN DOCUMENTATION in NLS
2H NEWSLETTERS
2I NIC USER GUIDE NIC 7590 and ARC USER GUIDES
2J ARC SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION -- ARC LOCATOR
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<SIGART>JUNE73.NLS;52, 6-AUG-73 19:30 KIRK ;
1 SIGART NEWSLETTER Number 39 June 1973
2 CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE
3 EDITORS' ENTRY
4 USC INFORMATION SCIENCES INSTITUTE - A BRIEF OVERVIEW by Rob Hoffman
5 HIGHLIGHTS OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE NIH HEURISTICS LABORATORY
6 SUMMARY OF THE THIRD PAJARO DUNES CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER VISION by
7 CHESS
8 CONFERENCES
9 COURSE ANNOUNCEMENTS
10 RECENT TEXTS
11 ABSTRACTS
12 "...So much of what was once not very long ago the most fanciful
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7 CHESS
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7 CHESS
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7A [Ed. Note: In the recently published game between MAC HACK
(White) and Grivet/Marshall/Yommi (Black) [SIGART Newsletter, No.
39, April 1973, p. 23], an interested reader suggests that Black has
a win even at the point where they thought they were lost! In
particular, if
7A1 26. B-K2, QxR!!
27. NxQ, B-K5!
28. QxB (else P-R7 wins), PxQ
29. B-B1, P-R7
30. B-N2, R-K1
7A2 followed by R-K3, P-B4, R-N3 or R3 yields a winning line.]
7B AN ADVICE-TAKING CHESS COMPUTER * by Albert L. Zobrist and
Fredric R. Carlson, Jr.
University of Southern California<LN>
7B1 It has now been 24 years since Claude Shannon outlined how a
computer could play chess. This paper describes how a chess
program can take lessons from a master (Charles I. Kalme, rating
2,455, also of U.S.C.).<GCR=4>
7C HISTORICAL NOTE Von Kempelen's Chess Automaton
Magazine Section
Chicago Tribune
April 8, 1973 <LN>
7C1 Over 150 years ago New Yorkers flocked to watch chess games
played by a near unbeatable automaton--a wooden figure of a Turk
seated at a chess board atop a cabinet full of machinery. The
Turk was built in 1769 by a Baron von Kempelen to amuse Austrian
Empress Maria Theresa. It outplayed such notables as Frederick
the Great, George III, Ben Franklin, and Napoleon. Napoleon
cheated, and the Turk swept the pieces off the board in anger.
7C2 --------------------------
*Scientific American, Vol 228, No. 6, June 1973, pp. 92-105.
7C3 Eventually<PBS> the machine was bought by Johann Maelzel, a
German inventor and promoter. In 1825, one step ahead of the
sheriff, Maelzel came to America and set New York on its ear.
For 50 cents a head (big money then), the public flocked to see
the wooden Turk move the chess pieces with a sure hand--and beat
all comers.
7C4 Before each performance Maelzel opened the cabinet to show
the complicated machinery. Then he closed the box, wound the
machine with a key, and the game began. How did it work?
Everyone wondered. Then one day a couple of smart kids spied
through a skylight after a performance. From the cabinet emerged
a man. The kids couldn't wait to reveal their discovery.*
7C5 The cabinet was a clever magician's box, so constructed that
a grown man could slide back and forth inside to remain concealed
when the doors were opened. The machinery was all for show. The
man inside observed play from below and manipulated the Turk by
levers to pick up the pieces and make the usually winning moves.
7C6 Of the many players who worked in the candle-lit cabinet
through the years (including a girl Maelzel brought from Paris),
a wino Alsatian chess bum, William Schlumberger, lasted the
longest. Drunk or sober he was nigh unbeatable. In 1837 he
died. Maelzel followed in 1838. In 1854 the Turk, by then a
museum piece, was destroyed by fire.
7C7 While the Turk was a hoax, the 1914 chess machine of the
Spanish inventor, L. Torres Y Quevado, was not. His mechanical
device played the simple end game of a king and rook against its
human opponent's king and won every time.
7C8 Now, of course, we have computers that outplay most chess
buffs. It would be a mere technicality to install one inside a
human figure. Maybe it's time to update the Turk.
7C9 [Ed. Note: Whatever happened to MIT's prediction that they
would soon be able to pick up actual wooden pieces with their
hand/eye system?]<GCR=8>
7C10 --------------------------
7C11 *[Ed. Note: Edgar Allan Poe also deduced the secret of the
Turk; c.f., E.A. Poe, "Maelzel's Chess-Player," in The Works of
Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. VI, Miscellaneous Essays, Marginalia, Etc.,
pp. 1-31 (J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia).]
7D A META-META COMMENT ON THE ARROGANCE OF CHESS-PLAYERS by I.J.
Good
Former Cambridgeshire Chess Champion <LN>
7D1 I would like to make the following points in reply to Mr.
Hans Berliner's letter in SIGART of April 1973, which seemed like
a personal attack.
7D2 (a) If anyone points out errors in my statistical work, and
it has happened several times, I kick myself, not the person who
points it out, irrespective of his reputation as a statistician.
7D3 (b) I have some qualifications as a chess-player and writer.
I once beat C. H. O'D. Alexander three times running in friendly
semi-serious games (and Alexander once beat Botvinnik in a radio
game). I wrote an article on chess programming which David Levy
(an International Master) praised very much in Machine
Intelligence 6. Fourteen of my games have been singled out for
individual publication, twelve of which I won, and some of them
were at least of master class. But, apart from several prizes
that I have won, I am, as Mr. Berliner says, an amateur.
7D4 (c) Amateurs can sometimes find faults in the analyses even
of World Champions, so I am surprised that Mr. Berliner thinks I
should "know better" than to question a Grandmaster's judgment on
isolated occasions. Among my published analyses there were
positions in grandmaster games Keres vs. Panno, Tal vs. Minic,
and Korchnoy vs. Tal, published in CHESS, two of which were
correct; and I have a letter from Max Euwe (a copy of which I am
sending to the editor as evidence) in which he agrees that I had
found a fault in some of his opening analysis. [Ed. Note: copy of
letter by Euwe dated April 11, 1949 was enclosed.]
7D5 (d) Does Mr. Berliner think that the move N-N2 was not worth
mentioning? One of the programmers phoned and said the program
had just missed trying this move. The analysis of it was
interesting; the game was the best played one in the annual
computer chess tournament; and many readers of SIGART are
interested in chess, so I think the editor was right to publish
the analysis. Mr. Berliner did not mention any errors in the
analysis.
7D6 (e) I am glad that Mr. Berliner has said that 90% of what he
knows about chess is impossible to program, for this creates a
challenge to programmers. Of course some semantics has to be put
into the programs, not just tree searches. I said this in my
1967 paper.
7D7 (f) There is nothing wrong with chess-players that not being
human wouldn't put right.
7E REPLY TO THE META-META COMMENT by Hans Berliner<LN>
7E1 I am afraid I do not quite understand this credentials fight.
I certainly did not mean to single out Mr. Good and subject him
to criticism. I find it rather strange that Fischer and
Reshevsky should make comments about the quality of chess players
working on computer chess. They (Fisher* and Reshevsky) are
clearly not in tune with reality. I also find it strange that so
much analysis should be heaped on a position, which has little
intrinsic chess interest, nor reflects in any way the
capabilities of the players who produced the game position.
7E2 That is the sum and substance of my meta-comment.
7E3 <GCR=25><LN>
7E4 *[Ed. Note: Although Mr. Brad Darrach is not one of my
favorite writers, I highly recommend, "The Day Bobby Blew It," by
B. Darrach, PLAYBOY, Vol. 20, No. 7, July 1973, p. 80... to
document Berliner's claim regarding Mr. Fisher.]<TM=2><LFH=2>
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