Maniac Chess

I just read an article from back in January, 1957.  The article was prefaced by one written by Edward Lasker who suggested that Claude Shannon and the folks at MIT devote more energy to crating a computer program that would consider chess strategy (they had already done the same with checkers at IBM).

This article shows an early attempt as chess programming, unexpectedly (at least to me) by using an 8x8 board.  It's a long article with a lot of technical gobbledygook and several game scores and such. Below are some short excerpts just to give an idea.

"Chess Review," Jan. 1957. pp. 13-17.

ok

Trippy! We've come so far...

Wow!

There was a variation of this going around about fifty years ago except ,if I recall correctly,castling was allowed and we used bishops.  The board was 8x6. The idea was to shorten the duration of the game. It was rather interesting. 

Lovely! The genius that was Turing used a pen and a piece of paper!!

Opened 1) ...pQ3?

All hail Pirc! (yeah, I know, but it was a pQ3 opening)!

Not to disparage Turing in the least but let us dial it back a bit to George Boole without whom this discussion wouldn't even be a dream. 

I would like to meet the Indian who invented the game we now call chess!

Remember when as green screen, a 3×3 floppy disk and 50 kb was state of the art?

Wait, wait! Was that before or after the release of The Walkman?

It's just good sometimes to "look back from where we came. " (Joni Mitchell)

Plus I had to find a way to bring @erik kicking and screaming into the forums.

Wow, we have come a long way! From simplified 6x6 board and rules to full 8x8 "deep" analysis.

I learned "computing" on an 88 with those 5" floppies and no hard drive. We've come along way, indeed. Oh yeah, baby!

I have to admit that a big part of my fascination with chess is the insight it gives us into AI. 

What about the insight AI gives you about chess?

I took my first computer study in 1973-74. A "do loop" , on punch cards was almost an inch thick and I could beat a stand-alone chess game.

AI, obviously, doesn't think like a human. In the early days, masters could use that against them.

I was astounded how much chess had changed in 20-odd yrs. People were learning chess on computers and emulating them before becoming competitive. I learned from a collective of other humans. Heck, John Kurdo taught me Pirc, which he called Yugoslav Defense to avoid pronunciation questions. I had liked it when doing the Boston Globe Sunday chess column, and playing against him I could see a game flow that felt good.

Sure, computers bash us now; but playing people is satisfying, even the loses, compared to playing a circuit board.

My insight into AI is that humans are more personable and fun to play. (lol)

Great point. I've been anxious to read Deep Thinking, Kasparov's reflections on AI.

Also, Game Changer, about AlphaZero's strategies, by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan. They have a pretty great YouTube channel, too.