Computer Chess Player Scientific American First by Bernstein Alex Michael Roberts (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Bernstein, Alex and Michael de V. Roberts. "Computer vs. Chess-Player", in "Scientific American", volume 198, no.6., June 1958. Original wrappers. VG article by Bernstein (who is alsoat least at one pointthe chess-player of the title of the paper) on the first computer chess program (run on an IBM 704). The 704 was fed info following each move, and played well against Bernstein, though the computer was expected to perform only against a novice human player. It was a remarkable achievement for the time. "Bernstein drew upon not only his own experience with chess, but began to study Modern Chess Openings, which came out then every two years, and spent six months going through some five hundred chess openings. He assigned scores to various positions, scores that depended not only on the pieces retained, but also on area control of the board and mobility. He also developed a fourth measure, what he called a "greens area" around the king, meaning that the more squares outward from the king controlled by his own side the better. But after six months of this he gave it up. He couldn't make any sense out of it."--Pamela McCorduck, from "Machines Who Think" Evidently Bernstein was unaware of Claude Shannon's paper on a chess-playing machine that was published in 1950.