Computers compete

The first international chess match was played over 100 years ago. Naturally, the contestants were fellow creatures. But an automatic "chess-playing device" had appeared as back as 1769. Kempelen, ifs inventor, had toured many European countries demonstrating its power. In 1809 the machine played in Vienna against Napoleon. The record of the moves has been preserved. Napoleon lost the game.

Kempelen's "computer" didn't operate on radio tubes or transistors. Its secret lay in a crack player being secretly hidden inside.

But the time has come for real computers to have a go. The electronic computer of Stanford University in the USA pitted its "wits" against its counterpart of the Institute of Theoretical Experimental Physics (Russia, Moscow). Four games were played simultaneously. Men acted as "coaches", and they had provided the programs for the machines. Strictly speaking, it is a match between programs. Which is more perfect? That's the answer the match has to provide. Hence the computers are doing things calmly while the people, above all mathematicians, are all worried. In this case, chess for the mathematicians is but one of means to an end. Some of the most respected publications declared that a machine could never do anything that required thought that it would never learn to play chess. The mathematicians retorted with: "It all depends on how you teach the machine." Now there can be no talk about whether a computer can or cannot play chess. Because it can.

The Russian program "Caissa", developed by Moscow scientists headed by the former world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik, has won the world chess championship for computer programs several times.

Notes:

fellow creatures – люди

move – зд.. ход (в шахматной игре)

a crack player – первоклассный игрок

to have a go – сделать шаг

to pit "wits" against – сразиться в «остроумии» с

calmly – спокойно

above all – больше всего, главным образом

to be worried – волноваться, беспокоиться

but one of means to an end – лишь одно из средств для достижения цели