Deep Blue Lecture

Tonight I was lucky enough to find out about a lecture being given by Monty Newborn, the man who programmed the first class A level chess engine, Ostrich. Newborn himself claims to be an 1800 level player, so obviously when programming Ostrich he could tell if it had any strength. The topic was more or less a general overview of computer chess since the original idea that chess would be a good theatre to test for "intelligence." Let me say that this was an amazing lecture. I learned so much about how computers look for moves and just in general what the circumstances were that enabled them to get so strong. The core of the presentation was discussion of Deep Blue defeating Kasparov in 1997, a full six years before I started playing. I have heard the story many times before, but never from the perspective of an engine developer. The end of the lecture was on the future of computer chess, with a slide being shown that there are already at least ten engines over 2900 strength, and one that was even well over 3100. Yes, that's right, 3-1-0-0. Computers are getting stronger every day, and it seems as though every day there is a new world computer chess champion. I was able to briefly speak with Mr. Newborn after the lecture to let him know that his estimate of twenty class A level players attending the University of Iowa was a bit on the high side.