computer-go: "Of Pawns, Knights, Bits, Bytes"

[Ray Tayek <rtayek@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Of Pawns, Knights, Bits, Bytes"
Wired News (01/23/03); Kahney, Leander

International chess champion Garry Kasparov will face off against
a machine in a six-game tournament beginning Jan. 26.  His
opponent will be Deep Junior, an aggressive chess-playing program
considered to be the best in the world, and the computer chess
champion for three years running.  Deep Junior, which was
developed by Israeli programmers and a chess grandmaster, is
different from the usual computerized players because of the
human way it plays, often sacrificing pieces instead of
preserving them.  It also assesses the moves that have the most
potential, unlike early programs that relied on brute force
searches.  Artificial intelligence expert Jonathan Schaeffer, who
will act as a judge during the tournament, believes Deep Junior
evaluates chess positions with standard weighting algorithms,
such as the mobility of pieces and the safety of the king; the
former is highly rated by aggressive programs such as Deep
Junior.  More sophisticated algorithms enable programs to only
consider the most promising maneuvers.  Schaeffer notes that the
tournament offers Kasparov an opportunity to get some payback
after his 1997 loss to IBM's Deep Blue program.  The event is
also the first human/machine chess competition to be endorsed by
the World Chess Federation, a distinction that chess experts say
is a sign of respect toward computers as worthy players.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57345,00.html


---
ray tayek http://tayek.com/ actively seeking mentoring or telecommuting work
vice chair orange county java users group http://www.ocjug.org/
hate spam? http://samspade.org/ssw/