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From: eric@aplvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.chess
Subject: Computer Chess
Message-ID: <239@aplvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Aug-83 08:19:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: aplvax.239
Posted: Mon Aug 15 08:19:37 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Aug-83 01:01:56 EDT
Lines: 20


	In an episode of Startrek, Spock proves that someone
has been tampering with the computer by arguing that it had
started to lose to him in 3D chess. Since he had programmed
it, he argued that it should have been impossible for him to
achieve anything better than a draw against it.

	What does this have to do with net.chess? Simply that
this got me curious about something. We all know that computers
can not yet beat grand masters, but what about their implementors?
Can anyone tell me who wins most the matches between the best of
the chess programs and the person who wrote the program? Does
Ken Thompson regularly beat Belle? What about the others? If you
have ever programmed a strategy game, such as chess, you know where
where the weak spots in the algorithms are for that program,
and this "inside" knowledge is often sufficient to beat the program.
Is this still the case with chess?

					eric
					...!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!eric