Mr. William L. Hosch, Mathematics and Computer Science Editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica recently sent me this interesting article. Hope you enjoy it.
How to Cheat at Chess
William L. Hosch – November 16th, 2006
World chess champion Vladimir Kramnik is scheduled to play a six-game match against the computer program Deep Fritz starting on November 25. His odds don’t look good as he just managed to draw against the last iteration of the program in 2002. Assuming a chess rating of 3000 for Deep Fritz, Kramnik can be expected to lose, 1.5 to 4.5, in which case I think that this will be the last meaningful human-computer chess match. Of course the program cheats; all computer programs cheat. They have access to millions of games with all of the latest opening theory and databases that allow them to play perfectly in situations with reduced pieces. In contrast, Kramnik must rely on imperfect human memory.
As every chess player knows, your opponent had to cheat to beat you. Of course, strong players wouldn’t fall for tricks like a pawn up the sleeve that drops on the board when they aren’t looking or a piece sitting across two squares so that their opponent can j’adoube (“I adjust”) it later. So how can strong players be cheated?
Intimidation is probably the oldest and least subtle means of cheating. Chess is known as the royal game and, for obvious reasons, many players have preferred throwing a game to their liege over losing their head. In a widely disputed claim, some chess historians believe that the Estonian Paul Keres, after years of Soviet detention for allegedly cooperating with the German occupation, was ordered to throw games to the Russian Mikhail Botvinnik during the 1948 tournament to fill the vacancy left when world champion Alexander Alekhine died. There is no dispute, however, that the Soviets refused to release the family of the defector Viktor Korchnoi, the challenger in the 1978 world championship match with Anatoly Karpov. According to the Soviets, the fact that Korchnoi’s son was in a Siberian prison had no connection to the match.
The full article can be read here. Thank you for sharing this with everyone!
Very interesting story indeed!
to lantonov: susan did not want to post this : http://www.trud.bg/Default.asp?statid=39851&rubr=0&izd=2&fsize=&swidth=800&tr=1&im=11&id=18&iy=2006
v samia vestnik ima i snimka na protokola ot tazi proverka, s podpisite na Nikopulos, Bobaev, Danailov i drugi trima. Az rabotia vav firma za kabeli i tozi UTP kabel se izpolzva to4no za internet. Izvodoite gi ostaviam na teb.
This time he will play what many say was his helping source..I somehow don’t thing there will be as many rest room breaks..and no blitz games to decide the winner…the result may very well be pre-arranged and again the real loser being Our Great Game Of chess
As for the rest of the posting….it’s ok to lose… there is no point of playing if you have to cheat…and if you’re being held to random or your family is being threatened my hart goes out to you…..as for the manipulators and their supporters your time is running out sooner than you think millions know the evil thing you do
Of course the program cheats; all computer programs cheat. They have access to millions of games with all of the latest opening theory and databases that allow them to play perfectly in situations with reduced pieces. In contrast, Kramnik must rely on imperfect human memory.
I must stand up in defense of the computer. It is not cheating. The computer has a memory, no differently from humans (conceptually). Somebody “teaches” the computer all those millions of games, opening theories and the computer can remember all of it, while the humans may or may not. Than, even today, the computer can’t calculate all possible moves (brute force) for let’s say 20 moves ahead, somebody “taught” the computer how to “think” in a human-like way (various pruning methods, search strategies). Better yet, a few years ago, not even too many, human chess players proudly claimed that no computer will ever beat…….first the good player, then the master, then the grandmaster, then the world champion. Remember the famous David Levy bet? The explanation was that no matter what a computer does, the humans have “intuition” and that will always overwhelm the computer.
Well, they wrong. Remember Kasparov freaking out after got defeated by Deep Blue? Accusing IBM that “a human must have helped”. What human? What human was better than Kasparov at the time?
The cheating accusation should have been presented 20 some years ago, when humans easily defeated the computers in chess. At the time, instead of doing that, they proudly challenged the computer programmers:”come, bring it on, the computer will never be as good as us humans”. Now that they are, it is too late to accuse them cheating (:-).
It is still not too late to make a fair break. Nobody would bother to enter a motorcycle to a 100 m dash competition, or some mechanical jumping device to a long jump competition. The world of chess should acknowledge that the machines are better, but different, just as the motorcycle will be always faster than the fastest human and end this silly attempt to remain better than the computer. In chess it’s not the point. It is the mind of one human against another. Just as in running the muscles of one human against another.
Gabor
that article also says “By the way, I highly recommend Susan Polgar’s blog. And don’t get me started over how the world championship title was stolen from her!)”. i dont know anything about that. what happened?
Gabor,
Not just that :
“even today,computer can’t calculate all possible moves (brute force)”
but in next 100 years ,and probably neverin future,the machine will be no capable of calculating all legal positions in the game of chess.
Mathematical estimate shows that there is near 10^50 of these positions.
So calculate…
@ Anonymous 8:18:35 —
You can read the basics here: http://tinyurl.com/ybp76m
In short, FIDE refused to accommodate Susan’s pregnancy when she was scheduled to defend her title and stripped her of it. She received some measure of vindication when she sued in court and won damages.
That was the second time FIDE shafted her, the first being when, under Soviet pressure, FIDE in 1986 increased all women player’s ratings by 100 points — except Susan’s. The story is that the USSR federation couldn’t tolerate a non-Russian being number one.
Yes, we know Garry Kasparov is a mentally ill man who somehow believes he can make a good politician. (don’t laugh too hard you guys).
This is not new news. We also know that specific countries are cheats. This is also not new.
Anonymous, please don’t trivialise mental illness by suggesting Kasparov is mentally ill. In case you wondered I’m a psychiatrist and find the trivial use of “mental illness” as a term of abuse insulting to those who do suffer from mental illnesses (some 25% of us will suffer a mental illness at some time in our life).
Gordon Lehany
Friends,Soviets were like all the dictatorships.This one was the most dangerous because it was the most powerful in the last 50 years since the fall of the german third Reich(means empire)in 1945.
But we must be happy in a day like today.
One day like today, 15 years ago,with Mikhail Gorbachov retained by the military forces(being in holidays at the Black sea)of the former Soviet union… Boris Yeltsin,chosen president of Russia since september(experience:two months)was defending the democracy in his own country.They were three long days,where everything was unclear,with him speaking to his loyal forces and the Moscow people from the top of a tank.
And finally the Soviet forces collapsed,but this is other story…
Today its 15 years since their fall,a good job for Boris,a good job for peace.
And don´t care about FIDE and Soviets.It is really not important.
What do you think?