Abstract
London, August 1992. The Chinook team had worked hard for this day for over three years. It was hard to believe that our dream was finally coming true. The very fact that we’re going to play Tinsley for a world championship was historic, but there was a much bigger prize at stake. Could we become the first computer world champion? Yes, that seemed unlikely, but one must be allowed to dream.
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References
Don Lafferty, personal communication, August 19, 1996.
I have the original copy of Tinsley’s notes to all the London games, one of my most valued pieces of Chinook memorabilia. Tinsley’s comments are reprinted in Checkers, 1992 annual edition.
Although I tried to verify Chinook’s opening book, this error wasn’t caught. I was using seventeen-ply searches to assess how good the book moves were. The program needed a deeper search (twenty-one-ply) to realize how weak the line was.
It pains me to analyze these games again in 1995. The latest version of Chinook is much better than the 1992 version and makes none of the mistakes seen in the Tinsley match. The reason for this, in part, is because we learned from the 1992 mistakes.
Tinsley’s notes, reprinted in Checkers, 1992 annual edition.
Ibid.
David Staples, “Scientist Finds Victory Bittersweet as Machine Beats Checkers Champ,” Edmonton Journal, August 20, 1992.
Tinsley’s notes, reprinted in Checkers, 1992 annual edition.
In 1995, I had Chinook do a deep analysis of this game. After h6-g5, it’s a forced Black loss. Despite Tinsley’s concerns, Black isn’t in trouble after g7-h6 unless, of course, he follows it up with the fatal h6-g5.
Tinsley’s notes, reprinted in Checkers, 1992 annual edition.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Schaeffer, J. (1997). Programmed by God. In: One Jump Ahead. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2733-3_17
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