Saturday, April 6, 2013

Alan Turing vs. Garry Kasparov

During the conference Turing100@Manchester (june 2012) Garry Kasparov played a chess game against Alan Turing's very first computer chess program Turochamp (written around 1950).

Watch here the game of 16 moves (Turochamp plays with white, Kasparov with black):



This is what Kasparov said about the first computer chess program:

“I suppose you might call it primitive, but I would compare it to an early car – you might laugh at them but it is still an incredible achievement.”

“He wrote algorithms without having a computer – many young scientists would never believe that was possible. It was an outstanding accomplishment.”

“Although it’s only thinking two moves ahead, I would have thought it would give the amateur player some serious problems.”

“Alan Turing is one of the very few people about who you could say that if he had lived longer the world would be a different place.”