Deep Blue

“This is really part of the overall research to understand how to use parallel processing’s computational capability to solve complex problems. We have many activities going on, and chess is one of them. When we get to a point where we think we understand enough from chess to derive benefit from it for improving our understanding of parallel processing, we will stop. Gradually, when chess is no longer interesting, we will completely stop and move onto other areas. But it will be a smooth transition. It will not be something that stops tomorrow.”

“But more than an exciting battle, this match—as was last year’s in Philadelphia—will be remembered as a landmark in the evolution of mankind’s powerful new tool. Who of the early pioneers in computer chess—Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, Herbert Simon, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann—would have imagined in the late 1950s when an IBM 704 first played chess that 40 years later computers would be a million times more powerful? Who then would have imagined that in 1997 a computer would be examining 200,000,000 chess positions per second and searching to depths of 14 levels when making a move.”

“I return again to [Edward] Lasker: ‘I was very much surprised to read a statement, imputed to Botvinnik, that the day will come when computers will thoroughly master chess, and FIDE will have to establish grandmaster and master titles for these machines. This is, of course, nonsense, and I am sure that Botvinnik was either joking or said something totally different.’ With all due respect to Lasker, who today is pleased not to be alive, I must point out, as I write this, that Deep Blue has a provisional rating of 3175.”

“IBM retired Deep Blue and it never competed again. But the improvement in chess software did not stop in 1997. Today, inexpensive computers with their large memories and sophisticated software can play chess as well as Deep Blue did with its massively parallel processors. … The programmers had proved it was possible to build a chess-playing machine that could defeat the best human opponent.”

“Deep Blue may make for big headlines, and we’re delighted with that. But the real work of Deep Blue’s RS/6000 technology takes place quietly—well away from the glare of publicity. Day after day, the IBM RS/6000 helps pharmaceutical companies develop innovative drug therapies, auto makers design cars and petroleum companies explore for oil buried deep under the ocean. It also helps forecast the weather, clean up toxic waste sites and safeguard the U.S. nuclear stockpile. What’s more, RS/6000 technology is behind some of the most creative approaches to the Internet—providing web servers for retailers who sell merchandise and securities companies that want to make it more convenient for investors to trade stocks and bonds.”

“Playing chess was a ‘deep computing’ problem, Dr. [Murray] Campbell said, the kind that involves processing and analyzing large amounts of data. Based on what it learned from Deep Blue, I.B.M. created a Deep Computing Institute to analyze and solve complex computing problems, like those posed by credit card transactions, telephone call centers and weather analysis.”