Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 19:45:59 02/01/98
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On February 01, 1998 at 19:47:18, James Long wrote: >On January 31, 1998 at 02:36:31, Stuart Cracraft wrote: > >>I've been asked by people unfamiliar with computer chess why >>I enjoy it. >> >>The usual question I give is that it creates "busy work" >>and we all know that the idle mind is the devil's playground. :-) >>In other words, the program seems to have no real ending. >> >>Anyway, why do you like to program computer chess? Do you think >>you could translate some of this into programming another board >>game like Go, Backgammon, Checkers, etc.? Or no? >> >>--Stuart > >I've been thinking about this question for the last couple >of days. Here's what I came up with: > >Maybe our fascination with computer chess lies in our >inability to solve what is a solvable problem. (Given >the resources, which we will never have....) >So, since it's practically unsolvable, we have to >make "good guesses." The programs that perform the >best are the "best guessers." Given this, there >is always *some way* to make a chess program better, >no matter how good it gets. Faster search, better >evaluation, whatever.... It's a constant challenge to >improve, no matter what level your program is at. > >Personally, I don't think I could dedicate the same >amount of time or energy into another game. I was >addicted to chess before computer chess... > >--- >James For me, it's a bit more "romantic" than that. My first chess program played it's first game in 1968. Moves were entered via punched card, output was on the line printer. No thinking on the opponent's time or anything like that at first. When we got our first interactive terminals in 1970, the idea of "carrying on a conversation with the machine and playing a game of chess as though we were equals" was a science-fiction dream that appeared to have a real chance at becoming reality. that "hooked" me. I do it because I enjoy doing it, not because I'm trying to solve some insolvable problem... It's been fun for 30 years. I hope it remains so for the next 30, should I be fortunate enough to live that long...
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