{"id":102,"date":"2021-01-09T15:54:40","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T15:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chessquestions.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2022-07-03T23:52:17","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T23:52:17","slug":"chess-grandmaster-vs-computer-who-wins-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chessquestions.com\/chess-grandmaster-vs-computer-who-wins-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Chess Grandmaster vs Computer – Who Wins Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

⭐⭐⭐ Take 8 minutes to read and improve your chess game ➡️ : This article was first published on, and is Copyright of Chessquestions.com<\/p>\n

For as long as computers have been used, chess has been one of the games that programmers have tried to perfect predictive playing patterns to beat the best chess grandmasters in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are some years down the line from when grandmasters were introduced to chess computers and beat them out of sight regularly, but in 2020 can chess grandmasters beat computers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chess Grandmasters can no longer beat computers today as they did right up to the 1990’s. Whilst the human brain is creative and intuitive, it lacks the ability and processing power to completely avoid mistakes like modern computer software can in the 21st-Century<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chess<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It took chess computers just 30 years from 1960 to 1990 to progress from a standing start to a point where they would beat all but the very best grandmasters. By 2006 engines were scoring ratings above Carlsen’s best 2014 figure of 2882<\/p>ELO Chess Computer Ratings<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For more information on both chess grandmasters and thier modern counterpart the chess engine, check out the links below, or stick around here to find out how computer versus human has evolved over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is a Chess Grandmaster?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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What is a Chess Engine<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chess Grandmasters vs Chess Engines – A Brief History 1950-1997<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whilst the battle for chess supremacy has reached a point of no return where no human can come close to challenging a chess engine even without blunders<\/a>, [without handicap] it has not always been the case. So let’s take a look at the timeline and progression of Chess<\/a> Engines against human chess players.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The first chess computer program was written in 1958<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

First Chess Engine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Computer programs were first written and tested on the Los Alamos variant where bishops are not included, on a 6×6 board. Castling, En passant<\/a> and pawn double stepping are also not included in this variant. Was the program on the MANIAC the first chess engine to beat a human?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MANIAC I chess computer was produced and beat a human opponent for the first time in 1956. MANIAC I was developed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and beat a novice player at a variant of the game we know today after playing against itself and beating a handicapped human.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, the player who was beaten in the third game this program played had only learned to play chess<\/a> one week prior to this match. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MANIAC I computer had played itself in the first game, then lost to a strong player handicapped without a queen in the second game, before beating the relative novice in the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1960’s – The Real Beginning – Turing and Dietricht<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chess Computers were not really a thing until around 1960 although the Enigma code-breaking computer pioneer Alan Turing would be the first to work on an automated chess playing idea, before Dietrich Prinz, a colleague of Turing should write the first actual chess-playing program in 1951. It wasn’t very good, nor sophisticated as it would be able to complete a game because of the memory limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in 1958 that Alex Bernstein, an IBM researcher completed a fully automated program on the IBM 704. This could possible be claimed as the first success for AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development of chess engines continues and were pitted against players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Levy in 1968 made a wager that no chess computer would be developed that could beat him in the following ten years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1970’s – Chess Engine Championships & The David Levy Bet<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By the 1970’s so prolific was the creation of chess computers, and so competitive were the makers that computer chess championships were introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chess matches between players and engines continued with humans still gaining the edge and grandmasters not really entertaining the prospect of the challenge with little to prove or gain from a match up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The personal wager David Levy had made in 1968 had attracted more participants as more AI experts took and put up the ante on the bet<\/a>, with total stakes no reportedly in the region of £1250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would still win if the period were to be extended for another ten years<\/p>David Levy<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1978 however, David Levy was able to collect on the wager he made ten years earlier with various people when no chess computer would be able to beat him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did David Levy win his bet?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As predicted no chess computer was able to defeat him in a suitable chess match in the time period he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chess 4.6<\/a> the program developed by Larry Aitkin and David Slate at Northwest University had become the first chess engine to be successful at a major chess tournament when winning the second world chess computer championships in 1977<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in 1978 when Chess 4.7 was launched it was the final game Levy would play against his bet, and although he lost in Blitz** conditions, the bet involved at least 40 moves over two hours, and Levy scored a comfortable 4.5-1.5 victory to land the match and the best he had made with various opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FUN FACT: <\/strong>When Chess 4.7 won game 4 in the match against Levy it was the first time a computer had won a game against a human master.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1980’s – The Rise of Engines, Masters Losses and the first Grandmaster defeat.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

David Levy had predicted his bet well, but may have been a little optimistic in his caim that the bet could have been extended for another ten years, as by 1988, not only masters, but also grandmasters would fall at the feet of chess engines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It only took until 1981 for the first chess engine to win in tournament play against a master when Cray Blitz defeated Joe Sentef and in doing so also became the first computer to gain a master rating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the decade progressed, we had seen the development of the Sinclair ZX81, and Deep Thought had arrived, and been the first chess computer to beat a Grandmaster in a tournament defeating GM Bent Larsen<\/a>, still considered to be the strongest Danish player of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was no mean feat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step forward World Champion GM Garry Kasparov, who would still fight for the human superiority by beating Deep Thought in 2 exhibition matches in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kasparov v Deep Blue 1996 & 1997<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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