[Computer Chess] A Chess Playing Program for the IBM 704 IN Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference : Contrasts in Computers : Presented at Los Angeles, Calif. May 6-8, 1958

Bernstein, A.; De V. Roberts, M.; Arbckle, T.; Belsky, M. A.

Published by American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York, 1959

First Edition. 244 pages. Original pale blue printed paper wraps. Unobtrusive marginal dampstaining to the foreedge in the rear half of the proceedings (not affecting the text). Overall soiling to the wrappers (especially on the rear panel) and light creasing. Wraps. An early joint computer conference detailing the state of the art at the time. Contains a number of interesting articles including "A Chess Playing Program for the IBM 704" by A. Bernstein, M. De V. Roberts, T. Arbckle, and M. A. Belsky on pp 157-158; "The Univac M-460 Computer" by Thornton, Macauley and Toth on pp 70-73; "The Social Problems of Automation" by Laswell (with three other related articles and discussion on pp 7-16); and many others. These conferences were very much cross functional with scientists from across the field coming together to discuss progress in the field, exchanging ideas and discussing various presented papers. While not quite cradle period (the first joint conference was in 1951) these are important documents tracing the fast and furious progress made with computers across a wide swath of technologies and markets. And, the very beginning ideas of future groundbreaking discoveries can be seen forming in some of these articles. Scientists built rapidly on the progress of others, in much the same way as AI is progressing rapidly in today's world. One great example is Computer Chess which we've chosen to highlight here. Claude Shannon wrote the first technical paper on computer chess in 1949, a paper which outlined an approach to computer chess without discussing a specific program. In 1957 we find the first report of a computer playing chess, but using a restricted 6 x 6 square board. While the 1957 paper was sufficient to demonstrate proof of concept, the present paper, "A Chess Playing Program for the IBM 704" reported on here shows a computer that can play a game on a true 8 x 8 chess board. For the purist, this is the first real description of a chess playing computer - and it demonstrates the manner in which over a short period of time ideas can evolve from concept to fruition. LITERATURE: Hook and Norman, Origins of Cyberspace, #882 (noting Shannon's original paper in 1949) Hook and Norman, Origins of Cyberspace, #740 (discussing these important Joint AIEE-IRE Computer Conferences). Seller Inventory # 29643

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Computer Chess] A Chess Playing Program for...
Publisher: American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York
Publication Date: 1959
Binding: Wraps
Condition: Good
Edition: First Edition.