CHESS IS THE ART OF HUMAN REASON.

Augustus II, Duke of Bunswick-Lüneburg

Das Schach-oder König-Spiel 1616

There is no claim that [the Torres y Quevedo chess playing machine] will think or accomplish things where thought is necessary, but its inventor claims that the limits within which thought is really necessary need to be better defined, and that the automaton can do many things that are popularly classed with thought.

Anonymous

Torres and his Remarkable Automatic Devices 1915

Chess is a fascinating game. Over the centuries it has come to be regarded as the intellectual game par excellence, so complex is its nature and so varied are the positions that can arise even within a very few moves. Yet chess is simple enough to be learned within a few minutes and it is a game that can be enjoyed at all levels of play from beginner to grandmaster. It is a game of planning. To play the game well it is necessary to be able to create in one’s mind a plan that conforms to the necessities and potentialities of a given position. It is true that in many positions the correct move can be found by pure calculation but it is not these positions that really distinguish the master from the amateur. A two move combination will be found by the club player nearly as often as by a master, but the correct long-term plan will be discovered much more frequently by the master than by the club player. If we could write a computer program that could play good chess we could (presumably) use similar programming techniques to solve other problems in long-range planning. Is it any more difficult to win the World Chess Championship than it is to plan the year’s budget for a nation or to solve a difficult diplomatic crisis with the flair of a Kissinger? I doubt it. Probably it is easier.