Mechanical Chess Opponent (Jul, 1951)
Filed under: Computers, Toys and Games — @ 9:56 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1951
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1951
| Buy on Ebay
I love how they speak in absolutes “never makes a mistake”, “perfect chess techniques”. I’m worndering how it could possibly play chess at all. My guess is that what they mean is it always makes a legal move, i.e. pawns don’t go sideways.
Also, does that board look a little small to you?
Mechanical Chess Opponent
Chess fans can play solitaire against a machine that never makes a mistake. Invented by a Spaniard, the machine teaches perfect chess techniques. Whenever an error is made in play, a light flashes on automatically.
I remember reading about a “mechanical chess computer” that could solve simple endgame problems: it computed the next move for King verses King plus Rook using a simple algorithm which ensured a checkmate.
Here’s a Wikipedia article about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ajedrecista
The board looks fine to me.
Comment by mward — December 22, 2006 @ 7:15 am
When I saw the article, I thought of the machine invented by Torres y Quevedo. It “never made a mistake” because it didn’t really play a full game of Chess, only a Rook and Pawn endgame.
And so the previous comment is correct.
Comment by John Savard — January 16, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
When the wizards aren’t using Hex for spell checking, they use it to play chess.
(I saw the “Hogfather” movie.
Hex has nice penmanship.)
Comment by jayessell — January 17, 2008 @ 10:20 am