The Fredkin Challenge Match

On August 18 and 19, 1980, at Stanford University during the AAAI conference, the first of a projected pair of annual chess competitions pitting the world’s best computer programs against rated human players of approximately the same strength was held. These matches are part of the Fredkin prize competition, wherein a sum of $100,000, established by the Fredkin Foundation of Cambridge, Mass , is to be awarded to the creators of a program that can defeat the World Chess Champion in official competition. The program in this match was CHESS 4.9 of Northwestern University, authored by David Slate and Larry Atkin. At the same time, it was the best computer chess program in the world (recently surpassed by BELLE), and was the winner of the 1979 ACM computer chess championship. The human opponent, Paul Benjamin of New York City, was selected at random from the rating lists of the U. S. Chess Federation of players with a rating between 2049 and 205 1 (low Expert). The contest was a two game match according to human tournament rules for a winner take all purse of $1500. The contestants each won one game, thus tying the match and sharing the prize equally. On November 14, 1980, the second place program in the 1979 ACM tournament, BELLE, created by Ken Thompson of Bell Labs, won a two game match against another randomly selected Expert, Jack Gibson, at Carnegie-Mellon University by a score of 1.5-.5, winning a prize of $1000. In 198 I there will be only one challenge match, between Belle, the winner of the recent World Computer Championship, and an as yet undesignated human opponent, to be held at IJCAI-81 in Vancouver, in August. The first Fredkin match was staged in the Tresidder Union at Stanford University, with the actual game on in a closed room containing only the player, computer terminal operators (Larry Atkin and David Cahlander of Control Data Corporation) and the referee. Upstairs was a large demonstration room where two boards, one for the actual position and one for analysis, were used to keep the audience abreast of what was happening and could be expected to happen. The moves were communicated through a telecommunications setup linking the two rooms. In the first game, CHESS 4.9 played the White side of a Sicilian Defense very badly, as it had done on several occasions previously Later, it refused to force a draw in an inferior position. After several inferior moves by both sides, Benjamin got an overwhelming position which he improved to the point where it was adjudicated a win after 60 moves of play. In the second game CHESS 4.9 made up for its earlier lackluster performance by playing a truly great game After making some doubtful opening moves, CHESS 4.9 was given its chance by Benjamin’s weak 10th move. Thereafter, it never gave him a chance to catch his breath and made two (pseudo) sacrifices to neatly polish him off. This is without question one of the three best computer games ever played, if not the very best. I have not been able to find any improvement on Black’s play starting with the 10th move. The event was very nicely staged by the AAAI coordinating committee, with help from US Chess Federation regional representative Bryce Perry, and your truly, who did the commentary on the games to an audience of conference attendees and chess players that at time numbered over 150.