Chess Playing Programs and the Problem of Complexity

Abstract

In 1956 a group at Los Alamos programmed maniac-I to play chess (Kister et al, 1957). The Los Alamos program is an almost perfect example of the type of system specified by Shannon. As shown in the Table, all alternatives were considered: all continuations were explored to a depth of two moves (i. e., two moves for Black and two for White): the static evaluation function consisted of a sum of material and mobility measures; the values were integrated by a minimax procedure,* and the best alternative in terms of the effective value was chosen for the move.