Deep blue: computer chess and massively parallel systems

Abstract

Since the dawn of the computing age, programming a machine to play chess at grandmaster level has been a grand challenge of computer science. As early as 1949 Claude Shannon described how to program a computer to play chess. He introduced many fundamental algorithms that are still used today in almost all chess programs. It was not until 1988 that a computer called Deep Thought, designed by F. H. Hsu, finally defeated a human grandmaster. In 1989 Hsu and Murray Campbell joined IBM Research and carried forward their research into computer chess algorithms and parallel system architectures. A year later a fellow researcher, A.J. Hoane, joined the team and together they started a remarkable journey toward building the world's first massively parallel chess system, Deep Blue. This system, when completed in late 1995, will play chess at the same level as the strongest human chess player. In this paper we will describe IBM's effort in developing this system and its significance in the history of computing.