Computer Chess, its Impact on Artificial Intelligence¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Horacek, Helmut

Affiliations: Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft

Note: [1] This is a slightly edited version of the paper delivered on November 27, 1992 to the Workshop The Impact of Computer Chess on AI Research, Madrid, Spain [reported in the December 1992 issue of the ICCA Journal, pp. 228–229]. This event was held in conjunction with the 7th World Computer-Chess Championship, played there.

Abstract: This paper presents a contribution to the ongoing debate about the impact of research in computer chess on artificial intelligence (AI), by critically examining the view ‘computer chess was good for AI’, which we believe is common to the majority of the scientific community involved. Our critique weakens the rationale behind the objection that the currently dominating hardware-intensive, brute-force-based engineering approach is responsible for the current situation. We show that, e.g., in natural-language processing, there is much similarity in terms of the sophistication of methods, the role of hardware, and the contrast between theory and practice. We argue that the role of computer chess in artificial intelligence can be strengthened by putting new efforts in generalizing extant methods and transferring their key ideas to other areas within AI.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1993-16104

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 31-36, 1993