Hans Berliner 1929 - 2017

[jts]

Hans Berliner was world correspondence chess champion 1965 - 1968.

He quit competitive chess when he found it was taking too much time and then became professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. There he developed a piece of technology called HiTech. This was a combination of hardware and software that played chess. HiTech became world computer chess champion.

Many years ago I read a series of volumes titled "Advances in Computer Chess". This was a collection of peer reviewed scientific papers about computer chess and there were at least 4 volumes, maybe more but I read only volumes 1 - 4. Hans Berliner was a major contributor. He developed the B* algorithm and demonstrated that it played stronger chess than the conventional algorithm. In the B* algorithm, the evaluation of a position is not a single number but a range of numbers defined by a minimum and a maximum.

HiTech was beaten in 1989 by Deep Thought which was a development from HiTech and was developed by one of his students. That tournament was in Edmonton and I was there. There were 12 demonstration boards on 3 walls, 24 participants in the tournament. In the last round most of the focus from the audience and from the commentator Kevin Spraggett, Canadian champion, with microphone in hand was on the HiTech -- Deep Thought game. Spraggett was saying he doubts whether HiTech can get its pieces over to the kingside quickly enough to defend its king. Almost before the words were out of his mouth, Deep Thought announced forced checkmate in 8 moves. With this Deep Thought was the new champion.

In the same year, 1989, Deep Thought ended the famous David Levy bet by beating David Levy 4 - 0. The bet started in the 1960s and evolved to where every year that David Levy was not beaten, he would get some money and when he was beaten he would pay and that would be the end of the bet. He was making money for a long time on that bet. When he had to pay up, the money went to the cause of artificial intelligence.

Then IBM put Deep Thought on a single chip and put a thousand of these chips together and created Deep Blue. Deep Blue had 2 matches with Kasparov the world champion. Kasparov won the 1996 match but lost the 1997 match.

more information about Hans Berliner

 

[BaalChatzaf]

5 hours ago, jts said:

Hans Berliner was world correspondence chess champion 1965 - 1968.

He quit competitive chess when he found it was taking too much time and then became professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. There he developed a piece of technology called HiTech. This was a combination of hardware and software that played chess. HiTech became world computer chess champion.

Many years ago I read a series of volumes titled "Advances in Computer Chess". This was a collection of peer reviewed scientific papers about computer chess and there were at least 4 volumes, maybe more but I read only volumes 1 - 4. Hans Berliner was a major contributor. He developed the B* algorithm and demonstrated that it played stronger chess than the conventional algorithm. In the B* algorithm, the evaluation of a position is not a single number but a range of numbers defined by a minimum and a maximum.

HiTech was beaten in 1989 by Deep Thought which was a development from HiTech and was developed by one of his students. That tournament was in Edmonton and I was there. There were 12 demonstration boards on 3 walls, 24 participants in the tournament. In the last round most of the focus from the audience and from the commentator Kevin Spraggett, Canadian champion, with microphone in hand was on the HiTech -- Deep Thought game. Spraggett was saying he doubts whether HiTech can get its pieces over to the kingside quickly enough to defend its king. Almost before the words were out of his mouth, Deep Thought announced forced checkmate in 8 moves. With this Deep Thought was the new champion.

In the same year, 1989, Deep Thought ended the famous David Levy bet by beating David Levy 4 - 0. The bet started in the 1960s and evolved to where every year that David Levy was not beaten, he would get some money and when he was beaten he would pay and that would be the end of the bet. He was making money for a long time on that bet. When he had to pay up, the money went to the cause of artificial intelligence.

Then IBM put Deep Thought on a single chip and put a thousand of these chips together and created Deep Blue. Deep Blue had 2 matches with Kasparov the world champion. Kasparov won the 1996 match but lost the 1997 match.

more information about Hans Berliner

 

Did  you see in any of the articles you read about Berliner,  whether he was aware of the development of software that could play Go  at the level of 9 th dan?  And if so, what he might have said about it?   I am pretty sure that the approach Berliner had to developing a chess algorithm might have played some role in the development of the computerized Go algorithm.   Go is a much more complicated game  combinatorialy and qualitatively than is  Chess. 

In any case Berliner's contribution to applied algorithmics  was   top-drawer. 

I became aware of Berliner  about two days ago (I think it was two days) when I saw his obit in the NYT. He was also mentioned in the Manchester Guardian.

[jts]

7 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

Did  you see in any of the articles you read about Berliner,  whether he was aware of the development of software that could play Go  at the level of 9 th dan?  And if so, what he might have said about it?   I am pretty sure that the approach Berliner had to developing a chess algorithm might have played some role in the development of the computerized Go algorithm.   Go is a much more complicated game  combinatorialy and qualitatively than is  Chess. 

In any case Berliner's contribution to applied algorithmics  was   top-drawer. 

I became aware of Berliner  about two days ago (I think it was two days) when I saw his obit in the NYT. He was also mentioned in the Manchester Guardian.

So far as I know Hans Berliner never had anything to do with the game of Go.

 

[jts]

24 minutes ago, jts said:

So far as I know Hans Berliner never had anything to do with the game of Go.

 

But he wrote this article about backgammon.

http://www.bkgm.com/articles/Berliner/BackgammonProgramBeatsWorldChamp/