From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Oct 13 2002 - 14:38:40 MDT
Dossy wrote:
> I'm surprised with all the goofy distributed computing
> projects that nobody has created a distributed chess
> playing engine ... see if it can shut human players out.
I created an informal distributed chess engine to help in the match
"Kasparov vs The World" in the Fall of '99. The match was hosted by
Microsoft. What remains of the Microsoft hosted website can be seen here:
http://www.zone.com/kasparov/movelist.html
In this match Kasparov took on several thousand members of the public, each
of whom voted on each move in a straight democratic process via the
internet. The game progressed at the rate of one half-move per day. In
preparation for the game I organized a subteam of about 40 members of the
public, called "The Computer Chess Team." We banded together to do
distributed computing with our home PC's. Among us we had access to a wide
range of commercial programs. I used Fritz 5.0, which was at that time most
advanced home version of Fritz.
I created a website for our Computer Chess Team at which I maintained a
public database of computer generated continuations. After each move by
Kasparov I would assign a different line of possible play to each of our
members. Each member would use his chess application to analyze the assigned
line all night long, and then report his computer generated results on the
next day by entering into our database the expected continuation along with
his particular application's assessment of the final position. From the
combined information from all members I was then able to calculate a best
move, which I would then post to the World's discussion board on which the
World collaborated. My daily reports to The World looked something like
this: "The Computer Chess Team recommends 6...Nf6, expecting 7. 0-0 g6 8.d4
cxd4... [etc]. +=
It was a lot of fun... an intense battle of several months duration. I was
quite obessed with the game during that period... even to the point where I
started dreaming at night about the various possible continuations. :-) But,
alas, Kasparov was victorious, as can be seen by the move-list posted at the
URL mentioned above.
-gts
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