When Computers Sucked

Back when I was still a chess.commie, I remember somebody on that site (a member named elubas) making some offhand remark about how engines had "always" been geniuses.

Well...not quite, looby (for that was the guy's nickname).

Nope, back in the earliest days--when computers filled whole rooms and the works were still plagued by a tendency toward overheating (not to mention swarms of moths)--their play was generally rather hapless at best (apparently the vacuum wasn't only in the tubes!). I once owned a booklet which Koltanowski put out in 1971--100 Shortcuts to Chess Victory--and in it were a few games with computers (the first I had ever encountered).

I don't recall any of those games being wins for the bloodless competitors. I wasn't much more than a beginner myself at the time, yet even I thought the things were complete patzes.

The computer revolution

Of course, computers were still in their infancy back then. In an episode of The Courtship of Eddie's Father from 1969, a young woman is introducing the even younger Eddie to the marvels of this revolutionary new technology. "Just imagine--" she breathes at one point. "This machine is able to hold ten million separate bits of information at once." At which little Eddie can only reply with a, "Gosh."

I well recall that sort of reaction myself. Part of it being: "Wow, that really is amazing..." While another part of me couldn't help but wonder: "What the heck is any of this ever going to have to do with my life?" :)

Several years later, comps had become available to the general public. But without a slew of apps, who would even want one? ($1000 just for something that could do your taxes?)

Chess Challenger 3

In the late 1970s I obtained a Chess Challenger 3. It was one of the first microprocessors available for home use...but it was mainly notable for the sheer novelty of it. Wow, a little gadget in a box that could actually make moves!

I've long since lost track of the machine, but I managed to retain the chess pieces that came with it, and indeed I still use them to play out games (they make for a nice little set). :)

I do recall though that it once beat me and a friend of mine--both of us playing it in consultation (we were A players at the time). It even announced a mate in three on us! (we were pretty much flabbergasted...not to mention chagrined).

Somewhere around that time, it was rumored that Bobby Fischer was playing a program. I still recall my astonishment at that: he had refused to defend the world title (yet there he was, wasting his talent on a hunk of junk).

Sargon

My first encounter with Sargon (no no, not our Sargon!--Sargon The Software) came right at the start of the 1980s. A guy who had just moved into my dorm had it on his computer. He btw was the first person I ever knew who actually owned one of the dinguses--a Commodore (featuring a tape recorder for a hard drive!).

And so I played the device one afternoon. And yeah, I won--but it was a fairly lengthy game. I figured that the gadget was playing somewhere around 2000 USCF. I was admittedly rather impressed.

Then not long afterwards Stean lost a five-minute game to a program...and several years later Larsen lost to one in a tournament. And now everybody had to take the gadgets seriously.

Even so though there was the occasional lapse. Like the time Deep Thought was playing Kasparov those first couple of games and at one point it actually took back its previous move! The match must've been televised, for I recall everybody in the videotaped room letting out a chuckle at the device's wayward antics.

Fidelity Chess Master

Right around 1990, I got my own microprocessor.

It was in fact the first master strength player available for home use--a sort of "master in a box."

That was also when I became aware of the different approach to the game which such a gadget entailed.

Against a human player, the most difficult part was always the buildup. Once you got some advantage, things generally got a lot easier.

Against the FCM though, most anybody could get a good position right off the bat, especially if you managed to get it out of the book (for the gadget was truly terrible at openings). The hard part was always the breakthrough: for then it dug its heels in and defended like some sort of silicon armadillo (all curled up and awaiting the slightest misstep).

And so I came to realize how truly important defense is. And how--even though I had always thought I was pretty good at it--I really wasn't very good at defense at all.

ICC

At the start of this century, I went online for the first time--where I was made aware of the wonders of the Internet Chess Club. A friend of mine (who had just gotten a revolutionary new DSL hookup) told me how there were GMs on there "all the time."

I could scarcely believe it. In fact, I harbored doubts about that for a while: "These guys are really GMs?" "Yep."

After all, I had only seen a couple of them in person in my entire life. And now here was a place that was virtually swarming with them! Even ones I'd heard of (like Andersson and Quinteros).

And of course you didn't have to wait a whole week just to find somebody to play at a local club. There were thousands and thousands of games available at any time of the day or night. You didn't have to go out of your house; you didn't even have to get dressed!

He showed me the grid with all the challenges. And riding way up high on top--a host of little blue circles like bubbles--were the computers.

I moved the mouse toward one to click onto it, but he stopped me: "No--don't play those." As though I had been about to stick my finger in a light socket or something.

Yep, it seemed that somehow or other--in those years since the debut of my FCM--computers had become virtually superhuman.