Chess algorithms

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

BBC

Business

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1997, Garry Kasparov, widely regarded as the world's greatest chess player, was defeated by Deep Blue, a computer. But how much did that reveal about the 'brainpower' of machines? Tim Harford explains by delving into the history of algorithms. They've been used by mathematicians and scientists for millennia, but have acquired a new level of power and importance in the digital age.

Transcript

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0:00.0	50 Things That Made The Modern Economy With Tim Harford
0:16.2	On the 25th of June 2012, Gary Kasparov, regarded by many as the greatest player in the history
0:23.6	of chess, sat down to play a game against a computer.
0:29.2	He wasn't sitting down for long.
0:31.3	Checkmate took 16 moves and a mere 40 seconds, leaving Kasparov apologising for winning so quickly.
0:40.5	The computer programme, Turo Champ, is noteworthy not for its strength, but its history.
0:47.4	It had been written in 1948 by the mathematician, code breaker and computer pioneer Alan Turing.
0:55.4	The programme looked at a few hundred options and made the move that produced the position
1:00.0	with the highest value.
1:04.7	On a modern laptop, that calculation takes a fraction of a fraction of a second.
1:11.4	Alan Turing had no computer and took half an hour per move to make the calculations using
1:17.7	a pencil and paper.
1:20.6	Kasparov was in awe that Turing had written a computer algorithm without a computer.
1:28.9	An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure, a set of well-defined instructions that one
1:34.6	follows to produce a result, a recipe written by an infinitely pedantic chef.
1:41.5	These days we think of algorithms as something rather mysterious that computers do, but as
1:47.2	Turo Champ demonstrates, algorithms can be executed by humans.
1:52.2	For most of the history of algorithms, there was no other way.
1:56.8	The word algorithm derives from the name of a brilliant Persian mathematician active
2:02.3	about 1200 years ago.
2:05.0	His name was Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Qurizmi and European scholars later called him Al-Qurizmi.
2:13.6	Scholars themselves predate al-Qurizmi.
	...

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