IBM Chess Computer Crashes Rice Champion

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IBM CHESS COMPUTER CRASHES RICE CHAMPION

As a crowd watched his every move on a big-screen
monitor, a room away Rice senior Nathan Doughty quietly pondered his chess
challenge against DB Junior, a smaller version of IBM’s famed Deep Blue, the
first computer to beat the world’s human chess champion.

After nearly 60 minutes of play, however, Doughty resigned on his 25th move.

“It’s pretty good,” Doughty said of DB Junior. “Its moves go against the
grain; they were good moves, but I didn’t expect them.”

The man-against-machine chess demonstration was featured during Rice’s
Computer and Information Technology Institute’s Distinguished Lecture Series on
March 18.

The lecture, titled “Deep Blue — The IBM Chess Machine,” was presented by
Chung-Jen Tan, senior manager of the Parallel System Platforms Department at the
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Doughty, who was calm and collected before the chess demonstration, admitted
that after listening to Tan’s lecture he was a bit more concerned about the
challenge.

No doubt. Tan explained that DB Junior can calculate 10-20 million moves per
second. A drop in the hat compared to Deep Blue, which calculates 200 million
each second, but amazing all the same. “The computer doesn’t make mistakes,”
Doughty said. “The stress factor and personality [affect humans]. The computer
is never stressed out.”

Doughty, who began playing chess at age 11, defeated fellow members of the
Rice chess club for the chance to play DB Junior. The Will Rice College senior,
age 21, played chess about 20 hours a week throughout junior and senior high
school, he said.

Due to academic demands at Rice now he only plays the game a few hours a
week. An English and art major, Doughty graduates in May and hopes to attend
Columbia University next fall.

“I’ve been preparing [for chess] all my life,” Doughty said. “It’s a great
honor [to be selected].”

Throughout the game, cheers of “Yes, yes” and pleadings of “No dude, no” were
heard as enthusiasts watched the big screen. Onlookers from amateurs to chess
club experts discussed the moves they would have made, their analysis constant
throughout the game.

At the end of the demonstration, a disappointed but ever-hopeful Doughty
responded with a quick “yes” when asked if he’d like to take on DB Junior again.

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