From: janet@cs.UAlberta.CA (Janet Service)
Subject: checkers tournament
Keywords: Chinook vs Tinsley
Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Distribution: w
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 15:46:08 GMT

For those of you that did not see the article in the Edmonton Journal
on Friday August 21, here is what it said (printed with their
permission):

On the day of his great and historic triumph, University of Alberta
computer scientist Jonathan Schaeffer was strangely melancholy.

Schaeffer's computer program, Chinook, made history in computer-
science circles Tuesday by beating the world's greatest checkers
player, mathematician Marion Tinsley, 65, of Tallahassee, Fla.

"I've dreamed of winning against Tinsley for a long time" Schaeffer
said in a telephone interview.

"It was sort of like the Holy Grail.  It's the first time in
computing history that a computer program has defeated a reigning
world champion.  

"But I have to admit that my emotions really surprised me.  I 
thought I'd be partying and jumping up and down, and yelling and
screaming, and buying everybody in the place a drink.

"But it was actually a sad moment as opposed to a happy one...
It was a changing of the guard.  It's hard to describe.  I'm not
sure my emotions are clear.  I was just sad for Marion."

The 40-game, $10,000, man-verses-machine contest in London, England
is now tied with Chinook and Tinsley each winning a game.  Sixteen
games have been draws.

Tinsley faltered on the ninth move of his losing game, Schaeffer
said.

The champion thought he was making a move which would lead to an
easy draw, but Chinook attacked hard.

"The program, like a boa constrictor, kept squeezing and squeezing
until there was nothing left," Schaeffer said.

But at the moment of Chinook's victory, Schaeffer seems to have
been struck by sadness over the frailty of man.  Even a man as
brilliant and respected as Tinsley, who has lost only six matches in 
his 40 years as champion, could be beaten.

"People accuse me of being inhuman, of wanting to have my computer
beat humans" Schaeffer said.

"But maybe the other hat is now on my head; not the computer-sci-
entist hat, but the human being who sees that his days are numbered.

"I have to sort out my thoughts.  Maybe I don't know myself as
well as I thought I did.  Or maybe I've got more of a heart than
I thought".

Tinsley admitted human weakness may have been his nemesis in the 
historic loss.

"I was disappointed in myself" he said.

"I'm human and I get awfully tired, and we'd been playing at a
killing pace.

"I made a mistake in agreeing to play four games a day because
many of the games are lasting four hours and some five hours",
Tinsley said.

"But I've got to hand it to Jonathan, the program is very
impressive.

"I think the machine is a great achievement and a contribution
to checkers.  I think it is going to enrich the knowledge and
understanding of the game".

Tinsley took the loss well, offering Schaeffer a handshake.

"You would never know that he had just suffered what to him was
one of the worst blows of his life," Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer has worked on artificial intelligence since 1979,
initially developing an outstanding chess program.  But chess
is such a complex game that victory over the world's grandmasters
is decades away.

Schaeffer switched his focus to checkers, a game with fewer
mathematical possibilities, in 1989.

Results have come rapidly.

Schaeffer, U of A professors Joe Culberson and Duane Szafron,
and grad student Paul Lu and Bob Lake (Bob was not included in
the newspaper article but was a member of the team) and
Winnipeg checkers ace Norman Treloar to program Chinook.

Schaeffer didn't expect victory against Tinsley, primarily because
Tinsley so rarely makes an error.

"Maybe we just got lucky.  Maybe he was tired.  Maybe he had
an off day."

"I can assure you it's going to be a lot tougher to win the
second one off of him."

Even if Tinsley does win the match this year, Schaeffer says
the champ is aging.

Chinook, meanwhile, is getting better every day.

A match victory for the machine is inevitable and Schaeffer says
he is obliged to see things through.

"It may sound rather callous of me, but we've made our mark and
we should finish off."

End of article...

We'll try to keep you up to date with the results as they come
in.

Janet Service

Newsgroups: rec.games.chess