From Mechanical Turk to AlphaZero: A Brief History of Chess AI

The dream of an artificial chess master is as old as the dream of artificial intelligence itself. The journey from simple automatons to the superhuman engines we have today is a story of human ingenuity and technological progress.

The Early Days: The Mechanical Turk

In the late 18th century, "The Turk" amazed audiences by seemingly playing chess on its own. It was, of course, an elaborate hoax with a human master hidden inside. However, it sparked the public imagination about the possibility of a true thinking machine.

The Computer Age: Deep Blue

The first true chess programs emerged with the advent of computers in the mid-20th century. Progress was steady, culminating in the historic 1997 match where IBM's supercomputer, Deep Blue, defeated reigning World Champion Garry Kasparov. It was a landmark moment, proving that brute-force calculation could triumph over human intuition.

The Engine Revolution: Stockfish and Komodo

After Deep Blue, chess engines became widely available. Engines like Stockfish (the engine used by many chess platforms, including ChessNcam's AI) became stronger and stronger, running on regular home computers and far surpassing the best human players.

The Neural Network Era: AlphaZero

In 2017, Google's DeepMind introduced AlphaZero, a revolutionary change. Instead of being programmed with human chess knowledge, AlphaZero learned to play simply by playing against itself millions of times. It developed its own strategies and played in a dynamic, "alien" style that has changed how humans think about the game.

Today, AI is an indispensable tool for every chess player, from beginners learning the rules on ChessNcam to world champions preparing for their next match.