How old were you in 1967??

[kgburcham]

In the spring of 1967, MacHACK VI became the first program to beat a human (1510 USCF rating), at the Massachussets State Championship. By the end of the year, it had played in four chess tournaments. It won 3 games, lost 12, and drew 3. In 1967 MacHACK VI was made an honorary member of the US Chess Federation. The MAC HACK program was the first widely distributed chess program, running on many of the PDP machines. It was also the first to have an opening chess book programmed with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3F4GmbH ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3N7VWi6QLo

kgburcham

[jdart]

I was 11. And had just learned how to play chess. Computers weren't on my mind then - I was really into space stuff (with the Apollo missions going on and all).

--Jon

[bob]

I was 11. And had just learned how to play chess. Computers weren't on my mind then - I was really into space stuff (with the Apollo missions going on and all).

--Jon

I was 19, and a sophomore in college. Somewhere in that time frame there was a paper published by Decus (the Dec user's group) explaining the greenblatt program in some detail. That, among other things had caught my attention early on...

[Graham Banks]

I was 9.
We had black and white television as colour hadn't arrived here yet, plus only two channels to choose from (and they ran from about 10am till about 10pm as I recall).
The only electronics for leisure that I can remember were the slot car racing sets and train sets. Used to have a lot of fun with those.
Kids were more into outdoor stuff like climbing trees, catching tadpoles and frogs, playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians.

[Dayffd]

1967....I was 24 and had been a member of the USAF for 6 years.

[Zach Wegner]

-20

[peter]

In 1967 I was 8 and I had no relation to computers. I played chess only against my father and he enjoyed it then, cause he won all the games we played.
Several years later I started the MIDI (musical instruments' digital interface)
thing as my first challenge with PC before the first Fidelity Chess Challenger came into our house. Not until then I needed such cause not until then my father stopped playing chess with me starting to loose sometimes against me.

[lkaufman]

I was 19, writing the opening book for MacHack, testing it, and serving as the chess expert on the project, while I was a student at MIT. I recall that it was a fair match for me at queen odds. I never dreamed that some day programs could give me a handicap successfully. I especially remember the game it won in its first human tournament in which it played a winning combination that players up to and above 2200 level could not find even when told "White to play and win"! When Komodo passes Houdini, I'll be able to say I was part of the teams that made the world's best programs in 1967 and 2012 (maybe 2011), 45 years apart!

[Peter Skinner]

I was still jumping nut to nut in my Father.

[melajara]

Indeed, Mr. Kaufman, those are impressive achievements. Did you ever consider to write a book or a series of papers or even simple blog entries distilling your experience on chess programming?

As far as I know, you are actually not a programmer and were not personally developing chess algorithms but you were close enough and have a knack at joining the winning team.

More than luck, it should be that you are an essential part to make the team winning.

I felt that way once you joined Vas and now Don.

So a book on the black art of developing chess evaluation functions, the features selection, their interplay and (painful) tuning, the testing methodology (easier nowadays) and future prospects would be utmost interesting

Not less interesting would be the human side of the journey, the recollection of experiences and the mindset you acquired with your close acquaintance with computer chess to propel you from IM to GM at an age where ordinary people are just declining.


Cheers!

P.S. Nice thread btw.
As for myself, no preconceptions at all in 1967 but, maybe, if Plato is true at that time my soul was endowed with super GM powers I have no ideas of anymore.