The mystery of Alex Bernstein

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Great, keep us informed, Sergei. Also on the Gunter Sсhliebs engine.
Do you have some information about early Soviet programs by Shura-Bura or Butenko?

Thanks & Best regards,
Gerd

As to Shura-Bura program the only source is:

1. В. Туманов. «Лучший ход» — за 58 секунд // Таль—Ботвинник: матч-реванш на первенство мира. Бюллетень Центрального шахматного клуба СССР. — 1961. — № 8. — С. 4—5.

I've checked it and I'm not 100% sure that mysterious Shura-Bura program is not actually ITEF/Kaissa and the mystery was born due to journalist mistake.

[Gerd Isenberg]

As to Shura-Bura program the only source is:

1. В. Туманов. «Лучший ход» — за 58 секунд // Таль—Ботвинник: матч-реванш на первенство мира. Бюллетень Центрального шахматного клуба СССР. — 1961. — № 8. — С. 4—5.

I've checked it and I'm not 100% sure that mysterious Shura-Bura program is not actually ITEF/Kaissa and the mystery was born due to journalist mistake.

Yep, Shura-Bura's Program, as mentioned in V. Tomanov (1961). The best move in 58 seconds. in the 8th Bulletin of the Botvinnik Tal 1961 revenge-match, was elaborated in Jaap van den Herik's Ph.D. thesis with some evaluation details and that it had no search.

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Shura-Bura%27s_Program

In The Early Development of Programming in the USSR, Andrey Ershov and Mikhail R. Shura-Bura note that in the end of the 1950's a group of Moscow mathematicians began a study of computerized chess which eventually led to the victory at the WCCC 1974.

http://ershov.iis.nsk.su/ru/archive/subgroup?nid=764886

So it seems the program mentioned in Tomanov's 1961 article was not "Shura-Bura's Program" but likely a forerunner of the ITEP chess program by Georgy Adelson-Velsky et al..

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Yep, Shura-Bura's Program, as mentioned in V. Tomanov (1961). The best move in 58 seconds. in the 8th Bulletin of the Botvinnik Tal 1961 revenge-match, was elaborated in Jaap van den Herik's Ph.D. thesis with some evaluation details and that it had no search.

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Shura-Bura%27s_Program

In The Early Development of Programming in the USSR, Andrey Ershov and Mikhail R. Shura-Bura note that in the end of the 1950's a group of Moscow mathematicians began a study of computerized chess which eventually led to the victory at the WCCC 1974.

http://ershov.iis.nsk.su/ru/archive/subgroup?nid=764886

So it seems the program mentioned in Tomanov's 1961 article was not "Shura-Bura's Program" but likely a forerunner of the ITEP chess program by Georgy Adelson-Velsky et al..

Tumanov, not Tomanov. Yes, this is the exact source. BTW I can send you Tumanov's article copy If you want.
BTW, there was some program for BESM that was able to solve "mate in 2", "mate in 3" tasks. According to Kitov [1], [2], [3] and some other [4] sources it was created by Vladimir Kurochkin [5].
And also there was a program to play KBBK endgame with two different-coloured bishops created by V.D. Kukushkin [1], [2], [3]. But I'm failed to trace any other mentions of it and I have no idea who was Kukushkin.

1. Китов А.И. (1956). Электронные цифровые машины // http://www.kitov-anatoly.ru/naucnye-tru ... vye-masiny
2. Китов А.И., Криницкий Н.А. (1959). Электронные цифровые машины и программирование // http://www.computer-museum.ru/books/ecm_i_prog.pdf
3. Китов А.И., Криницкий Н.А. (1958). Электронные вычислительные машины и программирование // http://elib.ict.nsc.ru/jspui/bitstream/ ... ov1958.pdf
4. В.Н. Лаут. Как я попал в ИТМ? // http://www.ipmce.ru/about/history/leadi ... aut/print/
5. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Курочкин, ... ч_(учёный)

[Rom77]

So it seems the program mentioned in Tomanov's 1961 article was not "Shura-Bura's Program" but likely a forerunner of the ITEP chess program by Georgy Adelson-Velsky et al..

Sorry for GoogleTranslate, but I want to bring some clarity on the Shura-Bura program.

From the article by Tumanov it is obvious that this is not about the ITEP program. See the following Shura-Bura quotation from the article:

"... For this we set a special program for the machine, in the development of which researchers I. Zadyhailo and V. Smilga took part."

Perhaps it was this program that played against grandmaster Bronstein in 1963.

See also quotes from an article in the journal "Problems of Cybernetics" No. 15, 1965, which was written by E.A. Evgrafov and I.B. Zadyhailo:

“Only small isolated groups work on the creation of a chess machine, and not all the time, but from time to time. <...> This article contains the results of the work we have done in 1961-1962.”

"*) While making a report at a seminar at Moscow State University, G.M. Adelson-Velsky reported that he had conducted similar experiments. He claimed that he had succeeded in achieving the power of playing an automaton corresponding to approximately the fourth category. Unfortunately, the report was devoted only to the implementation technique busting, and the degree of use of chess theory did not say anything. The games played by the machine were not published. "

[Sergei S. Markoff]

So it seems the program mentioned in Tomanov's 1961 article was not "Shura-Bura's Program" but likely a forerunner of the ITEP chess program by Georgy Adelson-Velsky et al..

Sorry for GoogleTranslate, but I want to bring some clarity on the Shura-Bura program.

From the article by Tumanov it is obvious that this is not about the ITEP program. See the following Shura-Bura quotation from the article:

"... For this we set a special program for the machine, in the development of which researchers I. Zadyhailo and V. Smilga took part."

Perhaps it was this program that played against grandmaster Bronstein in 1963.

See also quotes from an article in the journal "Problems of Cybernetics" No. 15, 1965, which was written by E.A. Evgrafov and I.B. Zadyhailo:

“Only small isolated groups work on the creation of a chess machine, and not all the time, but from time to time. <...> This article contains the results of the work we have done in 1961-1962.”

"*) While making a report at a seminar at Moscow State University, G.M. Adelson-Velsky reported that he had conducted similar experiments. He claimed that he had succeeded in achieving the power of playing an automaton corresponding to approximately the fourth category. Unfortunately, the report was devoted only to the implementation technique busting, and the degree of use of chess theory did not say anything. The games played by the machine were not published. "

Thank you very much!

[Sergei S. Markoff]

See also quotes from an article in the journal "Problems of Cybernetics" No. 15, 1965, which was written by E.A. Evgrafov and I.B. Zadyhailo:

“Only small isolated groups work on the creation of a chess machine, and not all the time, but from time to time. <...> This article contains the results of the work we have done in 1961-1962.”

"*) While making a report at a seminar at Moscow State University, G.M. Adelson-Velsky reported that he had conducted similar experiments. He claimed that he had succeeded in achieving the power of playing an automaton corresponding to approximately the fourth category. Unfortunately, the report was devoted only to the implementation technique busting, and the degree of use of chess theory did not say anything. The games played by the machine were not published. "

Do you have this article? I checked http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/P/''Problem ... iki''.html, but it looks that №15 is absent.

P.S. I'm finally got it.

https://yadi.sk/d/rDcZHUk-K6G7PA

[Rom77]

See also quotes from an article in the journal "Problems of Cybernetics" No. 15, 1965, which was written by E.A. Evgrafov and I.B. Zadyhailo:

“Only small isolated groups work on the creation of a chess machine, and not all the time, but from time to time. <...> This article contains the results of the work we have done in 1961-1962.”

"*) While making a report at a seminar at Moscow State University, G.M. Adelson-Velsky reported that he had conducted similar experiments. He claimed that he had succeeded in achieving the power of playing an automaton corresponding to approximately the fourth category. Unfortunately, the report was devoted only to the implementation technique busting, and the degree of use of chess theory did not say anything. The games played by the machine were not published. "

Do you have this article? I checked http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/P/''Problem ... iki''.html, but it looks that №15 is absent.

P.S. I'm finally got it.

https://yadi.sk/d/rDcZHUk-K6G7PA

Не могу отправить Private message. Зайдите на форум kasparovchess в переписки, я ответил там.

[Sergei S. Markoff]

See also quotes from an article in the journal "Problems of Cybernetics" No. 15, 1965, which was written by E.A. Evgrafov and I.B. Zadyhailo:

“Only small isolated groups work on the creation of a chess machine, and not all the time, but from time to time. <...> This article contains the results of the work we have done in 1961-1962.”

"*) While making a report at a seminar at Moscow State University, G.M. Adelson-Velsky reported that he had conducted similar experiments. He claimed that he had succeeded in achieving the power of playing an automaton corresponding to approximately the fourth category. Unfortunately, the report was devoted only to the implementation technique busting, and the degree of use of chess theory did not say anything. The games played by the machine were not published. "

P.S. I'm finally got it.

https://yadi.sk/d/rDcZHUk-K6G7PA

So, in brief, what we can see here. They did some work in 1961—1962 and provides us with some routines for M-20 (machine code + comments). This code reencodes chess position structure to obtain piece-to-field interactions table that includes 7 different features (1. Piece attacks field and can move to it, 2. Pieces can move, but not attacking, 3. Piece can't move but attacking, 4. Piece attacks field seme-inderictly (through a piece that attacks field), 5. The same through a pawn that attacks field, 6. Piece attacks field indirectly (through piece that don't attack field), 7. Pawn can move to a field but there are obstacles (field is occupied or intermediate field is occupied).

They also refers to Smilga to whom they discussed the problem despite he has a different views.

Also there is a reference to Adelson-Velsky (who created chess-playing program playing at tle level of 4th grade, but they never seen any games of it).

[Gerd Isenberg]

Thank you both Roman and Sergei for providing that information on Shura-Bura's Program!

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Thank you both Roman and Sergei for providing that information on Shura-Bura's Program!

Thank you, Gerd!

BTW, some small corrections on the role of Smilga. He wasn't a programmer and he never worked in Steklov's institute. He was a physicist and science journalist [1]. He wrote a paper with popular overview of the chess programming area [2]. Evgrafov and Zadyhailo mentions him in their paper in [3] this way:

"When thinking about the information needed for a chess player, we worked closely with V. P. Smilga. Although his views on the task as a whole were different from ours (see [A]), this cooperation was very valuable to us. We take the opportunity to express our gratitude to V. P. Smilga".

[A] here — is the wrong (shifted) link to Lasker probably instead of correct link to [4]. I can't found [4], but I will obtain the paper version shortly.

1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Смилга,_В ... р_Петрович
2. Смилга В. Возможен ли шахматный автомат? / Шахматы в СССР, №6, 1956 // https://yadi.sk/i/s2DgNUFKzcu7Ow [Smilga V. Is a chess automation possible? / Chess in USSR, No. 6, 1956]
3. М. А. Евграфов, И. Б. Задыхайло (1965). Некоторые соображения о программировании шахматной игры / Проблемы кибернетики, №15, 1965 // https://yadi.sk/d/rDcZHUk-K6G7PA [Marat A. Evgrafov, Igor B. Zadyhailo (1965). Some Considerations for Chess Game Programming. in Problems of Cybernetic, No. 15]
4. Смилга В.П. Электронный гроссмейстер / Знание — сила, №12, М., 1963. [Smilga V.P. Electronic grandmaster / Znaniye — Sila, No. 12, 1963]