HOW A COMPUTER CHOOSES ITS NEXT CHESS MOVE. Nick sent me this article by Ethan Chiel at the Fusion site which shows how a computer chooses its chess moves. A man named Matt Wattenberg has developed a program which “visualizes the computer’s thought process in real time”.
The first part of the article shows the possible series of choices for both players after different possible first moves by white. The moves are shown as colored threads.
What I liked best is the second chessboard, which shows the computer examining a number of possible moves before making the obvious move, after a hypothetical blunder by white which gives away a queen. (Of course the computer would take a fraction of a second to examine those moves).
If you’d like to play the computer, click here.
I tried it for a few moves. The computer is programmed to take some time on each move so that there is time for you to see what the computer is considering.