Item #1403 Programming a Computer for Playing Chess. CLAUDE SHANNON.
Programming a Computer for Playing Chess
Programming a Computer for Playing Chess

Programming a Computer for Playing Chess

In 1950, “Shannon published a monograph - once again, the first one ever written on the topic - called ‘Programming a Computer for Playing Chess.’ The ideas set forth there are still central to the design of all computer games...” -T.R. Reid, The Chip

FIRST PRINTING IN SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of the first technical paper on computer chess.

“The father of the modern chess computer was MIT’s Claude Shannon, a mathematician regarded as the founder of information theory, who in 1950 published a paper called ‘Programming a Computer for Playing Chess. Shannon identified some of the algorithms and techniques that form the backbone of chess programs today” (Nate Silver, The Signal and the Noise).

Shannon “did not present a particular chess program, but discussed many of the basic problems involved. The framework he introduced has guided most of the subsequent analysis of the problem..." (Newell and Simon 1963, 42-44).

Note: A much shorter and less detailed version appeared in Scientific American a month earlier.

In Philosophical Magazine, 7th series, 41, no. 314 (March 1950), pp. 256-75. London: Taylor & Francis, 1950. Octavo, original wrappers. Institutional stamps on front cover, toning to spine and edges. Extremely rare in original wrappers.

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