I would like to thank the many pioneers from the worlds of chess and computer science who worked together on what became the longest-running science experiment in history: the quest to build a world-champion chess machine. My life and my career were made immeasurably richer by standing on their shoulders and by participating in this quest. Many of their names and contributions are highlighted throughout this book, while several have been my worthy opponents and others my fast friends.
Frederic Friedel sparked my interest in chess machines, although he loves them so much I’ve never been completely sure whose side he’s on. Ken Thompson lent his invaluable expertise and goodwill to my sport and to my matches against machines. David Levy and Monty Newborn saw computer chess as a way to teach the world about machine intelligence and chess. Jonathan Schaeffer, Anthony Marsland, and Donald Michie contributed decades of insightful writing on game-playing machines in addition to their many technical achievements. Matthias Wüllenweber and Frans Morsch created ChessBase and Fritz, the programs that defined the computer era of professional chess. Thomas Anantharaman, Murray Campbell, Joseph Hoane, and Feng-hsiung Hsu created Deep Thought at Carnegie Mellon, which turned into Deep Blue at IBM. They deservedly seized the grail dreamt of by Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, and Norbert Wiener, and it was my fortune, not misfortune, to be holding it at the time. My friend Shay Bushinsky and his colleague Amir Ban created the remarkable program Junior, my opponent in my final human-machine match in 2003.
In recent years, many experts have had the patience to personally contribute to my education in artificial intelligence and robotics. Nick Bostrom and his colleagues at Oxford Martin’s Future of Humanity Institute; Andrew McAfee at MIT; Noel Sharkey at the University of Sheffield; Nigel Crook at Oxford Brookes University; David Ferrucci at Bridgewater. I’ve never met Douglas Hofstadter or Hans Moravec, but their writings on human and machine cognition are especially provocative and essential.
Special thanks to: My agent at the Gernert Company, Chris Parris-Lamb, and my editor at PublicAffairs, Ben Adams. They have shown impressive resilience in adjusting deadlines to accommodate a chessplayer’s eternal love of time trouble. Peter Osnos, Clive Priddle, and Jaime Leifer, the terrific team at PublicAffairs. My collaborator of nearly nineteen years, Mig Greengard, whose former lives in programming and chess made him even more indispensable than usual on this project.