Ever since online games had introduced on the internet, many programmers were inspired to develop their own versions of online games. In today’s generation, chess games are said to be extremely popular. Actually the basic concepts of online chess games are easy to understand although the programming itself is quite tricky. In this article we will examine the state of computer chess programming from previous computer games up to now.

Odessa is one of the computer chess program used in chess tournaments. It was created and developed by Larry Atkin. Actually Odessa is one of the participants for the Computer Chess Championship in 1970’s. According to Atkin, most computer chess programs symbolize a tree search pattern wherein the computer spots chess board as an eight by eight array of numbers. Likewise, chess pieces are represented by positive and negative numbers. In addition to that, Atkin also explained that most computer chess programs comprise of three modules, an evaluation function, a quiescence function and a generator. Since chess involves millions of chess positions that even a super computer could not calculate, Atkin concluded that computer chess programming requires additional modules.

The first Module observes the possible moves that a player can make. This makes use of a tree wherein it can easily recognize the possible moves from the original position. Then, list all the possible situations from a move. On the other hand, the second module handles the evaluation process. From the possible branches of possible moves, it will be converted into algorithms which involve chess concepts and strategies. This can be compared to a real chess match wherein both players response in every move. These include chess openings, king safety, attacks and defenses. But what’s the purpose of quiescence function node? Since, the first two nodes can’t opt to do the best position. The quiescence section needs to evaluate the end position and other branches which could be the possible move.

However, Computer chess program doesn’t end there. Another man comes up with a new idea about chess programming. Since the “brute thinking” was impending the world of chess programming, Kaplan believed that the concept is changing. Since Kaplan has special knowledge in programming he decided to improve the chess program. At that time he was a Junior Chess Champion and a national master as well. Luckily he was able to programmed Turbostar.

Until now Turbostar is then used for playing computer chess. But sad to say, there are many other versions of chess program which are more innovative and powerful. In the modern age, we have the “SPACE” which was developed by Fujitsu LLC. This super computer can process raw details for about 1.3TB. This also features 8GB RAM and game analysis of over 4 million games around the world.

In today’s computer technology standing, it’s not impossible to create thousands of computer chess programs which can be match up to humans. It’s not impossible for a computer to defeat a man in a chess battle. Only then, computers are not perfect. Although they can work fast, still computers have weaknesses.