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Deep Thought (chess computer)
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Deep Thought was a computer designed to play chess. It was second in the line of chess computers developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu, starting with ChipTest and culminating in Deep Blue. Deep Thought was easily defeated in both games of a 2-game match with Kasparov in 1989 as well as in a play by email match with Michael Valvo.
It was named after Deep Thought, a fictional computer in Douglas Adams' series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The naming of chess computers has continued in this vein with Deep Blue, Deep Fritz, Deep Junior, etc. ("Deep" here generally refers to the special ability to use multiple processing units.)
Deep Thought won the North American Computer Chess Championship in 1988 and the World Computer Chess Championship in the year 1989, and its rating, according to FIDE was 2551. Compare this to beginners at chess whose rating is below 1000, and chess grandmasters whose ratings vary at around 2500-2700. Modern world champions are rated around 2800.
In 1994, Deep Thought 2 won the North American Computer Chess Championship for the fifth time, with its rating estimated at around 2600. It was sponsored by IBM. Some engineers who designed Deep Thought also worked in the design of Deep Thought 2. Its algorithms were quite simple evaluation functions, but it could examine half a billion chess positions per move in tournament games, which is sufficient to reach depth of 10 or 11 moves ahead in complex positions. Despite that, using the technique of singular extensions it could also follow lines of forced moves that reach even further, which is how it once found checkmate in 37 moves.