Technological gambit: the history of chess technologies

The first chess technology is considered to be a fraudulent chess-playing machine, designed by the Austrian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen in the 18th century. The machine was a wax figure of a chess player behind a wooden chess table with a built-in mechanism, which was supposedly automatic.

Actually, there was a person inside the table. With the help of mirrors and magnets, he could determine the current position of a chess piece and make a move. The growing popularity of technology allowed Kempelen to travel the world and earn money. Similar inventions began to appear in other countries.

Although the chess machine was in fact a fraud, it has contributed to the popularization of chess.

Until the 19th century, chess tournaments were held with no time limit, and games could last for days. In 1851, at the first international competition in London, the game was even stopped because both opponents fell asleep.

32 years later, the first chess clock for time control appeared. It was introduced by chess player Thomas Bright Wilson. The clock consisted of two dials but had neither buttons nor a special flag.

In 1988, Bobby Fischer patented a clock that is still used by chess players. The Fischer clock adds a certain number of seconds per move, and if a player does not meet the time limit, the flag drops.

The FIDE DGT electronic clock was only introduced in 1994.

Scientists have been working on chess programs since the middle of the 20th century. In 1948, the English mathematician Alan Turing wrote the first algorithm. This made it possible to beat professional chess players without any skills. The algorithm became the first step to computer code.

The first computer machine, MANIAC I, was introduced in 1952 in the US. It was aimed to choose the best possible move in a game. MANIAC I did not have a copy and could not exchange information with other computers but had two improved versions.

After 18 years since the creation of MANIAC I, the first tournament between chess machines took place. The winner was a computer from the American company Control Data Corporation.

In 1988, the world saw the first computer that could beat a grandmaster. It was named after the Deep Thought computer from the science fiction novels by Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". The future has come, and its successor Deep Blue won a match against world chess champion Garry Kasparov.

The history of chess technologies has led to computers that have made it possible for people to play against each other. The first online chess platform was the Internet Chess Club, launched in 1992.

In 2007, chess.com was created, one of the most popular resources. Users could play against opponents from different countries, as well as save and share their games. Today the website is still working, and with the introduction of the Stockfish engine chess players can analyze their matches.

Another popular service was launched in 2010 – lichess.org. Today it contains one of the largest databases with digitized games.

With the introduction of new technologies, offline chess has not lost its relevance. Today, you can play chess in bars and restaurants, at corporate tournaments, and business meetings. Also, you can apply technologies on the real board.

The intelligent platform idChess allows you to broadcast offline matches. Players can also share links to their games. These and other interesting features are available in the idChess mobile app.

idChess is based on computer vision and machine learning technologies. Moves are recognized in real time, no matter the size, material, or shape of the board. The idChess technology can be applied to both small pocket chess and large half-height human pieces. The neural network algorithm allows taking into account various factors, for example, pieces falling or camera overshooting.

The organizers of chess tournaments use idChess to broadcast matches. idChess can have an unlimited number of boards. Setting up the broadcast is easy and takes no time.

You can't imagine training without chess programs. Chess schools use idChess in their educational process to digitize training games. Chess players can record games using idChess and save them to the library.

The idChess mobile app now has chess puzzles. You can solve them in the app or scan tasks from textbooks. Artificial intelligence will help you choose the best solution. Learning with idChess is technologically useful.

The wheels of chess progress never stop turning. The technologies are changing and improving, just like modern chess games. AI is now connected to chess life, it is used in digitization programs and chess bots.