Mac Hack

Mac Hack is a computer chess program written by Richard D. Greenblatt. Also known as Mac Hac and [http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6176 The Greenblatt Chess Program] , it was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mac Hack VI was the first chess program to play in human tournament conditions, the first to be granted a chess rating, and the first to win against a person in tournament play.

Its name comes from Project MAC ("Multi-Level Access Computer" or "Machine-Aided Cognition"cite web
title=Acronyms and Abbreviations Used at MIT
author=Snover, Janet and Bill Litant
publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date=undated
url=http://web.mit.edu/acronym/
accessdate=2006-12-29 ] ) a large sponsored research program located at MIT. Over time, it became a hack in the sense of ""cite book
last = Levy
first = Steven
title = Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
url =
year = Updated 2 January, 2001
publisher = Penguin (Non-Classics)
id = ISBN 0-1410-0051-1:*gutenberg
no=729
name=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy] , a book by Steven Levy in which Greenblatt appears. The number VI refers to the PDP-6 machine for which it was written.

Development

Greenblatt was inspired to write Mac Hack upon reading MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 41,*cite web
title=A Chess Playing Program (AIM-41 - PDF)
author=Kotok, Alan
publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date=undated
url=ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-041.pdf
accessdate=2006-12-26] or a similar document describing Kotok-McCarthy, which he saw while visiting Stanford University in 1965. A good chess player, he was inspired to make improvements at MIT in 1965 and 1966.cite paper | author=Greenblatt, Richard D. | title=Oral History of Richard Greenblatt | publisher=Computer History Museum | date=12 January2005 | url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Greenblatt_Richard/greenblatt.oral_history_transcript.2005.102657935.pdf | accessdate=2006-07-01]

In about 2004, he had an opportunity to tell Alan Kotok that "7 7" would have done better than "4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0" in Kotok-McCarthy's REPLYS subroutine which generated each player's next plausible moves.

Greenblatt added fifty heuristics that reflected his knowledge of chess. Mac Hack was written in MIDAS macro assembly language on the PDP-6 computer DEC donated to MIT. Many versions may exist. During this period the program was compiled about two hundred times.

Tournament play

By the time it was published in 1969 Mac Hack had played in eighteen tournaments and hundreds of complete games. The PDP-6 became an honorary member of the Massachusetts State Chess Associationcite web
author = Greenblatt, Richard D., Eastlake, Donald E. III, and Crocker, Stephen D.
title=The Greenblatt Chess Program (AIM-174)
publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date=1 April, 1969
url=http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6176
accessdate=2006-12-27] and the United States Chess FederationFact|date=February 2007, a requirement for playing tournaments. In 1966 the program was rated 1243 when it lost in the Massachusetts Amateur Championship. In 1967, the program played in four tournaments, winning three games, losing twelve, and drawing three. In 1967 Mac Hack VI defeated a person with a USCF rating of 1510 in game 3, tournament 2 of the Massachusetts State Championship.

Greenblatt published the program with Donald E. Eastlake III and Stephen D. Crocker in MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 174 and recorded some games there.

Influence

Mac Hack played by teletype, was ported to the PDP-10 and was the first computer chess program to be widely distributed. Greenblatt and Tom Knight went on to advance artificial intelligence and build the Lisp machine in 1973.

ee also

*Richard Greenblatt

Notes

References

*cite web
author = Greenblatt, Richard D., Eastlake, Donald E. III, and Crocker, Stephen D.
title=The Greenblatt Chess Program (AIM-174)
publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date=1 April, 1969
url=http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6176
accessdate=2006-12-27
*cite web
title=The Greenblatt Chess Program (AIM-174)
author=MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CSAIL Digital Archive - Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Series
date=April 1969
url=http://www.ai.mit.edu/research/publications/browse/0100browse.shtml:* AIM-174 [ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/0-499/AIM-174.ps PostScript] . Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.:* AIM-174 [ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-174.pdf PDF] . Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
* Photo: "Richard Greenblatt and Thomas Knight with the CADR LISP Machine at MIT", cite web
title=Computer History Museum accession number L02645385
author=Unknown photographer. Courtesy of MIT.
date=1978
url=http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-431614f64ea3e
accessdate=2006-12-29
*cite web
author = Pearson Education, Addison-Wesley Professional
title = Donald E. Eastlake
date = 2006
url = http://www.informit.com/authors/bio.aspx?a=5f1734d3-42df-49f0-b2e2-61007b188cd1
accessdate = 2006-12-26
*cite web
author=Computer History Museum
title=Opening Moves: Origins of Computer Chess: 2.4 Getting Going
date=undated
url= http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/main.php?sec=thm-42b86c2029762&sel=thm-42b86c7bdbaf1
*cite web
author=Computer History Museum Oral History Program
title=Richard Greenblatt interview by Gardner Hendrie 12 January, 2005, PDF and video excerpt retrieved on 27 December, 2006
date=ongoing
url= http://archive.computerhistory.org/search/oh/oral_history.php
*cite web
title=Computer Chess History by Bill Wall
date=2006 | url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/comphis.htm
accessdate=2006-12-27