Hydra: Report and technical overview

The idea to let machines play games like Chess is quite old, with the Turk11 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Turk&oldid=968314029 being one of the first hints. With the invention of computers, this idea got a new boost, and soon the first chess programs were presented. It took about 50 years until it was clear that the machines are superior chess players, far beyond the playing strengths of any human players. In the 1970s, the era of efficient search engines started and in 2004, the chess program Hydra clearly crossed the 3000 Elo mark, ahead of all other machines and human players. In this paper, we present a review on the chess program Hydra, on a technical level as well as from a social perspective.

Checkmate: A Chess Program for African-American Male Adolescents

This investigation looked at the influence of a chess program on adolescents’ attitudes towards schooling at an alternative charter school in a high-risk urban context. Participants included school administrators, subject teachers, and 15 chess players, all of whom were African American male students from low-income backgrounds. Interview data revealed that the game of chess had a positive impact on the adolescents’ attitudes toward schooling in a number of ways by: (1) engaging these adolescents in interactions with a supportive school professional, (2) having the students socialize in a violence-free environment, and (3) providing students with opportunities to explore life beyond their neighborhood.