Los Alamos chess game 2 (after P-K3) is solved; black wins in 21 moves

Abstract

In a defining event for the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the first game of chess skill between a human and computer took place in 1956 (Chess Review (1957) 13–17; The Machine Plays Chess? (1978) Pergamon Press). In this match, Dr Martin Kruskal from Princeton University played White against the MANIAC I computer at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico, programmed by Paul Stein and Mark Wells. Due to the very limited capacity of computers at the time, which couldn’t handle a full 8×8 chess board, the competitors played “Los Alamos Chess”, a minichess variant using a 6×6 board without bishops. For this game, White played without a queen, opened with P-K3 and ultimately won against the machine opponent in 38 moves. Here we show that Black can force a win in 21 moves.