2

It is interesting that Turing worked with some of the best British chess players among them Golombek and Alexander. I am not sure how to characterize it, but he is considered a creative genius at a level and was certainly very important and successful in the code-breaking efforts during WW2.

He would play with Golombek, who I think could allow Turing to change color at a point of his choosing during the game. Although, I am not sure of the constraints; maybe it was up to a certain move. Golombek could then beat Turing from Turing's presumably losing position. I have never played at those odds, but I can't imagine, assuming that Golombek was playing to win, that Turing had much of a position, to begin with. On the other hand, perhaps, Golombek would try to keep a more or less even game so that he had chances. Anyway, I really wonder how weak of a player Turing was and if perhaps some of his games survive.

Rewan Demontay
  • 16,942
  • 4
  • 65
  • 109
releseabe
  • 753
  • 5
  • 9
  • 3
    Only [one game found](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=96117) from 1952 and Turing lost. – TheSimpliFire Dec 30 '19 at 08:29
  • 2
    Unclear that this a real game or one using the "program" Turing had written which, as I understand it, was just a series of rules that a player would follow simulating being a computer. It is interesting that as late as the 1970s some good players who also were computer scientists could not imagine a world champ computer chess player. – releseabe Dec 30 '19 at 08:33
  • 2
    The text indicates that it was not Turing, who played that game. I have a strong suspicion that you will not be able to get an answer for this question as I could also find no games that he played, and thus, cannot make any reasonable guess. I will say that if he were able to hang with Golombek, even for a while, he must have been a fair bit stronger than just a pure beginner. Of course, I also suspect that had he not had more important things to do, and devoted himself to the game, he would have easily been a Master, if not a lot stronger. – PhishMaster Dec 30 '19 at 11:56

1 Answers1

1

A similar question was asked on another forum a few years ago, and the answer that was given was "Alan Turing wasn’t a very strong chess player at all. He was probably at the level of a beginner. He certainly knew the rules of the game, but not much more."

Wikipedia notes, regarding the chess program that Turing and a colleague designed, "... the algorithm is primarily designed around the decision to take a piece or not; according to Turing, the resulting gameplay produces a low level game of chess, which he considered commensurate with his self-described average skill level at the game." According to the article, Turing's algorithm (it's really difficult to call it a "program", as it never ran on any actual computer - Turning only ever "ran" it on pencil and paper) only looked two half-moves ahead, applied a static evaluation function to each resulting position, and selected as the next move whichever one led to the highest average evaluation after the following half-move.

patbarron
  • 3,579
  • 1
  • 15
  • 37