Socratizing

An interesting note on *Socrates' game play: in competition against Deep Thought, the hardware-based analysis of Deep Thought made a minor miscalculation.

To be precise, it miscalculated the coefficient of King safety as it planned out its strategy for a few mid-game moves. An impending exchange of Queens was about to alter the power structure on the board.

Deep Thought performed its calculations without taking this into account.

*Socrates, on the other hand, used a more flexible software-based system that correctly analyzed the situation both before and after the Queen exchange.

This was not enough to turn the tide of the game, but it did seem to indicate a limitation in Deep Thought's design.