Ken+Thompson

an American computer scientist and pioneer. Beside other things, best known for his contributions at the Bell Laboratories in creating the Unix operating system together with [|Dennis Ritchie], in 2011 awarded with the [|Japan Prize] for their contribution.
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 * [[image:1997_ken_thompson.jpg link="http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Ken,Thompson/"]] ||~  || **Kenneth Lane (Ken) Thompson**,

Along with Joe Condon, Ken Thompson was creator of the chess entity Belle, the winner of the 3rd World Computer Chess Championship 1980 in Linz. From the mid 70s until 2000, Ken Thompson worked on creating Endgame Databases of up to six pieces. || toc =Photos= Tony Marsland, Dave Slate, David Levy, Claude Shannon, Ken Thompson, Betty Shannon, and Tom Truscott ||
 * Ken Thompson ||~  ||^   ||
 * [[image:Chess_Pioneers_Mittman_Newborn_Marsland_Slate_Levy_Shannon_Thompson_Truscott.c1980.102665753.lg.jpg width="560" link="http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/102665753"]] ||
 * Chess pioneers in [|Sacher Hotel Vienna], Austria 1980: Ben Mittman, Monty Newborn,
 * [[image:Valvo_Mitman_Newborn_Thompson_Hyatt.Dallas.1982.jpg width="560"link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-430b9bbdcd092"]] ||
 * Mittman, Newborn, Thompson and Hyatt (right) at ACM 1982 in Dallas, Texas, 1982 ||
 * [[image:Beal_Thompson_Newborn_Botvinnik_WCCC_New_York_1983.jpg width="560"link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-430b9bbe3f6f0"]] ||
 * Beal, Thompson, Newborn, and Botvinnik at 4th WCCC 1983 in New York City ||
 * [[image:Lazarov_Thompson_Donskoy_KAISSA_team.Montreal.jpg width="560"link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-430b9bbd75253"]] ||
 * Vladimir Arlazarov, Ken Thompson and Mikhail Donskoy 1992 ||
 * [[image:Lazarov_Thompson_Donskoy_KAISSA_team.Montreal.jpg width="560"link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-430b9bbd75253"]] ||
 * Vladimir Arlazarov, Ken Thompson and Mikhail Donskoy 1992 ||
 * Vladimir Arlazarov, Ken Thompson and Mikhail Donskoy 1992 ||

=Education= Ken Thompson, born 1943 in [|New Orleans] [|Louisiana], received a [|Bachelor of Science] in 1965 and [|Masters degree] in 1966, both in [|Electrical Engineering and Computer Science], from the University of California, Berkeley. Thompson's Masters thesis advisor was Elwyn Berlekamp.

=Bell Labs= With Dennis Ritchie, Ken worked on the [|Multics] operating system before they joined Bell Labs, where Ken remained about a quarter of a century and realized all the mentioned achievements in computer science.

Further Contributions
Beside his contributions to Unix and computer chess at the Bell Labs, Thompson developed the [|B programming language], a precursor to Ritchie's C, and in 1992 together with [|Rob Pike] the [|UTF-8], a variable length character encoding for [|Unicode].

Retirement
As of December 1, 2000, Ken Thompson retired from Bell Labs to pursue flight instructing full time, which achieved honorable attention in the computer chess scene:

Quote by Jaap van den Herik in 2000 //From Cognition to Perception// :

=Google= Since 2007 Ken Thompson works at Google Inc. in [|Mountain View, California] as a Distinguished Engineer, and co-created Google's programming language Go.

=See also=
 * Belle
 * Kasparov versus Deep Thought 1989 documentary
 * Reading Chess
 * Thompson's Databases

=Selected Publications=

1970 ...

 * Ken Thompson, [|Dennis Ritchie] (**1971**). //[|UNIX Programmer's Manual]//. Bell Telephone Laboratories, [|5th Edition 1974 as pdf], [|7th Edition 1979]

1980 ...

 * Ben Mittman, Tony Marsland, Monroe Newborn, Kathe Spracklen, Ken Thompson (**1981**). //[|Computer chess: Master level play in 1981?]// ACM 81: Proceedings of the ACM '81 conference
 * Ben Mittman, Ken Thompson (**1981**). //Second World Microcomputer Chess Championship, Travemünde and Hamburg, West Germany//. ICCA Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 2
 * Joe Condon, Ken Thompson (**1982**). //Belle Chess Hardware//, Advances in Computer Chess 3, Reprinted (**1988**) in Computer Chess Compendium
 * Ken Thompson (**1982**). //Computer Chess Strength//. Advances in Computer Chess 3
 * Joe Condon, Ken Thompson (**1983**). //BELLE//. Chess Skill in Man and Machine (ed. P.W. Frey), 2nd edition, pp. 201-210 (of 82-118). Springer-Verlag, New York. ISBN 0 387-90790 4 / 3-540-90790-4.
 * Ken Thompson (**1983**). //4th World Computer Chess Championship//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 6, No. 4 » WCCC 1983
 * Ken Thompson (**1984**). //[|Reflections on Trusting Trust]//, [|Communications of the ACM], Vol. 27, No. 8, ACM Classic by Ken Thompson, also appears in //[|ACM Turing Award Lectures: The First Twenty Years 1965-1985]// Copyright © 1987 by the ACM press and //[|Computers Under Attack: Intruders, Worms, and Viruses]// Copyright © 1990 by the ACM press
 * John Roycroft, Ken Thompson (**1986**). //Queen and Pawn on a2 against Queen//. Chess Endgame Consultants and Publishers, London
 * John Roycroft, Ken Thompson (**1986**). //Queen and Pawn on a6 against Queen//. Chess Endgame Consultants and Publishers, London
 * John Roycroft, Ken Thompson (**1986**). //Queen and Pawn on b7 against Queen//. Chess Endgame Consultants and Publishers, London
 * Ken Thompson (**1986**). //Retrograde Analysis of Certain Endgames//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, [|pdf]
 * Ken Thompson (**1986**). //An Example of QPvQ//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4
 * Garth Courtois Jr., Ken Thompson (**1987**). //ACM's 18th North American Computer-Chess Championship (NACCC). Dallas, Texas, October 25-27, 1987//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4 » ACM 1987
 * Ken Thompson (**1989**). //Results and Games - The 20th North American Computer-Chess Championship//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4 » ACM 1989

1990 ...

 * Henry S. Baird, Ken Thompson (**1990**). //[|Reading Chess]//. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 12, No. 6, 552-559, [|pdf]
 * Ken Thompson (**1990**). //KQPKQ and KRPKR Endings//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4
 * Ken Thompson (**1990**). //Results and Games - The ACM 21st North American Computer-Chess Championship.// ICCA Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4 » ACM 1990
 * Ken Thompson (**1991**). //Chess Endgames Vol. 1.// ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1
 * Ken Thompson (**1991**). //New Results for KNPKB and KNPKN Endgames//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1
 * Ken Thompson, Jonathan Schaeffer (**1995**). //Tributes to Tony Scherzer//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 » Tony Scherzer
 * Jaap van den Herik (**1996**). //Two Interviews with Ken Thompson//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 3 » Advances in Computer Chess 8
 * Ken Thompson (**1996**). //6-Piece Endgames//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4
 * Wil Sparreboom, Hans Kuijf, Ken Thompson et al. (**1996**). //[|TascBase]//. Rotterdam : Tasc B.V.
 * Ken Thompson (**1997**). //6-Piece Endgames//. Advances in Computer Chess 8

2000 ...

 * Ken Thompson (**2000**). //The Longest: KRNKNN in 262//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1
 * Ken Thompson (**2001**). //[|CLAUDE SHANNON (1916-2001): FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS]//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 » Claude Shannon
 * [|Dennis Ritchie] (**2001**). //[|Ken, Unix, and Games]//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24. No. 2
 * Guy Haworth, Ernst A. Heinz (**2001**). //[|Ken]//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2
 * Jonathan Schaeffer (**2001**). //[|Ken Thompson's Influence on Computer Games Research]//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2
 * Jaap van den Herik (**2001**). //[|The Bell Captain]//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2
 * Feng-hsiung Hsu (**2001**). //Ken Thompson and DEEP BLUE//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2
 * Ken Thompson (**2004**). //Obituary: Michael Joseph Valvo (1942-2004)//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 4 » Michael Valvo

=External Links=
 * [|Ken Thompson's ICGA Tournaments]
 * [|Ken Thompson from Wikipedia]
 * [|Kenneth Thompson - Wikiquote]
 * [|Kenneth Lane Thompson] from [|Hotel Genius]
 * [|Fellow Awards | Ken Thompson] from The Computer History Museum
 * [|Oral History of Kenneth Thompson] March 7, 2005 Video © 2005 The Computer History Museum available as [|pdf]
 * [|Highlights Kenneth Thompson Oral History] March 7, 2005 Video © 2005 The Computer History Museum
 * [|Middle Game: Computer Chess Comes of Age - Brute Force vs Knowledge] from The Computer History Museum
 * [|Ken Thompson] from The Computer History Museum
 * [|The Programmer Dress Code | CodeThinked] by [|Justin Etheredge], December 6, 2007
 * [|Leave the K-factor alone!] by Ken Thompson, ChessBase News, May 7, 2009
 * [|Kenneth L. Thompson | 1994 Computer Pioneer Award] from IEEE Computer Society Awards
 * [|Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie win Japan 'Nobel' Prize], ChessBase News, January 26, 2011
 * [|Ritchie & Thompson - Belle for Chess] from [|I Programmer - programming, reviews and projects], January 26, 2011

=References= =What links here?= include page="Ken Thompson" component="backlinks" limit="200"
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