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the chess program on a [|MANIAC I] (Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator, and Computer or Mathematical Analyzer, Numerator, Integrator, and Computer), the machine designed and build by a team around John von Neumann and [|Nicholas Metropolis] at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The MANIAC I chess program was written in 1956 by a group of H-bomb researchers, Stanislaw Ulam, Paul Stein, Mark Wells, James Kister, William Walden and John Pasta. Due to lack of computing power, only a chess variant with a reduced 6 x 6 board was implemented, without bishops, double-step for pawns and castling, later called Los Alamos Chess.
 * MANIAC I**,

=Photos= =Description= MANIAC I performed a brute-force Shannon Type A strategy, pure minimax. During game play with 11,000 ops./sec, it searched 4 plies deep in about 12 minutes to find its best move. The program was written in 600 words of machine code. Its evaluation took material and mobility under account, both incrementally updated during make and unmake move.
 * [[image:2-2.MANIAC.LAT1994.L02645387.LANL.lg.jpg width="640" link="http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=stl-431614f64c5ba"]] ||
 * Los Alamos scientists Paul Stein (left) and [|Nick Metropolis] playing chess with the MANIAC computer ||

=Quotes= Quote from //Chronology of Computing// compiled by David Singmaster

Fred Guterl
Quote by Fred Guterl from //Silicon gambit// :

Roger Snodgrass
Roger Snodgrass in //LANL: The Rest of the Story// on MANIAC and Mark Wells

=Selected Games= MANIAC I played a game against a young lady who had learnt the game a week earlier. It was the first time a human had lost to a computer in a game of intellectual skill : code [Event "6x6 Los Alamos Chess"] [Site "Los Alamos"] [Date "1956.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "MANIAC I"] [Black "Human"] [Result "1-0"]

1.d3 b4 2.Nf3 d4 3.b3 e4 4.Ne1 a4 5.bxa4 Nxa4 6.Kd2 Nc3 7.Nxc3 bxc3+ 8.Kd1 f4 9.a3 Rb6 10.a4 Ra6 11.a5 Kd5 12.Qa3 Qb5 13.Qa2+ Ke5 14.Rb1 Rxa5 15.Rxb5 Rxa2 16.Rb1 Ra5 17.f3 Ra4 18.fxe4 c4 19.Nf3+ Kd6 20.e5+ Kd5 21.exf6Q Nc5 22.Qf6xd4+ Kc6 23.Nf3-e5 1-0 code

=See also=
 * Acronym
 * Disease
 * History of Computer Chess
 * Nils Barricelli - The Birth of the Computer

=Selected Publications=
 * Paul Stein, Stanislaw Ulam (**1957**). //Experiments in chess on electronic computing machines//. Chess Review, 13 January 1957.
 * James Kister, Paul Stein, Stanislaw Ulam, William Walden, Mark Wells (**1957**). //[|Experiments in Chess]//. Journal of the ACM, Vol. 4, No. 2
 * Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, Herbert Simon (**1958**). //Chess Playing Programs and the Problem of Complexity//. IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 320-335. Reprinted (1963) in [|Computers and Thought] (eds. Edward Feigenbaum and Julian Feldman), pp. 39-70. McGraw-Hill, [|pdf]
 * Paul Stein (**1986**). //[|Experiments in Chess on Electronic Computing Machines: Some Early Efforts]//. in Stanislaw Ulam (**1986**). //[|Science, Computers, and People - From the Tree of Mathematics]//. [|Birkhäuser]
 * [|Herbert L. Anderson] (**1986**). //Metropolis, Monte Carlo, and the MANIAC//. [|Los Alamos Science], [|pdf]

=External Links=

Chess Program

 * [|Classic Computer Chess - ... The programs of yesteryear] by Carey, hosted by the [|Internet Archive]
 * [|Silicon gambit] by [|Fred Guterl], [|Discover], June 01, 1996
 * [|LANL: The Rest of the Story] by [|Roger Snodgrass], Los Alamos Monitor Editor, July 16, 2008
 * [|MANIAC I - Mensch, Los Alamos, 1956 - Wikipedia.de] (German)

Computer

 * [|MANIAC I from Wikipedia]
 * [|BRL Report 1961 - MANIAC I]

Misc
> [|Wolfgang Schlüter], Volker Kriegel, [|Curt Cress], [|Hans Peter Ströer], [|Nippy Noya], Alan Skidmore, [|Rainer Brüninghaus] > media type="custom" key="25552472"
 * [|maniac - Wiktionary]
 * [|mania - Wiktionary]
 * [|Mania from Wikipedia]
 * Volker Kriegel & [|Mild Maniac Orchestra] - Bahia Next Year, [|NDR Hamburg] 1976, [|YouTube] Video

=References= =What links here?= include page="MANIAC I" component="backlinks" limit="40"
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