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Saturday/ national chess day 🐴

Happy National Chess Day (here in the United States).

I asked Gemini AI to give me an overview of the history of chess machines. Supremacy for humans was already over some 30 years ago— in 1997.
That was the year in which IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue defeated reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match.

The history of chess machines spans from 18th-century mechanical hoaxes to modern supercomputers and AI.

1.  Mechanical Automata & Early Inventions (Pre-Computer Era)

    • 1770 – The Turk: Built by Wolfgang von Kempelen, this famous life-sized wooden figure dressed in Ottoman clothing appeared to play chess autonomously. In reality, it was a mechanical hoax with a skilled human chess player hidden inside the cabinet. It famously played against historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. 
    • 1912 – El Ajedrecista: Invented by Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo, this was the world’s first true automated chess-playing machine. Using electromechanical electromagnets, it could play an endgame (such as a king and rook against a lone king) without human intervention. 

2. The Dawn of Computer Chess (1940s–1950s)

    • 1948 – Turochamp: Alan Turing and David Champernowne designed the first theoretical chess-playing algorithm. Because early computers were not yet powerful enough, Turing calculated the moves manually by hand on paper. 
    • 1951 – Ferranti Mark 1 Program: British computer scientist Dietrich Prinz implemented a basic chess algorithm on the Ferranti Mark 1 computer, allowing it to solve “mate-in-two” chess problems. 
    • 1957 – IBM 704 Engine: Alex Bernstein created the first fully functional computer program capable of playing a complete game of chess from start to finish on an IBM 704 mainframe (taking about 8 minutes per move). 

3. Dedicated Chess Computers & Robotic Boards (1970s–1980s)

    • 1980 – Boris Handroid: One of the earliest commercial chess computers featuring a rudimentary robotic arm to move pieces. 
    • Early 1980s – Milton Bradley Chess Robots (Phantom, Grandmaster, Milton): Mass-market boards that used internal electromechanical systems and magnets under the board to pull and slide pieces automatically in response to human moves. 
    • Commercial Dedicates: Standalone electronic chess computers (such as The Chessmaster series) became popular household gadgets in the 1980s. 

4. Grandmaster and World Champion Defeat (1990s)

    • 1988: Deep Thought became the first computer to defeat a chess grandmaster (Bent Larsen) in tournament play.
    • 1997 – Deep Blue: IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue defeated reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, marking the first time a machine beat a human world champion under standard tournament time controls. 

5. Modern Neural Networks & AI (2000s–Present)

    • Engine Dominance: Traditional engines like Stockfish utilized deep calculation trees and advanced heuristics to surpass human capability by vast margins.
    • 2017 – AlphaZero: Developed by DeepMind, AlphaZero used reinforcement learning and neural networks rather than human-programmed heuristics.
      It taught itself chess from scratch in just a few hours and overwhelmingly defeated top engines like Stockfish.
I took this picture at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA, in 2024.

Endgame
In 1950, Claude Shannon published the groundbreaking paper “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess.” About this time, he invented a chess machine called Endgame. The name refers to the machine’s ability to manage a maximum of six pieces, so he focused its computing power on the endgame, or the final moves of a chess game. Going through dozens of relay operations for each play, including a random element that changed its move in certain circumstances, Endgame could respond to an opponent’s move in roughly 10 seconds.

Claude Shannon
Endgame base, circa 1950
Gift of Mary Elizabeth Shannon on behalf of the family of Claude E. Shannon
MIT Museum Collections
Endgame game board, circa 1950 Courtesy of IBM Corporate Archives

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Friday/ gray and cold ☁️

Happy Friday.

There was rain on and off today here in the city in Seattle, with a high 59°F (15°C). That is a far cry from the blazing sun and 100°F (38°C) highs we had in Palm Springs.

Fall colors and the evergreen artificial turf of Miller Playfield in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
A soft drizzle was coming down and even the pickleball courts nearby were deserted at about 6 pm tonight.
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Thursday/ arrival home: day 3 of 3 🛣️

We started out in Bend, Oregon, a little after 8 am this morning.
We first stopped by the very last Blockbuster video rental store in all of the United States (and all of the world, in fact).  We made another stop at the spectacular Smith Rock State Park.
After that we made our way north and west to Ellensburg, and across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.

We took U.S. Route 97 (US 97) from Bend all the way to the Washington-Oregon state line (the Columbia River), and from there to Toppenish in Washington. From Toppenish we took Interstate 82 to Ellensburg, and then Interstate 90 that runs across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.
This is the the very last Blockbuster video rental store in the whole world (in Bend, Oregon). It was a Pacific Video store before converting to a Blockbuster franchise in June 2000. It became the last Blockbuster store in the U.S. in 2018 and the last Blockbuster store in the world in March 2019.
Smith Rock State Park is a state park located in central Oregon’s High Desert near the communities of Redmond and Terrebonne. The day-use area of the park is open daily from dawn to dusk.
The sheer cliffs are the result of a major volcanic eruption in the area millions of years ago. The stone material is called Smith Rock tuff.
This charging stop is in Madras, Oregon.
Here is Oregon’s Mount Hood, seen from U.S. Route 97.
Mt Hood is an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain in Oregon, standing at 11,249 feet (3,429 meters). It is located about 50 miles east of Portland.
Still in Oregon here, but now approaching the Columbia River Gorge and the Washington-Oregon state line.
Hello Washington State. We had just crossed the Columbia River. This is still U.S. Route 97.
Here is the Columbia River Gorge and the mighty Columbia River— the Washington-Oregon state line.
Look for the Stonehenge Memorial (round brown structure, middle of the picture) perched on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
It was built as a World War I memorial dedicated to soldiers from Klickitat County, Washington, who died in the war.
Wind turbines dotting the hills, very similar to the ones we had seen in California.
This Stars and Stripes flag on a tall pole is in Toppenish.
Here is the Yakima River, a stone’s throw from our charging station in Yakima.
Our last charging stop for the day was in Yakima.
On the way to Ellensburg. Light from the setting sun behind us is refracted on the car’s display screen.
Late afternoon in Snoqualmie Pass over the Cascade Mountain Range, on Interstate 90.
Crossing Lake Washington for the last few miles to Seattle. The light rail train on the left is still a new sight, in operation since late March 2026.
The end of our day’s journey on U.S. Route 97, Interstate 82 and Interstate 90 is coming up with the Rainier Avenue exit.
The lettering in the cement at the tunnel entrance says ‘Seattle — Portal to the Pacific’.
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Wednesday/ going back: day 2 of 3 🛣️

Here is our drive for today: about 475 mi and just under 8 hours.

We took Interstate 5 through Sacramento and Redding, and then at the little town of Weed, went on to U.S. Route 97 to cross into Oregon, and go through Klamath Falls to Bend. 
Morning rush hour near Sacramento. It helped a lot to have an HOV lane that we could use.
Our first charging stop for the day at Anderson, CA, was the same one we had used on the way down to Palm Springs. Check out the olive green Cybertruck.
Interstate 5 winding through the mountains near Redding.
One of the arms of the sprawling Shasta Lake north of Redding.
The souvenir store in Weed, CA, does not actually sell weed (cannabis) products. It does have t-shirts, sweatshirts, key chains, shot glasses and all kinds of other souvenirs.
Weed is also where we made our second charging stop.
Beautiful Mt Shasta, with very little snow this time of year. Mt Shasta peaks out at only 200 ft lower than Washington State’s Mt Rainier.
Mount Shasta is easier and simpler to climb than Mount Rainier, serving as a non-technical steep snow-mountaineering peak, whereas Mount Rainier is a massive, heavily glaciated objective requiring rope-team and crevasse-rescue skills.
[Source: Global Summit Guide]
Paraglider near Mt Shasta.
Trees in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Now approaching the California-Oregon border, and this is the little town of Dorris on U.S. Route 97.
A vista of the tranquil waters of Upper Klamath Lake, as seen from U.S. Route 97 that runs alongside it.
Trees at a last rest stop in southern Oregon, at about 4 pm.
We have arrived in Bend, OR. Giving the car one more charge before we head to the hotel.
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Tuesday/ going back: day 1 of 3 🛣

We left Palm Springs shortly after 8 am this morning.
We made two charging stops, a lunch stop in Bakersfield, and two additional stops, and arrived at Lodi, California, shortly after 6 pm.

Our route took us to Yucca Valley, and through the Mojave Desert to Barstow and then to Bakersfield. From Bakersfield we followed California State Route 99 (SR 99) to Stockton and then drove a few miles on Interstate 5 to get us to Lodi for our overnight stay.
An array of solar panels and a Joshua tree on the right.
Wind turbines on the way to Barstow.
A closer look at the solar panels.

A glimpse of the Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV). This 3,300-acre site houses over 100 commercial and experimental aircraft. Planes are stored here for temporary holding, part-stripping, or scrapping.
Evidence of wildfires that scarred the hills.
It was 1.02 pm and 102°F (39°C) when we rolled into Bakersfield.
Our first charging stop was in Bakersfield at the Double Tree Hotel there.
Evidence of the construction of the California High-Speed Rail infrastructure.
Construction of a 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield, with revenue service projected between 2031 and 2033 is underway, but to date the project has seen massive funding shortfalls, complex land acquisition, and severe political and legal delays.
Our second charging stop at Madera.
California produces about 80% to 82% of the world’s almonds.
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Monday/ last day in Palm Springs 🌴

We ran out to the Sunny Dunes Antique Mall today.
By evening it was time to take the EV pony to the Tesla Supercharger station at The Downtown Park.

We took an evening stroll along Palm Canyon Drive while the car was charging.

Sunny Dunes Antique Mall is packed with ornaments, books, pictures, and almost everything else found inside an old home.
Vintage framed picture from inside the antique mall. I don’t believe the names of the men in the picture are known. The picture was featured on the cover of a book titled ‘Loving II: More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s to 1950’ by Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell.
It’s about 6.15 pm, and here is the view of the mountains we had from our rented house.
At the Tesla Supercharger station.
The Marilyn Monroe statue is nicely lit up at night.
Charles (Charlie) Manuel Pasarell Jr. (born February 12, 1944, now 82 years old) is a Puerto Rican-American former tennis player, tennis administrator and founder of the current Indian Wells tournament.
We had dinner last night at this restaurant: Lulu California Bistro. I had Pacific sanddab (a medium-sized flatfish) with mashed potato and vegetables.
Here is the Plaza Theatre at night.
The Plaza Theatre.
The Hyatt Palm Springs looks a little better at night. (Drab colors in daytime).
Artwork at the entance of the Hyatt Palm Springs.
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Sunday/ along Palm Canyon Drive 🌞

We braved the blazing mid-day sun today for a walk along Palm Canyon Drive. This boulevard is the primary commercial, retail, and hospitality thoroughfare through the downtown area of Palm Springs.

There is a Tesla Supercharger station inside the parking garage by The Downtown Park.
North Museum Drive ends at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
This sign at Ground zero for downtown Palm Springs offers a few statements about art.
Here and there misters along the sidewalk offer a brief respite from the heat.
Welwood Murray Memorial Library originally opened in February 1941. It is the home to the Palm Springs Historical Society archive.
The David Clark Lee Plaza Theatre is an intimate, renovated 1930s landmark offering live concerts, theatrical productions, film festivals, and community events with exceptional acoustics.
David Clark Lee is a longtime Palm Springs resident and the writer and producer of television shows such as Frasier, Cheers and Wings.
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Saturday/ an early morning walk 🚶‍♂️

These pictures are from our early morning walk in the Tahquitz River Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs.

The neighboring cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Indio lie in the Coachella Valley between the San Jacinto Mountains and Santa Rosa Mountains to their southwest, and the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the northeast.

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Friday/ downtown Palm Springs 👩🏼

Happy Friday.
It was 100°F (38°C) outside here in Palm Springs today, so we could not spend too much time out and about in the middle of the day.

Forever Marilyn is a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe designed by Seward Johnson. The statue is a representation of the image of Monroe taken from Billy Wilder’s 1955 film The Seven Year Itch. Created in 2011, the statue has been displayed in a variety of locations in the United States, as well as in Australia.
In 1949, at age 22, Monroe spent time at Charlie Farrell’s legendary Palm Springs Racquet Club, where she was photographed by local photographer Bruno Bernard (“Bernard of Hollywood”).
These poolside photos and her time at the club helped connect her with William Morris Agency executive Johnny Hyde, who became a pivotal figure in advancing her early career.
[Source: PS Resorts.com, Reddit, Acme House Company]
There is a roadrunner in this picture.
Roadrunners (genus Geococcyx) are also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, and are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests.
Roadrunners are built to run and can fly only for short bursts— to escape a predator or get over an obstacle. They don’t fly to catch food but instead, chase down insects, lizards and rodents.
P.S. I ❤︎ You. A person as subject of the picture will make the I that is missing from the red letters.
The phrase “P.S. I Love You” is a nod to a classic mid-century promotional slogan and vintage ephemera from Palm Springs’ golden resort era.

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Thursday/ roadtrip: day 3 of 3 🛣️

We left Patterson, CA, at 8.15 am this morning, and made it into Palm Springs, CA, at 4.00 pm.

Instead of following Interstate 5 down to its junction with Interstate 10, we left  I-5 south of Santa Clarita to steer clear of the heavy traffic in the Los Angeles area.

We left Interstate 5 south of Santa Clarita to take California State Routes 14 and 138 to get to Interstate 215. From there Interstate 10 runs out to Palm Springs.
Lots and lots of orchards in California’s Central Valley.
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Our first charging stop was at the giant Tesla Oasis charging station with its 164 bays, at Lost Hills, CA.
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The canopies over the charging bays are made of arrays of solar panels.
A great-tailed grackle taking advantage of the shade at the Tesla Oasis charger station.
Transmission lines south of Bakersfield.
Fields near the junction of Interstate 5 and Highway 99 south of Bakersfield. The mountains in the distance are the Tehachapi Mountains.
Water pipelines and oil pumpjacks in the Bakersfield area.
Interstate 5 follows the low contours of the hills around Grapevine.
This is a view of Pyramid Lake, a reservoir formed by Pyramid Dam on Piru Creek in the western Sierra Pelona Mountains, near Castaic.
Our second charging stop was in Castaic off Interstate 5.
This is Highway 14 on the way to Palmdale.
A  Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) near the junction of Highway 138 and Highway 2. These plants are not true trees—  it is a giant yucca belonging to the agave family.
Trains in Cajon Canyon, north of the city of San Bernardino.
On Interstate 15 near San Bernardino.
Now nearing Palm Springs, with the wind turbines off Interstate 10.
The exit to Palm Springs from Interstate 10.
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Wednesday/ roadtrip: day 2 of 3 🛣️

We left Grant’s Pass at 9.20 am this morning and made it into Patterson, California by 5.30 pm.

Pictures:
‘Bullseye’, the white English bull terrier marketing mascot of Target, on the side of a truck;
The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and straddle the Oregon-California border;
EXQUS ME (‘Excuse me’) says the license plate on this Corvette;
Information plaque at a rest stop— the Shastan peoples are a group of linguistically related indigenous peoples from the Klamath Mountains in California and Oregon in the northwestern United States;
A pale moon in the sky;
Mount Shasta is a massive, snow-capped stratovolcano standing at 14,179 feet (4,322 meters) in Siskiyou County, Northern California;
Shasta Lake just northwest of Redding is California’s largest man-made reservoir, holding roughly 4.5 million acre-feet of water when full;
Our first charging stop for the day was at Anderson, CA (187 miles from Grant’s Pass, about 3 hours of driving);
The second charging stop was at a very large station with 47 chargers, at Dunnigan, CA,  off Interstate 5;
The other images are en route to Patterson, where I took the picture of the aqueduct.

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Tuesday/ roadtrip: day 1 of 3 🛣️

I embarked on a roadtrip to Palm Springs, California, this morning, with my two amigos in their Tesla Model Y.

We left Seattle at 10 am and made our first charging stop in Ridgefield, WA, after 152 miles. Washington State’s only In-and-Out Burger restaurant is right there and we stopped in for lunch.

The second charging stop was just under two hours later off Interstate 5 near Halsey and Brownsville in Oregon.

Our overnight stop is Grant’s Pass in the south of Oregon. The Best Western hotel here has a free EV charger-enabled parking space, which a nice bonus.

(Thanks to Bryan for two of the photos below).

 

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Another Monday/ five weeks to go ✍️

Five weeks to go, to the Midterm General Elections here in the US.

If the pollsters have it right, this man is to be out of a job soon (Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson)— as are many Republican members of the House, and several in the Senate. The pundits say the election is a referendum about Trump, and that the chasm between his Very Favorable Rating (15%) and Very Unfavorable Rating (almost 50%) points to disaster for the Republicans.

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Saturday/ the harvest full moon 🎑

The harvest full moon is out tonight. (The harvest full moon is the full moon that happens closest to the start of autumn).

I gave the picture to Claude AI to look at and point out some of the craters and lunar maria (Latin for ‘seas’, but they are actually ancient solidified lava plains). Claude complained that the resolution of my picture was not good enough, so I went to NASA’s website for a better one.

My own amateur image from tonight, taken with my Sony a7CR and a 5x telephoto lens (and cropped to 2400 pixels by 1800 pixels).
From Claude AI, using the image at https://science.nasa.gov/moon/daily-moon-guide:
The big crater you’re probably asking about:
the bright crater near the bottom of the disk, with rays streaking outward across a huge portion of the visible surface, is almost certainly Tycho.
It’s one of the Moon’s youngest large impact craters (about 108 million years old) and is famous precisely for that dramatic, far-reaching ray system — the rays you see radiating up toward the center of the disk are ejecta thrown out during the impact.
A few other features I can pick out:
Copernicus — the other prominent rayed crater, sitting in the upper-middle-left area of the disk, with its own (smaller but still bright) ray system.
Mare Crisium — the distinct, roughly oval dark patch isolated on the right side of the disk (it’s isolated from the other maria, which makes it easy to identify).
Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis — the connected grey/dark regions in the center-right, blending into each other (Tranquillitatis is home to the Apollo 11 landing site).
Mare Imbrium — the large dark region in the upper-center-left, one of the biggest impact basins on the Moon.
Mare Nectaris — the smaller dark patch below and right of Tranquillitatis, near the bottom-right region.
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Friday/ a big Braai Day 🥩

“Kom ons braai” (translation “Let’s barbecue”)
A warm, social invitation used in South Africa to gather friends and family around an open fire for food, drinks, and conversation.
A braai (say: ‘bry’ as in dry) is an integral part of South African culture, centered on cooking meat over wood or charcoal fires, rather than a standard gas grill.

Happy Friday.
Yesterday was Heritage Day in South Africa, informally known as ‘Braai Day’ (barbecue day).

Thousands of determined South Africans tried to set a record for people grilling simultaneously. The current record number of 2,220 was set in Japan’s Ishigaki City in 2023. (For the attempt, Ishigaki beef skewers were prepared for the participants. Ishigaki beef is the signature brand of meat of the city.)

As of Friday night, Guinness World Records has not indicated if yesterday’s attempt to set a new record was indeed successful.

From the Seattle Times today, as reported by The Associated Press.
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Thursday/ President Xi Jinping’s state visit 🇺🇸 🇨🇳

Reporting from The New York Times.

There is a lot of theater going on with the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the public statements he and Trump makes.

From The New York Times’s White House reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs:
President Trump said he had “never gotten along better” with President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday during a day of military flyovers, gifts of pandas and lavish ceremonies that masked significant divides over artificial intelligence and trade.

“President Xi and I both understand that we represent different systems but the ties between our people endure,” Mr. Trump said at the start of the state dinner with Mr. Xi at the White House. “Together we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations.”

.. and David Pierson from Hong Kong:
Apart from a metaphor about history being a flowing river, Xi’s dinner speech was plain spoken by his standards. He is prone to using grandiose language aimed at casting himself as akin to one of China’s ancient philosopher kings. Xi’s central message on Thursday was more direct: China and the United States are two major powers that should “get along with each other.”

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Wednesday/ AI as your Muse 🤖

I remember reading in Alvin Toffler’s 1970 book called ‘Future Shock’ (reading it just a few years after 1970) about an automated, computerized home of the future.  While the owner is away, the house monitors its own structural integrity and cross-references local data. Recognizing a structural vulnerability in the roof and receiving a weather alert that a severe storm is approaching, the house takes the initiative. Rather than waiting for the owner to return home to a leak, the house places a call to the owner’s mobile or office phone. It informs the owner of the impending storm, explains that the roof needs immediate attention, and asks for verbal or electronic permission to contact a technician to fix the issue before the rain starts.

It took 56 years, but it certainly looks like that future is here.

Here is what Eli Tan reports to the New York Times from San Francisco:

Last week, I answered a call from an unknown number. “I reached Anthem Dental and am about to connect you,” a voice piped up.

The call was from an artificial intelligence “agent” created by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Ten minutes earlier, the A.I. agent had called my dental insurer, given it my member ID, answered a security question and waited on hold before transferring me to the representative — just as I had asked it to.

I was surprised by how much easier the agent had made it to deal with insurance. It was one of many tasks that I accomplished with Muse, the A.I. agent app that Meta unveiled this month.

Muse is the first consumer A.I. agent from a major tech company that has become publicly available. The tech industry sees agents as the next frontier, far more capable than chatbots. Agents can roam the internet, sign in to websites, fill out spreadsheets and make phone calls on behalf of people — and that’s just the start.

Tan goes on to describe some of the dozens of day-to-day tasks that he had Muse perform. He had to trust Muse with his most personal data, which included connecting it to his bank accounts and email.

He gave acces to his credit card accounts to Muse and asked it to track his spending in Google sheets. Muse flagged two duplicate subscriptions and cancelled them. Muse used his email account to request a refund for a free newspaper trial that had expired, saving him $44.99.

Headlines and photo from the article in the New York Times.
(First, may I observe that the writer could also let Muse shop for a new screen protector for his phone? 😉)
The bird at the top of the screen is Wren, the Muse assistant’s name. Wren can make phone calls using different personalities, with a male voice named Brett and a female voice named Hailey. (For now, only a limited number of users will be given access to the voice call feature). Wren also negotiated the purchase of items on Facebook’s marketplace, starting with a lowball offer and then picking up from the response if the seller is willing to negotiate or not.
The writer ends his report by noting that one of these purchases involved ‘a refreshing, in-person human conversation with the seller Ashley, something neither Wren nor any A.I. could ever provide’. He suspected ‘this might be another reason Muse might not immediately catch on — sometimes people just don’t want to have their personal lives automated, even if the technology is good enough’.