Computer Beats Human for First Time at Japanese Chess

While IBM’s Deep Blue computer had beaten its first human, Gary Kasparov, in 1997 at a game of Western chess, thus far no computer had been able to beat a computer at the more complicated game of shogi, otherwise known as Japanese chess. Now, a computer by the name of Akara 2010 has claimed victory over Japan’s leading female chess player Ichiyo Shimizu at the game of shogi at the University of Tokyo for the first time.

Traditional chess is a more simple game, with a possible 10123 moves, while Japanese chess has 10224 moves. Akara had beat its opponent in a period of six hours with about 86 moves.