Poole - HAL 9000
Encyclopedia
Poole versus HAL 9000 is a fictional chess
game in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
. In the movie, the astronaut
Frank Poole
is seen playing chess with the HAL 9000
supercomputer. As HAL is supposed to be infallible, no one is surprised when HAL soundly defeats Poole (though the novel mentions that HAL is programmed only to win 50% of the time in order for there to be some point in the astronauts ever playing).
The director Stanley Kubrick
was a passionate chess player, so unlike many chess scenes shown in other films, the position and analysis make sense. The actual game seems to come from the tournament game between A. Roesch and W. Schlage
, played in Hamburg in 1910.
Black: Schlage (HAL 9000)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. Qe2
5... b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. c3 0-0 8. 0-0 d5
9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nf4 11. Qe4 Nxe5 12. Qxa8?
12... Qd3!
13. Bd1 Bh3!
14. Qxa6?
14... Bxg2 15. Re1 Qf3
0–1
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
game in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. In the movie, the astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Frank Poole
Frank Poole
Frank Poole is a fictional character from Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series. In Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Poole was portrayed by Gary Lockwood....
is seen playing chess with the HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
supercomputer. As HAL is supposed to be infallible, no one is surprised when HAL soundly defeats Poole (though the novel mentions that HAL is programmed only to win 50% of the time in order for there to be some point in the astronauts ever playing).
The director Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
was a passionate chess player, so unlike many chess scenes shown in other films, the position and analysis make sense. The actual game seems to come from the tournament game between A. Roesch and W. Schlage
Willi Schlage
Willi Schlage was a German chess master and trainer.In 1910, he won in Hamburg . He played in friendly matches: Berlin–Prague , Berlin–Holland , Germany–Netherlands , and Germany–Sweden...
, played in Hamburg in 1910.
The game
White: Roesch (Dr. Frank Poole)Black: Schlage (HAL 9000)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. Qe2
- The opening is the Ruy Lopez, Worrall Attack.
5... b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. c3 0-0 8. 0-0 d5
- This move is a pawnPawn (chess)The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
sacrificeSacrifice (chess)In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
(ECO code C86). If WhiteWhite and Black in chessIn chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
accepts it, Black's pieces can occupy active positions.
9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nf4 11. Qe4 Nxe5 12. Qxa8?
- This move deflects the queenQueen (chess)The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
, allowing Black to mount a kingside attack. White is also worse if the queen takes one of the knightsKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
, which could be answered by Nd3 or Bd6. The correct move is 12.d4, to which Black should reply 12...Bb7.
12... Qd3!
- Threatening 13...Ne2+ 14.Kh1 Ng3+ with checkmateCheckmateCheckmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
to follow.
13. Bd1 Bh3!
- Black also has 13...Bg4, winning a pieceChess pieceChess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...
after 14.Qb7 Bxd1 15.Rxd1 Ne2+ 16.Kh1 Ng4 17.Qf3 Qxf3 18.gxf3 Nxf2+; or 13...Nh3+, winning the queen after 14.gxh3 Bxh3 with the dual threat of checkmate and Rxa8. The movie picks up the game here (see diagram).
14. Qxa6?
- White abandons the long diagonal and moves into a forced checkmate. Even after 14.Qb7 c6 15.Qxe7 Bxg2 16.Re1 Nf3+ 17.Bxf3 Qxf3, mate is not far off.
14... Bxg2 15. Re1 Qf3
- Here HAL, using the descriptive chess notationDescriptive chess notationDescriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries , . It was used in Europe until it was superseded by abbreviated algebraic notation, which was introduced by Philipp Stamma in 1737...
, says: "I'm sorry Frank, I think you missed it. Queen to bishop three, bishop takes queen, knight takes bishop, mate." - This is inaccurate in two ways. First, the queen move is correctly described in descriptive notation as "queen to bishop six", not "queen to bishop three". Second, HAL's variation 15...Qf3 16.Bxf3 Nxf3# does not mention that White could prolong the resistance for a couple moves, for example by playing 16.Qh6. There is some conjecture that these inaccuracies are a very subtle foreshadowingForeshadowingForeshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...
of either HAL's breakdown or of his deception of the crew.
0–1
- Poole resigns without questioning HAL's analysis.
External links
- Murray S. CampbellMurray CampbellMurray Campbell is a Canadian computer scientist.He is a Senior Manager in the Business Analytics and Mathematical Sciences Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, USA...
: "An Enjoyable Game:" How HAL Plays Chess in: e-book HAL's Legacy (1996) - Tim KrabbéTim KrabbéTim Krabbé is a Dutch journalist and novelist.Krabbé was born in Amsterdam. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the Netherlands. He is known to Dutch readers for his novel De Renner , first published in 1978...
: Willi Schlage The only unknown to become immortal twice. (1999)