03 - 64-Square Madhouse by Fritz Leiber

Step into a world where a machine, adorned with blinking lights and the scent of ozone, enters the prestigious Grand Master chess tournament. This early computer faces off against some of the greatest human minds, challenging the notion of genius with its formidable calculating power. But don‚At be fooled‚Aîthe machine is not infallible. It can be deceived, make errors, and most intriguingly, it can learn! Join us on this thrilling journey through the intersection of technology and human intellect. (summary by phil c and the publisher)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part three of the sixty four square Madhouse by Fritz Laber.
This LibriVox recrding is in the public domain. Part three
seats flesh, which roughly means endurance. Sitting flesh or budock
meat is the quality needed above all others by tournament

(00:20):
chess players and their audiences. After Sandra had watched the games,
the players faces rather, she had a really good pair
of Zoomer glasses for a half hour or so, she
had gone to her hotel room, written her first article
interview with the famous doctor Krakatauer, sent it in, and
then come back to the hall to see how the

(00:40):
games had turned out. They were still going on, all
five of them. The press section was full, but two
boys and a girl of high school age obligingly made
room for Sandra on the top tier of seats, and
she tuned in on their whispered conversations. The jargon was wrecked,
ignizably related to that which she had gotten a doze

(01:02):
of on the floor. But game year players did not
sacrifice pawns. They sacked them. No one was ever defeated,
only busted pieces weren't lost, but blown. The Ruy Lopez
was the dirty old Rue and incidentally a certain set
of opening moves named after a long departed Spanish churchman,

(01:25):
she now discovered from Dave, Bill and Judy, whose sympathetic
help she had won by frequent loans of her Zuomer glasses.
The four hour time control point two hours and thirty
moves for each player had been passed while she was
sending in her articles, she learned, and they were well
on their way toward the next control point, an hour

(01:46):
more than fifteen moves for each player, after which unfinished
games would be adjourned and continued at a special morning session.
Shirevski had had to make fifteen moves in two minutes
after taking an hour earlier on just one move, but
that was nothing out of the ordinary, Dave had assured
her in the same breath. Tcherevsky was always letting himself

(02:07):
get into fantastic time pressure and then wriggling out of
it brilliantly. He was apparently headed for a win over Serrik,
score one for the USA over the USSR, Sandra thought proudly.
Vot Bennick had Jendorf practically in Zugzwang, his pieces all
tied up, Bill explained, and the Argentinan would be busted shortly.

(02:32):
Through the glasses, Sandra could see Janov's thick chest rise
and fall as he glared murderously at the board in
front of him. By contrast, vot Bitnik looked like a
man lost in revere. Doctor Krakatauer had lost a pawn
to Lesmov, but was hanging on grimly. However, Dave would
not give a plugged nickel for his chances against the

(02:54):
former world's champion, because these old ones always weakened in
the sixth hour. You forget the biological miracle of doctor Lasker.
Bill and Judy chanted as one shut up. Dave won them.
An official glared angrily from the floor and shook a finger.
Much later, Sandra discovered that doctor Emmanuel Lasker was a

(03:17):
philosopher mathematician who, after holding the world championship for twenty
six years, had won a very strong tournament in New
York nineteen twenty four at the age of fifty six,
and later almost one another Moscow nineteen thirty five at
the age of sixty seven. Sandra studied Doc's face carefully

(03:38):
through her glasses. He looked terribly tired, now almost a
death's head. Something tightened in her chest, and she looked
away quickly. The Angler Jowl and Grabo machine games were
still ding dong contests. Dave told her, if anything, gravel
had a slight advantage. The machine was on the move,

(04:00):
meaning that Grabo had just made a move and was
waiting the automaton's reply. The Hungarian was about the most
restless waiter Sandra could imagine. He twisted his long legs
constantly and writhed his shoulders in about every five seconds.
He ran his hands back through his unkempt tassel of hair.

(04:23):
Once he yawned self consciously, straightened himself and sat very compactly,
but almost immediately he was writhing again. The machine had
its own mannerisms, if you could call him that. Its dim,
unobstrusive tell tale lights were winking on and off in
a fairly rapid random pattern. Sandra got the impression that

(04:45):
from time to time Grabbo's eyes were trying to follow
their blinking like a man washing fireflies. Simon Grate sat
impassively behind a bare table next to the machine. His
five gray smocked technicians grouped around him. A flush faced, tall,
distinguished looking elderly gentleman was standing by the machine's console.

(05:07):
Dave told Sandra it was doctor Vanderhoff, the tournament director,
one time champion of the world, another old putzer like Creckataur,
but was sense enough to know when he lipped Bill
characterized harshly youth ah Unvanquish, a bull youth, Judy chanted
happily by herself, flashing like a meteor across the chest firmament.

(05:32):
Murphy Engler, Judy Kaplan shut up. They really will throw
us out, Dave warned her, and then explained in whispers
to Sandra that Vanderhoff and his assistance had the nervous
making job of feeding into the machine the moves made
by its opponent, so everyone will know it's on the level,
I guess, he added, It means the machine loses a

(05:54):
few seconds every move, between the time Grabbo punches the
clock and the time vander Hoof gets the move into
the machine. Sandra nodded. The players were making it as
hard on the machine as possible, she decided, with a
small rush of sympathy. Suddenly there was a tiny movement
of the gadget attached from the machine to the clocks

(06:15):
on Grabo's table, and a faint click. But Grabo almost
leaped out of his skin. Simultaneously, a red castle topped piece,
one of the machin's rooks, Sandra was informed, moved four
square sideways on the big electric board above the machine.
An official beside, Doctor Vanderhoff, went over to Grabo's board

(06:35):
and carefully moved the corresponding piece. Grabo seemed about to
make some complaint, then apparently thought better of it, and
plunged into brooding cogitation over the board, elbows on the table,
both hands holding his head and fiercely massaging his scalp.
The machine let loose with an unusually rapid flurry of blinking.

(06:57):
Grabo straightened up, seemed again to make a complaint, then
once more to repress the impulse. Finally, he moved a
piece and punched his clock. Doctor Vanderhoff immediately flipped four
levers on the machine's console, and Grabbo's move appeared on
the electric board. Grabos sprang up, went over to the

(07:18):
red velvet cord and motioned agitatedly to Vanderhoff. There was
a sharp conference inaudible at the distance, during which Grabo
waved his arms and Vanderhoff grew more flushed. Finally, the
latter went over to Simon grat and said something, apparently
with some hesitancy, but Grace smiled obligingly, sprang to his feet,

(07:38):
and in turn spoke to his tacticians, who immediately fetched
and unfolded several large screens and set them in front
of the machine, masking the blinking lights, blind folding it.
Sandra found herself thinking. Dave chuckled, that's already happened once
while you were out, He told Sandra. I guess seeing

(07:59):
the lights blinking makes Grabo nervous, but then not seeing
them make them nervous. Just watch. The machine has its
own mysterious pow wowers. Judy chanted, that's what you think,
Bill told her. Did you know that Willie Angler has
hired Evil Eye Bixel out of Brooklyn to put the

(08:19):
whammie on the machine? It's fact. Pow wower's unknown to
mere mortals of flesh and blood. Shut up, Dave hissed,
Now you've done it. Here comes old Eagle Eye. Look,
I don't know you two. I'm with this lady. Here,
Bella Grabo was suffering acute tortures. He had a winning attack.

(08:40):
He knew it. The machine was counterattacking, but unstrategically desperately
in the style of a Frank Marshall, complicating the issue
and hoping for his swindle. All Grabo had to do,
he knew, was keep his head and not blunder, not
throw away a queen, say as he had to Old
vendor Huffe at Brussels, or overlook a maiden two, as

(09:02):
he had against Teurewski at Tel Aviv. The memory of
those unutterably black moments, and a dozen more like them,
returned to haunt him. Never if he lived a thousand years,
would he be free of them. For the tenth time.
In the last two minutes, he glanced at his clock.
He had fifteen minutes in which to make five moves.

(09:24):
He wasn't in time pressure. He must remember that he
mustn't make a move on impulse. He mustn't let his
treacherous hands leap out without waiting for instructions from its
guiding brain. First surprize in this tournament meant incredible wealth
transportation money in hotel builds for more than a score

(09:45):
of future tournaments. But more than that, it was one
more chance to blazon before the world his true superiority,
rather than the fading reputation of it. Bellagrabbo, brilliant but erratic,
perhaps his last chance. When, in the name of Heaven
was the machine going to make its next move? Surely

(10:07):
it had already taken more than four minutes. Bought a
glance at its clock showed him that hardly half that
time had gone by. He decided he had made a
mistake in asking again for the screens. It was easier
to watch those damned lights blink than have them blink
in his imagination. Oh if chess could only be played

(10:28):
in intergalactic space, in the black privacy of one's thoughts.
But there had to be the physical presence of the opponent,
with his possibly deliberate, unnerving mannerism's lascar and his cigar
Kapa blanca, and his red necktie nimso witch in his
nervous contortions, very like Bella Grabos, though the latter did

(10:51):
not see it that way. And now this ghastly, flashing, humming, stinking,
button banging metal monster. Actually, he told himself he was
being asked to play two opponents, the machine and Simon
grayt a sort of consultation team. It wasn't fair. The

(11:12):
machine hammered its button and rammed its queen across the
electric board. In Grabo's imagination, it was like an explosion.
Grabbo held on to his nerves with an effort and
plunged into a maze of calculations. Once he came to
like a man who had been asleep, to realize that
he was wondering whether the lights were still blinking behind

(11:33):
the screens while he was making his move. Did the
machine really analyze at such times, or were the lights
just an empty trick. He forced his mind back to
the problems of the game, decided on his move, checked
the board twice for any violent move he might have missed,
noted on his clock that he'd taken five minutes, checked

(11:55):
the board again very rapidly, and then put out his
hand and made his move with the fiercely suspicious air
of a boss compelled to send an extremely unreliable underling
on an all important Errand then he punched his clock,
sprang to his feet, and once more waved for Vanderhoff.

(12:15):
Thirty seconds later, the tournament director, very red faced now
with saying in a low voice, almost pleadingly, but Bella,
I couldnt keep asking them to change the screens already,
they have been up twice and down wants to please you.
Moving them disturbs the other players, and surely isn't good

(12:36):
for your own peace of mind. Oh, Bella, my dear Bella,
Vanderhoff broke off. Grabo knew he had been going to
say something improper, but from the heart, such as, for
God's sake, don't blow this game out of nervousness, now
that you have a win insight. And this sympathy somehow
made the Hungarian furious. I have others, which I will

(13:00):
make formally after the game, he said, hoarsely, quivering with rage.
It is a disgrace the way that mechanism punches the
time button. It will crack the case. The machine never
stops humming, and it stinks of ozone and hot metal,
as if it were about to explode. It cannot explode, Bella,

(13:21):
please no, but it threatens to. And you know a
threat is always more effective than an actual attack. As
for the screens, they must be taken down at once.
I demand it, very well, Bella, very well, it will
be done. Compose yourself. Grabo did not at once return
to his table. He could not have endured to sit

(13:43):
still for the moment, but paced along the line of tables,
snatching looks at the other games in progress. When he
looked back at the big electric board, he saw that
the machine had made a move, although he hadn't heard
it punch the clock. He rushed back and studied the
board without saying down why the machine had made a

(14:04):
stupid move. He saw with a rush of exultation. At
that moment, the last screen being folded started to fall over,
but one of the gray smocked men caught it deftly.
Grabbo flinched and his hand darted out and moved a piece.
He heard someone gasp vanderhuff. It got very quiet. The

(14:26):
four soft clicks of the move being fed into the
machine were like the beat of a muffled drum. There
was a buzzing in Grabbo's ears. He looked down at
the board in horror. The machine blinked, blinked once more,
and then, although barely twenty seconds had elapsed, moved a rook.

(14:47):
On the glassy gray margin above the machine's electric board,
large red words flamed on check and mate in three
up in the stands, Dave squeeze Sandra's arm. He's done it.
He's let himself be swindled. You mean the machine has

(15:08):
beaten Grabbo. Sandra asked, what else can you be sure?
Just like that? Of course, wait a second, yes, I'm
sure made it in three like a potzer. Bill confirmed
the poor old boob. Judy sighed down on the floor.

(15:28):
Bella Grabo sagged. The assistant director moved toward him quickly,
but then the Hungarian straightened himself. A little, I resign,
he said softly. The red words at the top of
the board were wiped out and briefly replaced in white
by thank you for a good game, and then a

(15:49):
third statement, also in white, flashed on for a few seconds,
you had bad luck. Bella Grabbo clenched his fists and
bit his teeth. Even the machine was being sorry for him.
He stiffly walked out of the hall. It was a long,
long walk. Ajournman time neared. Serk the exchange down, but

(16:13):
with considerable time on his clock, sealed his forty sixth
move against Sharewski and handed the envelope to vander Hoff.
It would be opened when the game was resumed. At
the morning session. Doctor Krakatis studied the position on his
board and then quietly tipped over his king. He sat
there for a moment as if he hadn't the strength

(16:34):
to rise. Then he shook himself a little smiled, got up,
clasped hands briefly with Lismov, and wondered over to watch
the Angler Jaw game. Jandorff had resigned his game to
fut Binnick some minutes ago, rather more surily. After a while,
Angler sealed a move, handed it to vander Hoff with

(16:55):
a grin, just as the little red flag dropped on
his clock in, indicating he'd used every second of his
time up in the stands, Sandra worked her shoulders to
get a kink out of her back. She noticed several
newsmen hurrying off report in the machine's first win. She
was thankful that her job was limited to special articles.

(17:18):
Chess is a pretty intense game, she remarked to Dave.
He nodded, it's a killer. I don't expect to live
beyond forty myself. Thirty, Bill said, twenty five is enough
time to be a meteor, said Judy. Sandra thought to
herself the unbeat generation. Next day, Shirewsky played the machine

(17:42):
to a dead level, ending Simon Gray offered a draw
of the machine over an unsuccessful interfering protest from Chandorff
that this constituted making a move for the machine, but
Shirewsky refused and sealed his move. He wants to have
it proved to him that the machine can play in games.

(18:03):
They've commented to Sandra up in the stands, I don't
blame him. At the beginning of today's session, Sandra had
noticed that Bill and Judy were following each game in
a very new looking book they shared jealously between them.
Won't look new for long. Sandra had thought, that's the
bible they got there. Dave had explained m CO Modern

(18:26):
Chess Openings. It lists all the best open moves in chess,
thousands and thousands of variations. That is what masters think
are the best moves, the moves that have won in
the past. Really, we chipped in together to buy the
latest edition, the thirteenth, just hot off the press, he
had finished proudly. Now with the machine Sharewski ending the

(18:50):
center of interest, the kids were consulting another book, one
with grimy, dog eared pages. That's the New Testament Basic
Chess Endings, Dave said when he noticed her looking. There's
so much you must know in endings that it's amazing
the machine can played him at all. I guess as
the pieces get fewer, it starts to look deeper. Sandra nodded.

(19:14):
She was feeling virtuous. She had got her interview with Jandorf,
and then this morning won with GRABO, how it feels
to have a machine. I'll thank you. The latter had
made her think of herself as a real vulture of
the press circling over the doomed the Hungarian had seemed
in a positively suicidal depression. One newspaper article made much

(19:39):
of the machine's psychological tactics, hinting that the blinking lights
were designed to hypnotize opponents. The general press coverage was
somewhat startling. A game that in America normally rated only
a fine prank column in the back section of a
very few Sunday newspapers was now getting boxes on the
front page. The defeat of a man by a machine

(20:03):
seemed everywhere to awaken nervous feelings of insecurity, like the
launching of the first sputnik. Sandram had rather hesitantly sought
out doctor Krakatower during the close of the morning session
of play, still feeling a little guilty from her interview
with grabbo, but Doc had seemed happy to see her
and quite recovered from last night's defeat, though when she

(20:26):
had addressed him as Master Krakatower, he had winced and
said please not that another session of coffee and wine
and pelter had resulted in her getting an introduction to
her first Soviet Grandmaster, Seric, whould prove to be unexpectedly charming.
He had just managed to draw his game with Shurewski,

(20:46):
to the great amazement of the commitzers Sandra learned, and
was most obliging about arranging for an interview. Not to
be outdone in gallantry, Doc had insisted on escorting Sandra
to her seat in the stands at the price of
once more losing a couple of minutes on his clock.
As a result, her stock went up considerably with Dave,
Bill and Judy thereafter. They treated anything she had to

(21:10):
say with almost annoying deference, Bill especially probably in penance
for his thoughtless cracks at Doc. Sandra later came to
suspect that the kids had privately decided that she was
Doctor Krakatawer's mistress, probably a new one because she was
so scandalously ignorant of chess she did not disillusion them.

(21:33):
Doc lost again in the second round to Johl. In
the third round, Leismov defeated the machine in twenty seven moves.
There was a flaring of flashbulbs, a rush of newsmen
to the phones, jabbering at the stands, and much comment
and analysis that was way over Sandra's head, except she

(21:55):
got the impression that Leismov had done something tricky. The
general emotional reaction that America, as reflected in the newspapers,
was not too happy. One read between the lines that
for the machine to beat a man was bad, but
for a Russian to be an American machine was worse.

(22:15):
A widely read sports column, two football coaches, and several
rural politicians announced that chess was a morbid game played
only by weirdies. Despite these thick chested, he manned statements,
the elusive mood of insecurity deepened. Besides the excitement of
the least off win, a squabble had arisen in connection

(22:37):
with the machines still unfinished in game with Sharewski, which
had been continued through one morning session and was now
headed for another. Finally, there were rumors that World Business
Machines was planning to Replace Simon Gray with a nationally
famous physicist. End of Part three, height