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[[FILE:AlexBernstein.jpg|border|right|thumb| Alex Bernstein <ref>Image captured from [[#Video|Alex Bernstein: juega al ajedrez con un IBM 704 (Thinking Machines) YouTube Video]] at 0:13</ref> ]]
'''Alex Bernstein''',(December 14, 1930 - March 11, 1999 <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=31 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by Elizabeth Rand, [[CCC]], July 18, 2020</ref>)<br/>was an American mathematician, chess player , and [[:Category:Pioneer|computer chess pioneer]]. While affiliated with [[IBM]] employee. Along in the 50s, along with his colleagues [[Michael de V. Roberts]], [[Timothy Arbuckle]] and [[Martin Belsky]], Alex Bernstein he was primary author of the [[The Bernstein Chess Program]] for the [[IBM 704]], which was the first complete chess program in history. Alex Bernstein was born in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan Milan] <ref>As confirmed by Alex Bernstein's daughter, Elizabeth Rand, in a [[CCC]] forum thread initiated by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]]:<br/>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939 The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], June 06, 2019<br/>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=31 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by Elizabeth Rand, [[CCC]], July 18, 2020</ref> as son of Russian born, Italian mathematician [[Mathematician#VBernstein|Vladimir Bernstein]] (1900 - 1936) <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=28 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], July 18, 2020</ref><ref>Quote from [[Mathematician#LMazliak|Laurent Mazliak]], Thomas Perfettini ('''2019'''). ''[https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02280296v1 Under the protection of alien wings. Mathematicians in the Russian emigration in inter war France]''. hal-02280296v2:<br/> Finally, the trajectory of [[Mathematician#VBernstein|Vladimir Bernstein]] (1900 - 1936) constitutes another singular case, described in detail in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Finzi Finzi] (1936).Born in 1900 in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg Saint Petersburg], Bernstein entered the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg_State_University local university] when he was 17 to specialize in mathematics and became close to [[Mathematician#JVUspensky|Yakov Viktorovich Uspensky]] (1883 - 1947). Taking advantage of the proximity of the border, he decided to emigrate during the winter of 1919 by reaching [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyborg Vyborg] on the other side of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Finland Gulf of Finland]. Unfortunately, he was seriously wounded by bullet before arriving there, and he never fully recovered from this injury that led to his premature death in 1936.Arrived in France in the mid-1920s after a stay in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London London], he entered the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and in 1930 defended a Ph.D. on the singularities of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_series Dirichlet series], dedicated to ‘his master [[Mathematician#PMontel|Paul Montel]]’. The lectures that Vladimir Bernstein presented at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coll%C3%A8ge_de_France Collège de France] that same year on Dirichlet series were published in 1933 in the [[Mathematician#Borel|Borel]] series of monographs on the theory of functions as Bernstein Chess Program(1933). The book was introduced by a very laudatory preface by [[Mathematician#JSHadamard|Hadamard]] . It was in Italy, however, that Bernstein decided to settle down (he had already published several papers in Italian journals). He obtained Italian citizenship in 1931 and was responsible for teaching superior [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_analysis analysis] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan Milan] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_geometry analytical geometry] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Pavia Pavia].</ref>. In 1940, Vladimir’s mother Elizabeth and her second husband fled from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_Italy_(1922%E2%80%931943) Fascist Italy], bringing Alex and his sister to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City New York City].Alex Bernstein started playing chess seriously during his high school time at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_College_of_New_York City College]. After graduating from [[Columbia University]], he served at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army US army], where he became acquainted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer computers].As full-time employee at [[IBM 704]], he got interested in writing a chess program, and talked with [[Claude Shannon]] about his ideas.During the 1956 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop Dartmouth workshop], when he was invited to talk about his program already in development,a discussion with [[John McCarthy]] led to McCarthy's discovery of [[Alpha-Beta|alpha-beta]] - according to McCarthy, Bernstein was not initially convinced about the idea <ref>[[#McCarthy|Quote John McCarthy]]</ref>. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_McCorduck Pamela McCorduck], who was married to [[Mathematician#JFTraub|Joseph F. Traub]], interviewed Alex Bernstein as published with several gives details given in her seminal book ''[[Artificial Intelligence#MachinesWhoThink|Machines Who Think]]'' <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=17 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], June 09, 2019</ref>, with some quotes below, including from an interview with Alex Bernstein.
=Quotes=
==[[Artificial Intelligence#MachinesWhoThink|Machines Who Think]]==
<ref>Quotes from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_McCorduck Pamela McCorduck] ('''2004'''). ''[[Artificial Intelligence#MachinesWhoThink|Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence]]''. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_K_Peters A. K. Peters] (25th anniversary edition)</ref>
Alex Bernstein, pp. 180:
I started playing chess seriously, I guess, when I was in high school. I played chess so much that it affected my grades in college. One year I played chess to the exclusion of everything else and woke up at the end of the term and discovered I had failed two courses. I was going to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_College_of_New_York City College] at the time. I failed a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics physics] course and a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics math] course — theory of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_of_a_real_variable functions of real variables]. It was quite a shock and I gave up chess after that term. I suppose I continued reading about it, but I stopped playing chess. Then in graduate school, although I’d given up math for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_literature medieval literature] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_poetry poetry], I worked as an assistant in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering civil engineering] department. After that I went into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army army], and because of my work at [[Columbia University|Columbia]] and what I was doing in the army — working in a special research and development outfit of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Corps_(United_States_Army) Signal Corps], I became acquainted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer computers] and what they could do.
Pamela McCorduck, pp. 181:
After Bernstein got out of the army he returned to Columbia, but the academic atmosphere got him down, and when the opportunity came to work full-time for [[IBM]] he took it. He had been working part time for them, and had become friendly with a young man named Hal Judd <ref>Hal Judd of [[IBM]] is mentioned in [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orchard-Hays William Orchard-Hays] ('''1956'''). ''Evolution of Computer Codes for Linear Programming''. [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAND_Corporation RAND Corporation], [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/224381.pdf pdf]</ref>. Judd knew Bernstein had played serious chess, and one day suggested they try to produce a chess-playing program.
Alex Bernstein, pp. 181, 182:
Nevertheless, the idea of a chess-playing program really intrigued me, so I decided to see if I could come up with a scheme for producing this program and forgetting some backing. It wasn’t impossible to work on this problem oneself, but one did need computer time and computer time is very expensive, although at the time there was a good deal of unused computer time during the third shift. Nevertheless, we had to have some permission at least to do it. So we went to Charlie DeCarlo <ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/26/nyregion/charles-decarlo-83-president-who-overhauled-sarah-lawrence-dies.html Charles DeCarlo, 83, President Who Overhauled Sarah Lawrence, Dies] by [https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=Bayot%252C+Jennifer Jennifer Bayot], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times The New York Times], November 26, 2004</ref>, who was head of the so-called Applied Science Division at IBM. DeCarlo is a mathematician and came out of [[Carnegie Mellon University|Carnegie]], and he was very sympathetic to the idea, and said he’d support it on a limited basis. Thus I went to work full-time for IBM at what was then the Scientific Center, and later became part of the Service Bureau, in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan Manhattan]. I was given other work to do, but essentially it was understood that half of my time I would be allowed to spend working on the chess program.
Pamela McCorduck, pp. 183:
At this time, Bernstein was unaware of [[Claude Shannon|Shannon’s]] seminal papers, and did not know that chess had caught the interests of a group at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]], including [[James Kister|J. Kister]], [[Paul Stein|P. Stein]], [[Stanislaw Ulam|S. Ulam]], [[William Walden|W. Walden]], and [[Mark Wells|M. Wells]], who were working on a limited 6 x 6 board, rather than the regulation 8 x 8. Nor did he know that [[Allen Newell]], [[Cliff Shaw|J. C. Shaw]], and [[Herbert Simon]] together, and [[John McCarthy]] independently, were also pondering chess-playing machines.
Pamela McCorduck, Alex Bernstein, pp. 183, 184:
It was now that Bernstein became aware of [[Alan Turing|Turing’s]] work and read at least one of [[Claude Shannon|Shannon’s]] papers. When he finally began to see how he might codify some of the principles he felt were essential, he telephoned Claude Shannon at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]. “I went up to MIT and spent a day or two with him, telling him what I was planning to do, and he said he thought it was intelligent, and a good way of proceeding. Essentially I felt I’d received his blessings, which was pleasant.”
Pamela McCorduck, pp. 113:
In addition, others came to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop Dartmouth] for short visits to talk about related work, and among those visitors was Alex Bernstein, then a programmer for [[IBM]] in New York City, who was invited to talk about the [[The Bernstein Chess Program|chess-playing program]] he was working on. His work was known to [[Claude Shannon|Shannon]], [[Nathaniel Rochester|Rochester]], and [[Arthur Samuel]], who himself was working on what was to be one of the earliest and most successful of the game-playing programs with computers, one that played [[Checkers|checkers]].
Pamela McCorduck, pp. 116:
Alex Bernstein, who had come up to Dartmouth from New York to talk about the chess-playing program he already had under way, remembers hearing McCarthy’s plans to begin on a chess-playing program, and listening with interest to his ideas. But when they came to play a game of chess with each other, the equivalent of [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mano_a_mano mano a mano] in the world of science, Bernstein won, despite the fact that he’d accepted the handicap of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindfold_chess playing blindfold].
<span id="McCarthy"></span>
==John McCarthy==
[[John McCarthy]] in ''The Dartmouth Workshop--as planned and as it happened'' <ref>[http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/slides/dartmouth/dartmouth/node1.html The Dartmouth Workshop--as planned and as it happened]</ref>
Alex Bernstein of IBM presented his chess program under construction. My reaction was to invent and recommend to him [[Alpha-Beta|alpha-beta]] pruning. He was unconvinced.
{{Quote McCarthy on Alpha-Beta}}
=See also=
* [[Alex Bernstein]], [[Michael de V. Roberts]], [[Timothy Arbuckle]], [[Martin Belsky]] ('''1958'''). ''[https://www.computerhistory.org/chess/doc-431e18a41d415/ A chess playing program for the IBM 704]''. Proceedings of the 1958 Western Joint Computer Conference
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_McCorduck Pamela McCorduck] ('''1979'''). ''Machines Who Think''. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Freeman_and_Company W. H. Freeman]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_McCorduck Pamela McCorduck] ('''2004'''). ''[http://www.pamelamc.com/html/machines_who_think.html [Artificial Intelligence#MachinesWhoThink|Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence]]''. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_K_Peters A. K. Peters] (25th anniversary edition)
=Forum Posts=
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939 The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], June 06, 2019
: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=17 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], June 09, 2019
: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=26 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by Elizabeth Rand, [[CCC]], July 17, 2020
: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=28 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by [[Sergei Markoff|Sergei S. Markoff]], [[CCC]], July 18, 2020
: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70939&start=31 Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein] by Elizabeth Rand, [[CCC]], July 18, 2020
=External Links=
* [https://www.computerhistory.org/chess/search/?q=Alex+Bernstein Alex Bernstein] from [[The Computer History Museum]]
* [httphttps://www.gettyimages.de/searchfotos/2/imageibm-704?editorialproducts=timelife&family=editorial&phrase=IBM+704%20704&page=1&editorialproductsrecency=timelifeanydate&familysuppressfamilycorrection=editorial true Photos] with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lasker Edward Lasker] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Feininger Andreas Feininger], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Images Getty Images] » [[IBM 704#QuoteMachinesWhoThink|Quote from Machines Who Think]]* [httphttps://www.research.ibmnewyorker.com/deepbluemagazine/1958/reference11/29/runner-up-4 Runner-Up - The New Yorker], November 29, 1958* [https:/html/iwww.chess.com/blog/Ginger_GM/the-history-of-computer-chess-part-3.html -alex-bernstein The History of Computer Chess Pieces - IBM ResearchPart 3 - Alex Bernstein] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Williams_(chess_player) Simon Williams] the , [[Deep BlueChess.com]] site, August 31, 2019* [https://www.newyorkerchess.com/magazineblog/1958Ginger_GM/11/29/runnerthe-history-of-computer-chess-uppart-4 Runner-Up alex-bernstein- continued The New Yorker History of Computer Chess - Part 4 - November 29Alex Bernstein continued...] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Williams_(chess_player) Simon Williams], 1958[[Chess.com]], September 28, 2019
* <span id="Video"></span>Alex Bernstein: ''juega al ajedrez con un'' IBM 704 (Thinking Machines) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube YouTube] Video
: {{#evu:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUjiUR0ZH58|alignment=left|valignment=top}}
=References=
<references />
'''[[People|Up one level]]'''
[[Category:Chess Player|Bernstein]]
[[Category:Chess Programmer|Bernstein]]
[[Category:Pioneer|Bernstein]]
[[Category:McCarthy Quotes|Bernstein]]
[[Category:Videos|Bernstein]]
