Poole versus HAL 9000

Poole versus HAL 9000 is a fictional chess game in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the movie, the astronaut Dr. Frank Poole is seen playing a recreational game of chess with the HAL 9000 supercomputer. Poole views the board on a computer screen, and dictates his moves orally to HAL using descriptive notation. Poole is not surprised when the supposedly infallible supercomputer soundly defeats him.

In the novel, no particular chess game is depicted, though it is mentioned that the astronauts can play chess and other games with HAL, and that, for purposes of morale, the computer is programmed to temper its superiority and win only 50% of games.

The film's 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 a tournament game between A. Roesch and W. Schlage, Hamburg 1910.

The game

The depicted game seems to be based on the moves of the following tournament game played in Hamburg, 1910:

HAL 9000

HAL 9000 is a fictional character in Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series. First appearing in 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a sentient computer (or artificial general intelligence) that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship's astronaut crew. HAL's exterior physical form is not depicted, though it is visually represented as a red television camera eye located on equipment panels throughout the ship, and its interior in the scene where his advanced memory modules are disconnected. HAL 9000 is voiced by Douglas Rain in the two film adaptations of the Space Odyssey series and a short film voiced by Andrew Stanton. HAL speaks in a soft, calm voice and a conversational manner, in contrast to the crewmen, David Bowman and Frank Poole, who speak tersely and with little emotional inflection.

In the context of the series, HAL became operational on 12 January 1999 at the HAL Laboratories in Urbana, Illinois as production number 3; in the film 2001, the activation year was 1992 and 1991 in earlier screenplays. In addition to maintaining the Discovery One spacecraft systems during the interplanetary mission to Jupiter (or Saturn in the original novel, published shortly after the release of the film), HAL is capable of speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting and reproducing emotional behaviours, automated reasoning, and playing chess.

Poole

Coordinates: 50°43′N 1°59′W / 50.717°N 1.983°W / 50.717; -1.983

Poole ⁱ/puːl/ is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is 33 kilometres (21 mi) east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The local council is Borough of Poole and was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council. The borough had a population of 147,645 according to the 2011 census, making it the second largest settlement in Dorset. Together with Bournemouth and Christchurch, the town forms the South East Dorset conurbation with a total population of over 465,000.

Human settlement in the area dates back to before the Iron Age. The earliest recorded use of the town's name was in the 12th century when the town began to emerge as an important port, prospering with the introduction of the wool trade. In later centuries the town had important trade links with North America and at its peak in the 18th century it was one of the busiest ports in Britain. During the Second World War, the town was one of the main departing points for the D-Day landings of the Normandy Invasion.

Poole (surname)

Poole is a surname, and may refer to:

Poole (UK Parliament constituency)

Poole is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Robert Syms, a Conservative.

History

The first version of the Poole constituency existed from 1455 until 1885. During this period its exact status was a parliamentary borough, sending two burgesses to Westminster per year, except during its last 17 years when its representation was reduced to one member.

During its abeyance most of Poole was in the East Dorset seat and since its recreation in 1950 its area has been reduced as the harbour town's population has increased.

Boundaries

Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which slightly altered this constituency for the 2010 general election since which it has electoral wards:

Constituency profile

The borough is an economically very diverse borough. In the centre and north are a significant minority of Output Areas which in 2001 had high rankings in the Index of Multiple Deprivation, contributing in 2012 with the remainder to producing for Poole the highest unemployment of the constituencies in the county. However, Canford Cliffs is epitomised by one sub-neighbourhood, Sandbanks with its multi-million pound properties, the coastline area has been dubbed as "Britain's Palm Beach" by the national media. Alongside oil extraction, insurance, care, retail and customer service industries choosing the town as their base tourism contributes to overall a higher income than the national average, however the divergence is not statistically significant and the size of homes varies extensively.