flaw--having a computer beat a grand master is most likely possible but he COULD win
A chess grandmaster also has some larceny on his mind, as he's planning on stealing funds in a bank vault that belong to an opposition movement in his Communist Bloc nation. So, the plan is to use a computer to feed Rollin the chess moves in order to make him unbeatable and get the attention of this grandmaster. Then, using the computer, they'll help him rob the vault. Naturally, the IM Force doesn't intend to really help him!
The big problem about this episode is that the writer assumed that you could make a computer that could ALWAYS win the chess match. However, in highly publicized matches years later, Garry Kasparov played a computer and managed to win...at least some of the matches. So, the best computers of the 1980s and 90s, still could not guarantee wins against humans. In fact, when Kasparov did lose matches, the did split several of the games making up the match. However, considering that folks in the 1960s didn't know this and thought computers were magic, this is mostly a problem for folks today watching reruns.
Overall, a decent and involving episode.
A chess grandmaster also has some larceny on his mind, as he's planning on stealing funds in a bank vault that belong to an opposition movement in his Communist Bloc nation. So, the plan is to use a computer to feed Rollin the chess moves in order to make him unbeatable and get the attention of this grandmaster. Then, using the computer, they'll help him rob the vault. Naturally, the IM Force doesn't intend to really help him!
The big problem about this episode is that the writer assumed that you could make a computer that could ALWAYS win the chess match. However, in highly publicized matches years later, Garry Kasparov played a computer and managed to win...at least some of the matches. So, the best computers of the 1980s and 90s, still could not guarantee wins against humans. In fact, when Kasparov did lose matches, the did split several of the games making up the match. However, considering that folks in the 1960s didn't know this and thought computers were magic, this is mostly a problem for folks today watching reruns.
Overall, a decent and involving episode.