It is fitting that the historic " Man versus Machine" Championship between Garry Kasparov and Deep Junior is being held in the United States, because computer chess was largely born in the United States. The seminal paper on programming computers to play chess was published by an American named Claude Shannon, also known as "The Father of Information Theory," in 1950. Shannon's paper described the basic approaches still used in computer chess programming. Two of those approaches became popularly known as: (a) the so-called " Brute force," in which computers examine all legal moves; and (b) "Selective Search," in which computers select only plausible moves and concentrate on them. Selective search is more like human players, but is harder for computers to execute properly.

In the 1970's, Sid Samole of Florida conceived the idea of developing computers that could play chess in people's homes. He got the idea from a "Star Trek" Episode in which Spock played a computer. As a result of Sid's marketing work, chess computers appeared in stores around the world. Today, millions of such computers have been sold.

The World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole Chess Museum in Miami, Florida, owned and sponsored by the U.S. Chess Trust commemorates the history of chess, including the history of computer chess.

The United States Chess Federation, founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society. The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organization with more than 90,000 members. For more information, please see http://www.uschess.org.