Finlo Rohrer at the BBC:
It is a behemoth of a machine that pits 32 linked processors against its flesh-and-blood opponents. Hydra’s backers claim it can analyse 200 million chess moves in a second and project the game up to 40 moves ahead.
Computer programmers have been pitting their wits in the Game of Kings for decades, but only recently have they truly taken the upper hand.
The chess world was stunned when, in 1996, the then world Number One, Garry Kasparov, lost a game to IBM’s Deep Blue. Kasparov went on to win the overall match but bigger losses lay ahead, in the rematch a year later. Then, the grandmaster was conclusively beaten. It was a decisive episode in the battle of Man v Machine.
More here. [Thanks to Timothy Don.]