Programming a Computer for Playing Chess
Shannon set out how a machine could play chess: an evaluation function for positions, a search some moves ahead, and a minimax choice.
Why it matters
A task treated as proof of thought was reduced to search with evaluation, and that shaped game programs for half a century.
The paper is entirely theoretical; Shannon programmed no machine. He separates a type A strategy, full search to a fixed depth, from type B, which examines only plausible moves, and notes that humans play closer to the second. Both lines were pursued separately afterwards.