Google Celebrates 100 Years Since the First Computer Game

Google is starting a tradition of celebrating the legacy of the computing world's pioneers. It celebrated the work of Alan Turing earlier this year and helped raise funds to preserve the place where some of his biggest achievements were made.

Now, Google is underlining the legacy of Leonardo Torres-Quevedo an inventor from the early 20th century.

His creations pushed the technology of the times to its limits, among his many inventions is El Ajedrecista, The Chess Player, what is considered to be the very first computer game.

Granted, it wasn't a digital computer, those weren't invented yet, but this contraption could play against a human and make decisions based on what the other player was doing.

The game was limited to just three chess pieces and it was "rigged" so that the computer had no way of losing, but this was in 1912, 100 years ago.

To celebrate this, Google is getting together with the Telecommunication Engineering department of the Technical University of Madrid to house a conference next week dedicated to Torres-Quevedo's legacy.