David Levy, a Scottish chess champion who played many exhibition games against machines in the 1970s and ’80s, developed an ‘anti-computer’ style of restricted play that he described as ‘doing nothing but doing it well’. His play was so conservative that his computer opponents were unable to discern a long-term plan until Levy’s position was so strong that he was unbeatable. Likewise, Boris Alterman, an Israeli grandmaster, developed a strategy in matches against machines in the ’90s and early ’00s that became known as the ‘Alterman Wall’: he would bide his time behind a row of pawns, knowing
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