David Levy was born in London, England in 1945.
In 1967, at the age of 22, he won the Scottish Championship.
In 1968 Levy played for Scotland at the chess olympiad in Lugano, Switzerland.
In 1968 Professor Donald Michie, founder of the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception at Edinburgh University, invited Levy to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) workshop in Edinburgh.
Levy played a friendly chess game with Stanford professor John McCarthy and easily beat the professor. McCarthy then remarked that within 10 years, there would be a computer program that would beat Levy. Levy then bet McCarthy 500 British pounds that he would not lose a match to a computer chess program within 10 years. The bet later doubled to 1000 British pounds (about $3,000). Levy had bet three other computer experts, including Michie, Seymour Papert from MIT and Ed Kozdrowicki from the University of California, that no program would beat him in 10 years.
In 1969 David Levy became an International Master after a strong showing in the Zonal tournament in Portugal.
In the early 1970s Levy taught Algol programming and Artificial Intelligence at Glasgow University.
On October 19, 1975 he came out ahead in a simultaneous exhibition against 12 chess computers. It was played at the ACM Annual Conference in Minneapolis.
In December, 1977 he defeated Russia's strongest chess computer, Kaissa. It was played on an Amdahl computer.
In August, 1978 he won that bet when he defeated CHESS 4.7, the strongest chess playing computer of the day, by a score of 3.5-1.5. The computer program was being played on a Control Data Cyber 176, the world's most powerful production computer at that time. The computer programmers were David Slate and Larry Atkin. It could calculate 3,000 positions a second. The match was played in Toronto. Levy became the first International Master to give up a draw and a loss to a computer program, when CHESS 4.7 got a draw in game 1 of the match and won the 4th game of the match. The program was run from its computer in Minnesota via an open telephone line.
In 1984 he beat Cray Blitz 4-0.
In 1989 he lost 4-0 to Deep Thought.
Levy - CHESS 4.7, Game 1, Toronto 1978
1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 e5 3.d3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.O-O Bd7 6.b3 Bc5 7.Bb2 Qe7 8.a3 e4 9.Ne1 O-O 10.d4 Bd611.e3 Ng4 12.h3? (12.c4) Nxe3! 13.fxe3 Qg5 14.g4 Qxe3+ 15.Rf2 Bg3 16.Qe2 Qxf2+ 17.Qxf2 Bxf2+ 18.Kxf2 f5 19.gxf5 Ne7 20.c4 Rxf5+ 21.Kg1 c6 22.Nc3 Rh5 23.Kh2 Rf8 24.Nd1 Ng6 25.Rc1Bxh3 26.Bxh3 Rf1 27.Ng2 Rf3 28.cxd5 Rhxh3+ 29.Kg1 cxd5 30.Rc8+ Nf8 31.Bc3 Rd3 32.Nde3 Rhxe3
33.Nxe3 Rxe3 34.Bb4 Rf3 35.Rd8 h6 36.Rxd5 Rxb3 37.Rd8 Rf3 38.Ra8 g5 39.d5 h5 40.d6 Kg7 41.Rxa7 Rf7 42.Ra5 Kf6 43.Bc3+ Kg6 44.Re5 Rf3 45.Bb4 Rf4 46.Re7 Rf7 47.Rxe4 Rd7 48.Re7 h4 49.Kg2 g4 50.Kh2 b6 51.Kg2 Rd8 52.a4 Nd7 53.a5 Nf6 54.axb6 Nd5 55.b7 Nxe7 56.dxe7 Rh8 57.Bd6 Kf6 58.b8=Q Rxb8 59.Bxb8 Kxe7 60.Bf4 Kf6 61.Bd2 Kg6 62.Be1 Kg5 63.Bf2 Kh5
64.Be1 and the game was agreed drawn. 1/2-1/2
CHESS 4.7 - Levy, Game 2, Toronto 1978
1.Nc3 c5 2.e4 Nc6 3.f4 a6 4.Nf3 g6 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Bg7 7.Be3 d6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Be2 Rb8 10.Qc1 Qa5 11.Bd2 Qb6 12.Na4 Qa7 13.Nc3 Bd4 14.Nd1 Nf6 15.c3 Bb6 16.Qc2 Ng4 17.Qa4 O-O 18.Bxg4 Bxg4 19.Qxc6 Bxd1 20.Kxd1 Be3 21.b3 Bxd2 22.Kxd2 Rbc8 23.Qa4 Qf2+ 24.Kd3 Qxg2 25.Qd4 Qf3+ 26.Kc2 Qe2+ 27.Kc1 e5 28.fxe5 dxe5 29.Qxe5 Rfe8 30.Qg3 Rxe4 31.Qh3 Rd8
32.Qf1 Qd2+ 33.Kb1 Re2 34.Qxe2 Qxe2 35.Re1 Qxe1+ 36.Kb2 Rd2+ 37.Ka3 Qxa1 0-1
Levy - CHESS 4.7, Game 3, Toronto 1978
1.c4 Nf6 2.a3 Nc6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.d3 Nxc3 6.bxc3 e5 7.g3 Be7 8.Bg2 Qd6 9.Nf3 Be6
10.O-O O-O 11.Qa4 Qc5 12.Bd2 b5 13.Qc2 f6 14.Rfb1 Rad8 15.Qb2 Rb8 16.Be3 Qd6
17.Nd2 Bd5 18.Bxd5+ Qxd5 19.Qb3 Qxb3 20.Nxb3 f5 21.Bc5 Bd6 22.Rb2 Kh8 23.Rab1 a6
24.Bxd6 cxd6 25.Nd2 f4 26.Kg2 fxg3 27.hxg3 Rbd8 28.a4 Na7 29.Ne4 bxa4 30.Rb6 d5
31.Nc5 Nb5 32.Nxa4 Ra8 33.c4 dxc4 34.dxc4 Nd4 35.e3 Nf3 36.c5 Ng5 37.c6 Ne4 38.c7 Rxf2+
39.Kg1 Rff8 40.Rb8 h5 41.Rxa8 Rxa8 42.Rb8+ 1-0
CHESS 4.7 - Levy, Game 4, Toronto 1978
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.exf5 e4 4.Ne5 Nf6 5.Ng4 d5 6.Nxf6+ Qxf6 7.Qh5+ Qf7 8.Qxf7+ Kxf7 9.Nc3 c6
10.d3 exd3 11.Bxd3 Nd7 12.Bf4 Nc5 13.g4 Nxd3+ 14.cxd3 Bc5 15.O-O h5 16.Na4 Bd4
17.Be3 Be5 18.d4 Bd6 19.h3 b6 20.Rfe1 Bd7 21.Nc3 hxg4 22.hxg4 Rh4 23.f3 Rah8 24.Kf1 Bg3
(24...Bc8) 25.Re2 Bc8 26.Kg2 Bd6 27.Bg1 Rh3 28.Rae1 Rg3+ 29.Kf2 Rhh3 30.Re3 Ba6
31.Ne2 Bxe2 32.R1xe2 c5 33.f4 Rxe3 34.Rxe3 Rh4 35.Kg3 Rh1 36.Bf2 Rd1 37.Ra3 cxd4
38.Rxa7+ Kf8? (38...Ke8) 39.Rd7 Rd3+? (39...Bc5) 40.Kg2 Bc5 41.Rxd5 Rd2 42.b4 Bxb4
43.Rd8+ Kf7 44.Rd7+ Kf8 45.Rxd4 Rb2 46.Kf3 Bc5 47.Rd8+ Ke7? (47...Kf7) 48.Bh4+ Kf7
49.g5 g6 50.Rd7+ Kf8 51.fxg6 Rxa2 52.f5 Ra3+ 53.Kg4 Ra4+ 54.Kh5 Rd4 55.Rc7 1-0
Levy - CHESS 4.7, Game 5, Toronto 1978
1.c4 Nf6 2.a3 c6 3.d3 d5 4.Qc2 dxc4 5.Qxc4 e5 6.Nf3 Bd6 7.g3 Be6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Bg2 O-O
10.O-O Qb6 11.Nbd2 Qc5 12.Qb1 h6 13.b4 Qb5 14.Qc2 Nb6 15.Bb2 a5 16.a4 Qa6 17.bxa5 Qxa5
18.Bc3 Qc5 19.Rfc1 Nbd7 20.a5 Qa7 21.Qb2 Ng4 22.Ne4 Bc7 23.h3 f5 24.hxg4 fxe4 25.dxe4 Bxg4
26.Be1 Nc5 27.Rcb1 Rae8 28.Bd2 Rf7 29.Be3 Bd6 30.Qc2 Bxf3 31.Bxf3 Ra8 32.Rc1 b6
33.Kg2 Qb7 34.axb6 Rxa1 35.Rxa1 Ne6 36.Ra7 Qc8 37.Qa2 Rf6 38.Ra8 Bb8 39.Bg4 Kf7
40.Qa7+ Bxa7 41.Rxc8 Bxb6 42.Bxe6+ Rxe6 43.Bxb6 1-0
