Danny Kopec


Daniel Kopec was an American chess International Master, author, and computer science professor at Brooklyn College.

Education

He graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1975. Kopec later received a PhD in Machine Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 studying under Donald Michie.

Chess

Kopec was Greater NY High School Champion at 14, and reached master at 17. Kopec won the Scottish Chess Championship in 1980 while pursuing his doctorate in Edinburgh. He lived in Canada for two years during the 1980s, and competed there with success, including second-equal in the 1984 Canadian Chess Championship. Kopec achieved the FIDE International Master title in 1985 and had several top three finishes in the US Open.
He wrote numerous books on the subject of chess, produced eight chess instructional DVDs, and ran chess camps starting in 1994. Kopec also worked to promote his chess opening, the Kopec System. With Ivan Bratko, he was the creator of the Bratko–Kopec Test, which was one of the de facto standard testing systems for chess-playing computer programs in the 1980s.

Computer science

Kopec published notable academic pieces in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine error reduction, intelligent tutoring systems, and computer education.

Death

Kopec died on June 12, 2016, from pancreatic cancer.

Partial chess bibliography