[codehotter]

Don't underestimate algorithmic improvements. Today's chess engines running on DeepBlue hardware outperform DeepBlue running on today's hardware.

Modern chess engines are built on a testing infrastructure that makes it possible to measure how each potential change affects the playing strength. This "Testing revolution" has brought massive improvements in playing strength.

For AlphaGo, it's probably the training that requires the most computational resources. The 'distilled knowledge' could perhaps run on a desktop PC. The program would search fewer variations and would be weaker, but if AlphaGo improves further, that version might still be stronger than any human.