Most people are aware that IBM's Deep Blue programme, running on a super computer, beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov back in 1997. But you're probably unaware how much the rot has set in since then. Today, reports The Economist (subscription required), computers are dominating humans on numerous fronts: "They are the undisputed champions in draughts and backgammon. They are steadily gaining ground in Scrabble, poker and bridge. And they're even doing pretty well at crossword puzzles."

So what hope for us feeble old carbon-based life-forms?

Plenty.

Computers' skill at chess and other games doesn't involve any strategic thinking. Rather it's a brute force probability calculation, whereby a computer looks at all the pieces on, say, a chess board, calculates all of black's possible moves, all of white's possible moves, and then combs through all the millions combinations for the move that will give its opponent the least chance of winning.

With the strategic Chinese board game Go, computers are still floundering, despite researchers' best efforts. The highest ranked Go programme so far - MoGo, developed by University of Paris boffins - ranks just 2,323rd in the world.