After winning at chess, this computer may help decide on loans

Tokyo

AFTER defeating an expert in Japanese chess, this computer program's next task is to figure out if you can make the payments on a new mortgage.

Heroz Inc, a small Japanese startup whose engineers designed computer systems that were the first to defeat an active professional player of shogi, the Japanese version of chess, says it's now working on adapting its applications for the financial industry.

While Deep Blue became the first computer to beat a top chess player in 1997, the computer programming required to defeat a shogi master is even more complex than that required for conventional chess. That's mainly because the number of potential moves in Japane…