Slashdot Mirror

http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/event/linares2005/ r15.html

He felt the tournament was over after the nice win over Adams. He had no energy to fight Anand, and with that draw he realized that because of the tie-break he had clinched the trophy already. This may have been the reason for his bad play today. It was very tough to play here anyway, as every game in the second half was the last one. It was like a rocket launch, with a count down to zero. Everyday he was afraid to make a big blunder. Only today did he not think about it, and so it happened today.

The Week in Chess report on the press conference.

He's retiring because he's been the top player for the last 20 years, he is the best ever, last year he won the Russian championship for the first time so he's won everything there is to win, most of it many times, and he can't see any new challenges. The mess in FIDE and the constant mess around the world championships sucked a lot of his energy, he'll just play for fun from now on.

Politics is one of the things he's going to do in his newly found free time, but it's hardly the main story.

http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html#news130 This Week in Chess

"Deep Blue was not dismantled"

Then why does everyone seem to think that it is?

Wired: Deep Blue has since been dismantled

ChessCenter: Deep Blue was dismantled after beating Garry Kasparov in 1997

Nature: Blue was dismantled after the '97 contest

Kasparov: it was quickly dismantled after the event.

What is the current status of this machine and its software?

The Week in Chess: TWIC

It's big, it's commercial, it's Chessbase

This is the link to the PGN file. This has a java applet where you can replay the game.

Kramnick is certainly a great chess player -- perhaps the best in the world -- but he is lacking in one important quality regarding a champion. And while former Champion Kasparov is arrogant and brass, he never fibbed on a challenge. During Kasparov's 15-year reign as chess-champion, he actively sought the most difficult challenger, and regularly played games in which he was disadvantaged.

This is quite contrary to what Kramnik has been doing, which is actively avoiding the strongest challenger -- Kasparov, and then after him Anand. Kasparov is still the highest ranked player in the world, and that margin has increased since after Kramnik took the crown from him, as Kasparov recently defeated Kramnik's Berlin Wall in 2001.

Kramnik appears to be not-so-subtly avoiding a rematch with Kramnik, quite the opposite of what Kramnik did when he was champion. He welcomed rematches from Karpov when Karpov was widely renowned as the best and most dangerous challenger.

The Week In Chess (TWIC) is the news center for chess players, as far as I'm concerned. They have good reports about the match as well, including an interview with Kramnik from a week before the match, here.

My karma is maxed, I'm not just whoring, I just hate people linking to an article on CNN or Yahoo or so when it's about chess. Though this submission was clearly a lot better than the previous ones.

And about the match - it's interesting that after Kramnik exploited the computer's weaknesses (endgame, strategy, etc), the computer followed up by exploiting the human's weaknesses - emotion in game 5 (Kramnik realized he was facing a long hard defence, didn't like this, maybe he was a bit nervy), and vanity in game 6 (Kramnik went for the flashy tactics, he wanted "the best game in his life". Admittedly he didn't see the refutation so it seemed a good move, but it certainly wasn't good anti-computer strategy.)

And now it's 3.5-3.5 with one game to go. Kramnik has to choose between playing for a win (which may involve risk), or take no risks (leading to a probable draw). This may lead to doubts in his mind. Something Fritz doesn't have to deal with, although his operators may have the same problem choosing an opening repertoire.

Let's hope they don't let Fritz go down because of their humans flaws.

The Week In Chess (TWIC) is the news center for chess players, as far as I'm concerned. They have good reports about the match as well, including an interview with Kramnik from a week before the match, here.

My karma is maxed, I'm not just whoring, I just hate people linking to an article on CNN or Yahoo or so when it's about chess. Though this submission was clearly a lot better than the previous ones.

And about the match - it's interesting that after Kramnik exploited the computer's weaknesses (endgame, strategy, etc), the computer followed up by exploiting the human's weaknesses - emotion in game 5 (Kramnik realized he was facing a long hard defence, didn't like this, maybe he was a bit nervy), and vanity in game 6 (Kramnik went for the flashy tactics, he wanted "the best game in his life". Admittedly he didn't see the refutation so it seemed a good move, but it certainly wasn't good anti-computer strategy.)

And now it's 3.5-3.5 with one game to go. Kramnik has to choose between playing for a win (which may involve risk), or take no risks (leading to a probable draw). This may lead to doubts in his mind. Something Fritz doesn't have to deal with, although his operators may have the same problem choosing an opening repertoire.

Let's hope they don't let Fritz go down because of their humans flaws.

Stupid human lost with white in round 6!