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First Kramnik vs DeepFritz, In Progress
An anonymous reader writes "Reigning world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik played the first match in a series of eight against the world's strongest chess computer. 'After the game Vladimir Kramnik said that he was never worried about losing the typical Berlin endgame that arose in his first game against Deep Fritz. The World Champion is the master of this line and Fritz was unable to take advantage of the white pieces.' There is live coverage of the event at the main website." We've mentioned this match a few times before.
For those that are interested, the verdict among the chess world is that the computer is going to be exposed as a joke in this match. There are certain positions in which computers are very strong (tactical positions -- where each player has many choices over the next few moves and there are dramatic consequences), but there are equally many where they are not (positions in which long term planning is necessary and individual moves seem purposeless). Kramnik is not just strong -- he knows how to steer the game. The first game he had black and was thus trying to draw. So of course he immediately turned the game into a slow, boring game in which the computer's power was useless. Kramnik has shown previously that his anti-computer play is top notch, and you can look for it to win the match for him without problem.
Kramnick is a master of defense, an immovable object, so to speak; he proved that by beating Kasparov, an irresistable force.
Kramnick will play the defense and wait for his opportunity -- for the critical mistake -- to take the win. And, unlike this score-calculating computer, once Kramnick has won one game, he won't bother taking any risks; he'll just play solid defense every match, aiming for the draw; whereas the computer would foolishly (if it wins) try to win each successive game.
Also, if I recall correctly, this isn't a strictly timed match; its not a 5 minute game. Don't expect a computer to ever win a blitz match, because computer's just don't have the insight to play well in those circumstances, which is where human innovation shows through.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Anyway, I have a copy of Deep Fritz--the same program Kramnik is playing against. It's a comercially available chess program, designed to run on multiple processor computers. If you have a spare 90USD lying around, pick up a copy. It's a brutally strong program. You can buy it here: http://icdchess.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi (I have no affiliation with ICDchess, other than as a satisfied customer)
--
It is the last resort of the fading intellectual: to accuse your public of stupidity.--Sullivan
...with Deep Blue? I would like to see a match between 2 top-playing chess computers for a change
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Does anybody know what type of processors Deep Fritz is using?
Is the software low level assembly programming or does it run on top of an OS?
but one thing I rememer hearing much about karpov, back when kasparov was beaten, was that he, though not world champion, would have made a more interesting match against computerland, because of the fact that he focuses less on tactics (trying to out-think the computer by looking at combinations into more moves ahead) and more on abstract, pattern-based (such as in go) strategy, at which computers suck. Kasparov proved (insofar as you believe playing conditions were fair) that computers can out tacticate people, but perhaps a person whose style leans more toward abstract strategizing ("I want to keep this column open, because I feel it will be very important later" versus "I want to force the computer to lose that pawn, because I think I can pull off a combination in 43 moves")
i do need to go, but here are some things for children of this post to do:
o Look up some original reference (I saw many, many) that talked about how Kasparov's playing style is perhaps less suited to showcasing humanity's superiority to computers than Karpov's was)
o Look up whether Kramnik most resembles Karpov's or Kasparov's style.
One last thing.
Is it still true that in Go, computers play with a 14-move advantage and still lose to people who aren't even world-champion? Go is a game in which, because at each point in the game, it is unclear what groups of stones are alive and what are dead, pattern-based thinking is much more important. Would Karpov (and perhaps Kramnik) have made a better Go player than chess player?
When I come back, I'll add more to the thread, to anyone who wishes to discuss it.
Here's four of the reasons I own it.
1. To analyze your own games more quickly with the engine, which is great for having new insight to your own games and evolution as a player.
2. Faster thinking times. A stronger engine is, well, faster... especially with SMP.
3. To play chess - Deep Fritz plays at a variety of levels. most of which are far easier than what Kramnik is playing.
4. Integration with a program called Chessbase, which is as you may have guessed, Database application for chess games.
Hope this helps!
- Cath
(Deep) Fritz is a closed source program. It is impossible to say what its capable of in certain endgames. These programs have over a decade of programming in them, and they all have interesting strengths and weaknesses. While your analysis about its understanding of this endgame may be correct, I don't think your reasoning is necessarily well founded. Some ICCA (International Computer Chess Association) articles have shown methods for encoding algorithms for many endgames, such as pawn endgames in almost completely formulaic ways.
Of course Kramnik has been playing training matches against this precise version of Fritz for quite some time now. I would suggest that we *know* Fritz won't beat Kramnik in the Berlin Defence simply by virtue of him using it. The rules for this match stipulate that the Fritz team may not deviate its programming or openings while the match is going on. Thus if Fritz wants to change strategy, then its up to the program, not the programmers. It better have some kind of random opening generator, or opening learning system, otherwise a most embarassing thing will happen -- Kramnik will draw all his games with black with precisely the same moves.
Before I make a prediction, I want to see how Kramnik handles white. Of course, Kramnik is well known for his solid play, but if he can't make headway as white, he may feel he has to try harder, and screw up in the process. We shall see. But obviously drawing with black, and fairly easily shows that Kramnik is doing well so far, though perhaps not as well as we/he might have hoped.
The Raven.
The Raven