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Hydra vs. Shredder

Posted by michael on from the teenage-mutant-ninja-computers dept.

azaris writes "The powerful computer chess engine Hydra, running on a sixteen-way Linux cluster, is taking on the many times world champion engine Shredder in a match between the two chess super computers in Abu Dhabi, according to ChessBase.com. So far, Hydra is leading by two clear victories." S!: ChessBase also points to the announcement of a "64,000 square meter International Chess City" in Dubai, planned to cost US $2.6 billion, which "will feature 32 buildings designed to mirror the image of a traditional black and white game board."

7 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. by nuclear305 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a US $2.6 billion project that is expected to play host to (hold on to your hats) 60 million amateur and professional chess followers annually.

    That's a lot of chess players, considering some of the best known tourist attractions don't even get those kind of numbers annually. Do we even have that many chess players worldwide? :)

  2. Looking forward to it by r.jimenezz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is going to be interesting. While Shredder is a software engine running on standard hardware, I recall reading in Chessbase sometime that Hydra is an FPG-based engine. So in a sense it is a return to the days of Deep Blue and it should be interesting to see how well it fares against the current crop of "standard" engines.

    --
    The revolution will not be televised.
  3. IBM computer? by cytoman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Whatever happened to that IBM computer which competed against and defeated Gary Kasparov? And the other computers that IBM built specifically for playing chess?

    1. Re:IBM computer? by damiam · · Score: 4, Interesting

      IBM dismantled it afterwards, possibly to avoid challenges from other GMs. Deep Blue was built specifically to play Kasparov; it would have performed much worse against Kramnik, Anand, or any other top-level player.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  4. The Futue by Hockney+Twang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So this is the future of chess, and maybe even eventually all games requiring logic. We'll just pit computers against one another, and people won't even play anymore.

    1. Re:The Futue by Lispy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well,it didn't work the first time when we invented VCRs to watch TV for us.

  5. Your information is incorrect by jbellis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Deep blue was tuned to beat Kasparov, just like any human player adjusts his game depending on who he plays. But Deep Blue was built to win against anyone, and competed in many computer chess events during its development.