The million dollar Brains in Bahrain match between Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz takes place 2nd-22nd October 2002 (Opening Ceremony 2nd October. Playing days 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 & 19 October, 2002).

Report Eleven: Game 7 Report
by Ebrahim Al Mannai

Game 7: Dreary Draw

Despite a closed Queen’s Indian position in which the average computer would not usually feel at home, the champ failed to utilize his positional prowess to pull off a point against the program. Deep Fritz actually ended up giving Tall Kramnik a Short Run for his Big Money.

Initially, the Kramnik team were licking their lips at the display screens while the Fritz team were anticipating Kramnik to regain his lead. With pawns locked, Kramnik was shifting his pieces behind the ranks, preparing to strategically outwit the computer.

After much clumsy maneuvering of its own, Fritz came upon 24.f4, forcing Kramnik’s hand. This eventually led to an equal position, where both sides seemed content with a draw. After a little repetition, a draw was agreed upon after 28 moves. This leaves the score still tied at 3.5-3.5, with the final game being the decisive one.

Kramnik meets Bahrain's only titled player, FM Zeyad Janahi

Personally, I would be rooting for my fellow human to win the match and avenge Kasparov’s loss, but I found out that if Deep Fritz wins, or draws, then Chessbase will donate their entire prize money to help children’s chess in Europe. I’m assuming that Kramnik will simply pocket his prize (he gets half-a-million if he loses!).

Therefore, I don’t care who wins, just as long as somebody does. I’d hate to see another draw. A decisive result with some great chess behind would be a perfect end to this great event.

Kramnik and Einstein's Zena Howard find a stray camel

Here’s game 7:

Deep Fritz - Kramnik, Vladimir [E19]
Brains in Bahrain MyTown (7), 19.10.2002

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 Kramnik thinks he'll try the black side of the Queen's Indian today. 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 Ne4 Common theme in the Nimzo/Queen's Indian complex; Black aims to give White doubled pawns on the c-file. 8.Qc2 meets the threat and creates another. 8...Nxc3 9.Qxc3 c5

Such a central pawn thrust, contesting the d4-pawn, is almost always crucial for Black in Queen's pawn openings.10.Rd1 d6 11.b3 Bf6 pinning 12.Bb2 Qe7 13.Qc2 unpinning 13...Nc6 14.e4 e5 15.d5 Nd4 16.Bxd4 cxd4

Here, Fritz creator Frans Morsch was worried. With this sort of closed position, the program cannot capitalize on its phenomenal tactical abilities and Kramnik has the opportunity to implement his superior strategic knowledge. The black pawn on d4 is strong. Not only because it's passed (with all the locked pawns around it, it's hard to imagine it advancing to queen), but also because it's solidly placed in the heart of White's camp, and hinders the White pieces. 17.Bh3 The king's bishop sees the light of day. Fritz played this instantly. According to Alex Kure, the man in charge of the program's openings, Deep Fritz has roughly 1.9 million opening positions in its database, from 88,000 master games, plus a lot of analysis that's never been played before. All this amounts to about 150 megabytes on the hard drive. 17...g6 18.a4 White intends 19.a5 to open the file for his major pieces. 18...a5 The backward b6-pawn is actually quite safe from harm, thanks to the locked pawn structure. 19.Rab1 Ba6

20.Re1? Useless. Much more to the point was 20. b4, opening things up on the queenside. 20...Kh8 Black takes his time to place all his pieces in preparation for a future central pawn break with ...f5. 21.Kg2? These time-wasting moves are a great example of a computer's inability to handle such postions. 21...Bg7 22.Qd3 Rae8 23.Nd2 Bh6 24.f4!

The computer beats him to it! This makes the champ's pieces sweat for a bit, but leads to equality and, as Mig Greengard would put it, a "high chicken factor" draw in four more moves.24...Qc7 25.Rf1 Kg8 26.Rbe1 Qd8 27.Kg1 Bb7 28.Re2 Ba6

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