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| Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph   Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David
Norwood at their new
Chess
Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free).
Garry Kasparov has struck a blow for those who believe the days of computer dominance in chess have not quite arrived. The world number one outplayed Fritz X3D in the third game of a four game contest held at the New York Athletic Club to level the score at 1.5-1.5 with one to play. After suffering an awful defeat in the second game following a blunder Kasparov headed straight for a closed position when the computer gave him an opportunity with an unusual fifth move. The computer had been odds on to win the match but this assessment soon changed as it became apparent that the struggle was going to be only strategic in nature with virtually no tactical opportunities. It soon became obvious that in the long term the computer was going to lose a queenside pawn but since this was at least ten moves away it was beyond the machine's event horizon and did not play a part in its assessment of the position. Kasparov quickly built up a huge positional advantage on the queenside and carefully protected himself on the other wing. Gradually the computer began to run out of ideas and while it clearly understood it had to play on the kingside it refused to advance its pawns on that wing to create counterplay like any strong human player would. Without counterplay the computer was doomed but it simply did not comprehend this and some of its moves just looked daft. I even noticed that my version of Fritz thought it had the advantage for most of the game probably because the white king had no pawn cover although it was completely safe. After forty five moves FritzX3D still had no inkling of the seriousness of its predicament and the programmers decided to pull the plug to avoid further embarrassment. A sample winning continuation is below. Game four is this evening starting at 6pm UK time. Kasparov,G (2830) - X3D FRITZ [D45] X3D Match New York USA (3), 16.11.2003 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 c6 5.e3 a6 6.c5 Nbd7 7.b4 a5 8.b5 e5 9.Qa4 Qc7 10.Ba3 e4 11.Nd2 Be7 12.b6 
Cementing the advantage on the queenside and leaving the a5 pawn totally exposed. Remarkably, the opening was first played in a game between Sammy Reshevsky and Paul Keres during the first Fide world championship in 1948. Keres was a pawn down for nothing but won. That game went: 12.Be2 h5 13.b6 Qd8 14.h3 Nf8 15.0-0-0 Ne6 16.Ndxe4 Nxe4 17.Nxe4 h4 18.Nd2 0-0 19.Rhg1 Re8 20.Bd3 Bf8 21.Bb2 Ng5 22.Qc2 a4 23.a3 Qe7 24.Rde1 Ne4 25.Nf1 Qg5 26.f3 Nf6 27.Kb1 Nh5 28.Bc3 Bd7 29.f4 Qh6 30.Qf2 Qf6 31.Kb2 Bf5 32.Qc2 Be4 33.g4 hxg3 34.Nxg3 Nxg3 35.Rxg3 Bxd3 36.Qxd3 Re4 37.Reg1 Rae8 38.Rf1 Qh4 39.Rfg1 R8e6 40.Qd2 f5 41.Qd3 Qh5 42.Bd2 g6 43.Rg5 Qxh3 44.R1g3 Qh2 45.Rxg6+ Rxg6 46.Rxg6+ Kf7 47.Rg5 Be7 48.Rxf5+ Bf6 49.Kc3 Qh3 50.Rxf6+ Kxf6 51.Qc2 Qf1 52.Qxa4 Qa1+ 53.Kc2 Re8 54.Qb3 Ra8 55.Bc1 Rh8 56.e4 Rh1 57.e5+ Ke7 58.Qe3 Qa2+ 59.Kc3 Rh2 60.Qd3 Qa1+ 61.Kb3 Qxc1 62.f5 Qb2+ 63.Ka4 Rh8 0-1 Reshevsky,S-Keres,P World Chess Championship Tournament NLD/URS 1948. 12...Qd8 13.h3 0-0 14.Nb3 Bd6!  A classic computer move for two reasons; firstly it would never occur to a human player and secondly although the machine played it, it did not understand that the best follow-up was to keep the bishop on the b8-h2 diagonal and limply retreated it next move. The rest of the game sees Kasparov overprotecting the f2 square, safeguarding his king and then gradually preparing the breakthrough with pawn a4-a5-a6. 15.Rb1 [ 15.cxd6 Nxb6 traps the Queen on a4.] 15...Be7? 16.Nxa5 Nb8 17.Bb4 Qd7 18.Rb2! Qe6 19.Qd1 Nfd7 20.a3 Qh6 21.Nb3 Bh4 22.Qd2 Nf6 23.Kd1! Be6 24.Kc1 Rd8 25.Rc2 Nbd7 26.Kb2 Nf8 27.a4 Ng6 28.a5 Ne7 29.a6 bxa6 30.Na5 Rdb8 31.g3 Bg5 32.Bg2 Qg6 33.Ka1 Kh8 34.Na2 Bd7 35.Bc3 Ne8 36.Nb4 Kg8 37.Rb1 Bc8 38.Ra2 Bh6 39.Bf1 Qe6 40.Qd1 Nf6 41.Qa4 Bb7 42.Nxb7 Rxb7 43.Nxa6 Qd7 44.Qc2 Kh8 45.Rb3  White penetrates on the 'a' file and forces the b6 pawn home for example 45...Ne8 46.Rba3 Nc8 47.Nb4 Rxa3 48.Rxa3 Rb8 49.Qa2 Qb7 50.Ra6 Bg5 51.Qa4 Ne7 52.Ra7 Qc8 53.Qa6 h5 54.Qxc8 Rxc8 55.Na6 and pawn to b7. 1-0 |
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