Author: JNoomen
Date: 12:38:54 02/08/06
Hi all, In 1987 I was invited to a special computerchess tournament in the little city of Dieren, the Netherlands. Each year Jan Louwman was able to organise a computer-human tournament, with 4 or 5 dedicated chess computers and 4 or 5 human players. After my first chess computer, the Challenger 7, I had lost interest in computer chess for some years, as IMO they were too weak. Each year in Dieren I had nice conversations with Jan Louwman about (I am sorry for these words!) 'how stupid these little machines were still playing'. So Jan did a very dirty trick on me: he invited me to play at the 1987 edition. I accepted, but knew very well that each loss would be celebrated well :-). In the invitation I could read that I had to play the following machines: Mephisto MM IV Turbo (18 MHz Turbo kit) Novag Forte B Turbo (also with Turbo kit) Fidelity Avant Garde 6502 Mephisto Dallas 68.020 Pretty impressive names, I thought. Somewhat different than 'Chess Challenger'. I had no idea what to expect, but I simply wanted to play my own style. That was very agressive in that period: I liked sharp openings, to play tactically and put the opponent under direct pressure. In the first round this playing style immediately proved succesful: against the MM IV I payed the risky line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bf4 Bg4!? as Black. The MM IV went for 7.Ne5 Qb6 8.Nxg4 Nxg4, but instead of the strong 9.e4 it swallowed the pawn: 9.Nxd5? Qa5+ 10.Nc3 e5! 11.dxe5 Bb4 with a strong initiative for Black. It all ended in a 24 move Black victory. Naturally Jan Louwman was not amused! The next round saw my game against the World Champion, Mephisto Dallas. Again I opted for an ultra sharp line, sacrificing a piece right in the opening. Very risky business nowadays, but I saw no reason to change tactics. Here is the game, in which the Dallas was out of book quickly and then blundered with 14.Qe1? and 15.a4? I missed a quicker win with 17... Nf4! but White was lost anyway. Enjoy the game! [Event "Dieren 1987"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "2"] [White "Mephisto Dallas 68.020"] [Black "Noomen, Jeroen"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C57"] [PlyCount "94"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nd4 6. c3 b5 7. Bf1 Nxd5 8. Ne4 Qh4 9. Ng3 Bg4 10. f3 e4 11. cxd4 Bd6 12. Bxb5+ Kd8 13. O-O exf3 14. Qe1 Rb8 15. a4 Rxb5 16. axb5 Re8 17. Qf2 Re2 18. Nc3 Rxf2 19. Rxf2 Nf4 20. d3 Nxd3 21. b6 cxb6 22. Nce4 Bxg3 23. hxg3 Qe7 24. gxf3 Nxf2 25. Kxf2 Bf5 26. Nc3 f6 27. Be3 Qb4 28. Ra2 Bd3 29. Kg1 a5 30. d5 Kd7 31. g4 Qb3 32. Bf4 Bb1 33. Ra4 g5 34. Bb8 Bd3 35. Rd4 Qc2 36. Bg3 Qc1+ 37. Kf2 Qxb2+ 38. Ke3 Ba6 39. Be1 Qc2 40. Bd2 a4 41. Nxa4 Qd1 42. Nc3 Qg1+ 43. Ke4 Qg3 44. Ke3 h5 45. Ra4 Qg1+ 46. Ke4 Qf1 47. Rxa6 Qxa6 0-1 In the end I had to give up 2 draws: against the Forte B (after a very dull opening by me) and the MM IV (we played all computers twice). The MM IV did brilliantly, with a performance over 2100 ELO. After this tournament I was a computer chess lover forever!
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