Author: Djordje Vidanovic
Date: 15:31:05 02/03/99
We all like to read about how computer programs compare with humans being eager to see if our program is able to compete with grandmasters, international masters, FIDE masters. This year's 24e Gd Open Aubervilliers 1999 (rapid chess, 12 rounds) had two PC programs participating: Frederic Louguet's Chess Wizard and Franck Zibi's Zchess (version 1.20 -- soon to appear on this web page). Both did quite well. Franck Zibi in particular was rather enthusiastic and excited as this was his program's debut agains humans. The apparently super-strong program Chess Wizard by Frederic Louget did superbly by scoring 10/12 and placing 5th ex-aequo, performing at an incredible ELO 2656!! while Zchess finished the tournament very honourably scoring 9/12 and performing at a solid 2312. On its way to 10/12, Chess Wizard drew three GMs : Minasian (2620), Asrian (2600) and Akopian (2655 - this last one without even playing a single move ! on Akopian's proposition), and beat GM Hamdouchi (2555)! I will soon post some photos from this strong tournament. The programs played some quite interesting games. One game I'd like to single out as it points at a weakness in most current programs: [Event "Aubervilliers Tournament 1999"] [Site "Aubervilliers"] [Date "1999.01.31"] [Round "7"] [White "Andrei SHCHEKACHEV"] [Black "ZChess 1.2"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2608"] [BlackElo "?"] [TimeControl "1500"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. h3 Qb6 7. Nc3 Qb4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. a3 Qa5 10. bxc3 Qxc3 11. Rb1 Qa5 12. Bb2 f6 13. e5 f5 14. e6 Nf6 15. Qc1 b6 16. Re1 O-O 17. Qh6 c4 18. dxc4 Bxe6 19. Rxe6 Rf7 20. Ng5 Rd8 1-0 Test your program and see if it will capture the White Knight on move 9...Bxc3. Of the current programs that Franck Zibi tested on this position, only Zarkov 5 refrained from capturing, playing the cool 9.Nf6!! (Programs tested: Wchess 2000, Crafty 16.0, Chess Genius 6, Fritz 5) Chess Wizard's win agains GM Hamdouchi: [Date "1999.01.31"] [Round "11"] [White "Chess Wizard"] [WhiteElo "?"] [Black "GMI Hamdouchi"] [BlackElo "2555"] [Result "1-0"]%0
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