Author: Uri Blass
Date: 10:53:52 05/26/05
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On May 26, 2005 at 12:57:06, Tony Petters wrote: >http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1491666,00.html > >Man v machine in chess showdown > >Richard Jinman >Wednesday May 25, 2005 >The Guardian > >Hydra, the world's most powerful chess computer, announced it had the upper hand >soon after the first pawn slid across the board. > >"Your progress is not good," said Akhtar Hashmi, the technician who was relaying >my ineffectual moves to Hydra via the keyboard of a laptop computer. "Hydra's >progress is excellent." > >Clearly, blind aggression was not going to have the desired effect. If the game >had been evenly matched, the computer would have registered an advantage rating >of 0. After four moves it calculated my advantage as -3 and falling fast. When I >lost my queen in an audacious attempt to baffle the machine, it dropped to -10. > >"It is time for you to resign," said Hashmi. "Many players would resign at -7." > >A few moves later, the advantage was -18 and the game had turned into a rout. >"Checkmate will be in five moves," said Hashmi. > >He was right. Hydra quickly herded my king into a corner and the match was over >in 17 moves and 14 dismal minutes. It would have ended sooner, but I had been >moving my pieces rather slowly. > >Hopefully, Michael Adams, the UK's leading chess grandmaster, will exact some >revenge when he begins a six-match tournament against Hydra at the Wembley >Centre in London on June 21. If he wins, Adams will take home a prize of >£80,000. But Hydra, which is housed in a secure, climate-controlled room in Abu >Dhabi and plays its matches via a high-speed internet connection, has never lost >against a grandmaster. > >Developed by the Abu Dhabi-based PAL Group, Hydra uses 64 computers that operate >as a single machine. It can analyse 200m chess moves in a second and think up to >40 moves ahead. Its technology can also be applied to supercomputer tasks such >as DNA and fingerprint matching, code-breaking and space travel calculations. > >Adams, who became a grandmaster at 17 and has played almost 2,000 games in >international tournaments, is understandably cautious about his chances. > >"I know it will be a very tough match, but I will do my best," he said at the >announcement of the contest at a London hotel yesterday. "You have to adopt a >slightly different strategy against a computer because there is no way you can >compete against that massive processing power. I will be using intuition and >experience to take the computer into positions it is uncomfortable with." > >But it takes a lot to make Hydra uncomfortable. The computer can project six >moves further ahead than IBM's famous Deep Blue machine, which played a series >of matches against the Russian champion Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997. The >first time they met, Kasparov beat Deep Blue 4-2. A year later it defeated him >in a six-game tournament in New York. > >Hydra's 48-year-old Austrian developer, Chrilly Donninger, describes it as Deep >Blue's successor. "The basic design is much cleaner," he said. "Hydra's >philosophy is to flutter like a butterfly and sting like a hornet." > >John Saunders, the editor of British Chess magazine, said Adams stood a good >chance of earning some draws against Hydra because he had a "safe, steady" style >of play that was well suited to taking on a machine. Kasparov, in contrast, was >vulnerable against chess computers because he liked to take chances. > >But Saunders does not think Adams will win the tournament and believes computers >now have the upper hand over human players. If Hydra wins next month it will be >the final confirmation of their supremacy. > >"If Michael gets wiped out my feeling is that it really will be the end," said >Saunders. > >"A few years ago the players were making sure they didn't win by too much, now >they are having to hang in there when they play a machine. The advantage is with >the computers." > >Richard's rout in full > >For connoisseurs, here is the match move by move: > >White: Richard Jinman > >Black: Hydra > >1. e4 c5 > >2. Bc4 Nf6 > >3. Qf3 Nc6 > >4. Nc3 e6 > >5. Nb5 a6 > >6. Nc3 Ne5 > >7. Qf4 Nxc4 > >8. b3 Bd6 > >9. bxc4 Bxf4 > >10. e5 Bxe5 > >11. g4 Nxg4 > >12. d3 Bxc3+ > >13. Bd2 Bxa1 > >14. Nf3 Qf6 > >15. O-O Qxf3 > >16. Rxa1 Qxf2+ > >17. Kh1 Qxh2# What is the point in game of hydra against a beginner? Uri
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