Author: William Sorin
Date: 23:45:37 10/05/05
"First, to say it straight, Karpov has a somewhat disdainful vision of the "computer chess" world. He does not know a bit and he care less about the who is who of it. He does not know nothing about Fruit or Zappa or any of the other current new, strong programs. He said to me, always smiling: - All that is a realm of toys. Yes, those things play strong in blitz, but that's all... I have not too much relation with such things even if my son is very engaged in programming, as you know.... -But Mr Karpov -I replied- some of those toys can win long games to seasoned masters and even GM's.. -Yeah -he said- , some can do it here and there, but not on a regular base. Besides I will tell you something that it is never said: It is very difficult for a GM to play seriously with those contrivances, even if money is on the stake. You can try, but to not avail. Your deeper mind say to you that you are facing a toy and then you cannot put all of yourself in front of the board. -Nevertheless, Mr karpov, you can put your strenght when playing simuls with weaks human player, weaker players than any current program. -Well, no. And that's the problem...When you play amateurs, you again cannot force yourself to play really serious, but at the same time those players cannot take advantage of your shallow attitude. They, most of them, are defeated before the game begins. They play below his already low levels because they are facing a GM. And in any case you are helped by your experience. Your hands play for you. But a computer or a program is not impressed at all and, even if it is weak from the point of view of a GM, it still will play at his best, it will squeeze the best of his paltry understanding of the game and then it can happens that it can win you, the master, on the ground of sheer tactics. It happens all the time." It's hard to believe the above jibberish is out of the mouth of a Former World Chess Champion. The first question I asked after reading his opinion of computer chess is what planet does the former world champion live on? Does he atleast follow Major chess events? The two matches between top rated Kasparov and Kramnick vs Deep fritz and Deep Junior, should be enough to convince any reasonable person that Computer Chess Software is much more then a toy. If that isn't enough what about the Adams vs Hydra match. Could it be that Karpov is unaware of these matches and the many others, or is he simply just refusing to see the facts, like many who become emotionally involved in the question of Computer chess strength. Looking through my database i don't find many games Karpov has played against Programs but the few I find shows that Karpov only managed a draw against Shredder6 running on Modest Hardware (pent 600). You would think based on his comments that Karpov has beaten the programs everytime.
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