Man vs. Machine

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño
Chessmoso

BACK in 1990, I had as guests for dinner two Grandmasters, Jaime Sunye-Neto of Brazil and Eugene Torre. The discussion, almost the entire evening, was about chess computers. A few months earlier, Garry Kasparov had just defeated the program Deep Thought and IBM engineers were talking of building a new, more powerful version to challenge the World Champion.

Jaime asserted that the time will come when a computer will defeat all humans. Eugene was of the opinion that no program will ever be built that can defeat the World Champion.

As computers become better and more powerful, programmers and software designers started talking about artificial intelligence. Chess was considered a field to work on because it involved logical thinking and pattern recognition, traits that required some sort of “artificial intelligence”.

Besides, chess is a hugely popular game and their efforts can be tested against humans.

MAN AND MACHINE. Today as we survey the Man vs. Machine drama, made even more popular by the highly successful Terminator movie series, we have come to an astounding conclusion that as chess computers become more powerful so do humans! The average grandmasters now are much better players than they were a decade ago primarily because of the use of computers in training and tournament preparation. Where before super GMs were in the 2600 category, now it is 2700. There are now 16 players with ratings over 2700 and the top 100 GMs are all over 2600.

A review of the Man vs. Machine match-up over the last several years showed that the only time a computer won was in 1997 when Deep Blue defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov, 3.5-2,5. All the other match-ups were initially won by humans with the last seven matches drawn, as computers became more powerful and sophisticated. Humanity isn’t winning but it also isn’t losing either as the top humans are holding their ground.

Here are the full results so far in the Man vs. Machine match-up: 1) 1989, Deep Thought vs. Garry Kasparov 2775, human wins 2.0-0.0 2) 1994, Genius at Intel Grand Prix vs. 2762, humans win 2.5-1.5 3) 1995, Genius vs. Garry Kasparov 2805, human wins 1.5-0.5 4) 1995, Fritz vs. Garry Kasparov 2795, human wins 1.5-0.5 5) 1996, Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov 2775, human wins 4.0-2.0 6) 1996, Fritz vs. Anatoly Karpov 2770, human wins 1.5-0.5 7) 1997, Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov 2795, computer wins 3.5- 2.5 8) 1998, Rebel vs. Viswanathan Anand 2795, human wins 1.5- 0.5 9) 1999, Fritz at Frankfurt Masters vs. 2736, drawn 6.0-6.0 10) 2000, Fritz at Siemens Giants vs. 2750, drawn 5.0-5.0 11) 2000, Junior at Dortmund vs. 2746, drawn 2.5-2.5 12) 2002,Rebel vs. Loek van Wely 2714, drawn 2.0-2.0 13) 2002 Fritz vs.Vladimir Kramnik 2807, drawn 4.0-4.0 14) 2003 Hiarcs vs. Evgeny Bareev 2729, drawn 2.0-2.0 15) 2003, Junior vs. Garry Kasparov 2847, drawn 3.0-3.0

UZBEK CHAMPION. Despite being a trivia addict, the only things that sound familiar about Uzbekistan are Samarkand, Tashkent and the fact that it is, along with Liechenstein, the only doubly landlocked country in the world. Now I know better. I’ve read its history and its people. Why? Because Rustam Kasimdzhanov (learn to pronounce his name – Qosimjonov), an Uzbek, just defeated the highly regarded Michael Adams of England in Tripoli, Libya and is now World Chess Champion. It was a fighting match all the way with each winning two games and drawing two in six games. In the tiebreak Rustam won the first game and drew the second.

TRIVIA. Nobody was able to answer the trivia questions last July 2 and 9. The answer for July 2 is Weaver Adams while the answer for July 9 is Geza Maroczy.

What is the oldest chess magazine?

If you know the answer, go to Handuraw Learning and Leisure Café in Mabolo beside Kahayag Restaurant and claim your prize, a tournament-size chess set donated by Ely Berciles of the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Assn. E-mail answers will be entertained but priority will be given to those who answer in person.