The match started today, six games, here is a good overview article. Kramnik gets a million dollars if he wins, $500,000 otherwise.
Here are the rather complicated match rules; Kramnik has unparalleled access to the opening book and workings of the machine. Here are numerous expert opinions, many favor Kramnik. Sorry guys, but I predict one computer victory and the rest draws. Here is commentary by Kramnik. You can watch the games live here.
One commentator put it well: "The last match was drawn – against a weaker version of Fritz on lesser
hardware. And there’s no reason to think that since that match, Kramnik
has learnt to calculate an extra 6 billion positions per second."
But so far, in game one, the outcome was a draw and Kramnik had a slight edge throughout…
Addendum: Kramnik missed a win.
Of course, I love the chess posts by Dr. Cowen. Further down in the Chessninja comments there is a line about Fischer Random chess. I agree that top GM’s only hold their own now because of openning knowledge; eliminate a standard starting position and computers destroy our feable attempts.
Huh. When I (1 dan amateur) won’t have to give the best computer programs 9 stones handicap at Go, I’ll take notice, perhaps.
Another interesting point was the comment by Kramnik:(4th link)
“The day will come when we will no longer have a chance against computers.If I indeed manage to beat Fritz in this match it will probably be the last time that a human being wins against a computer.”
He has already hedged himself!(So that means he will be able to ask for greater prize money in the future irrespective of the current outcome just to make the effort worth it.)
wow~~~~!!!
not thinking people’s lost, i wish krmnik wins computer
Well it has been years since I played competive chess, and I was not particularly good then but from the description of the rules Kramnik has a much better chance than people are concluding. It really depends on how deep Fritz’s opening book is.
If I am playing an inferior player I really don’t spend a lot of effort worrying about what he is thinking, I develop my positon using the basic principles of space, time and piece defence and count on solid play carrying me through until he makes the first of a series of mistakes to let me enter the middle game with an advantage.
If I am playing a player of similar talents I had two strategies back in the day. One was to work from a memory of an opening book, which if you have a good memory and a lot of time to study could carry you a long way. Well I had a good memory but was fundamentally lazy so except on the real standbys like Ruy Lopez rarely went more than three moves in. Instead I just used the same principles outlined above but spent some time thinking about what my opponent was doing. But if I had open access to his opening book I would have a pretty good idea of what he was doing and so spend my time on the counter, itself to a degree guided by the opening book. It is only when the opening book stops or the computer makes a move outside of it does Kramnik have to start actually playing chess, and under the rules the arbiter will have informed him that the computer is now calculating variations, or in real terms actually playing chess rather than relying on the memory of a table.
The deeper Fritz’s opening book goes the more advantage there is for Kramnik. As long as he has equal access he can almost effortless maximize his position and by noting those moves not covered by the opening book can choose his time and place to force Fritz to actually start playing (i.e. calculating) chess.
Like I said my days of playing competitive chess are decades back. But memorizing an opening book and specializing in the more exotic openings could carry you a long way in a high school chess match. A little King’s Indian goes a long way. But try some of those offside openings against a chess player that really understands the game and you better have a damn good memory indeed. Because he or she doesn’t need to memorize every variation, only to understand the fundamental weakness of the position.
A lot of computer intelligence people rely too much on the iron wall around their rule book. If I know what you are doing, if I can see you mechanically collecting a move from a table of moves, if I can see your Turing Test set of rules for responses, then you are going to have a lot harder time convincing me your machine is “thinking”. Consulting a table of integrals is not doing math.
In effect the rules are set up to let Karmnik look over Fritz’s shoulder at his cheat sheet. And the deeper and more extensive that cheat sheet turns out to be the easier for Karmnik.
Fritz’s team can equalize this to some degree by arbitraily cutting short the opening book at some specified level, that is force Fritz to start calculating moves at an earlier point. Which hands the advantage back to the grandmaster who didn’t learn his openings by memorizing a book but by playing and observing games. It will be interesting but if I understand the rules right I predict 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 for Kramnik.
the grandmaster who didn’t learn his openings by memorizing a book but by playing and observing games.
My understanding is that computers use opening books they wrote themselves, just as you claim about humans.
Thanks for giving Chess some press!! Kramnik could use openings “out of book”, and hope for the best. Unusual openings, where the database is not as deep. I have never used Fritz, but computers have problems with close positions also. Deep Blue showed us that computers don’t always reply as expected. Kasparov tried a pawn sacrifice in Game Two of the rematch, Blue declined and threw Kasparov into a tailspin. It should be interesting to say the least.
kramnik missed a mate in one!! he could have won todays game and missed a simple opportunity..
dell 1501 battery
I find it hard to think that today’s computers can still be beaten by any human player. At best, we can hope for a draw, but in the long run, because chess is a mathematical game, I think that the computer has better odds. spyware
Comments on this entry are closed.