The Hindu : Kasparov crushes X3D Fritz

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003

Sport

Sport - Chess

Kasparov crushes X3D Fritz

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI Nov. 17. Former World chess champion Garry Kasparov closed the position at the earliest possible moment to hand X3D Fritz a crushing defeat in a one-sided third match game and level the scores in the `Man vs Machine' at the New York Athletic Club on Sunday.

The scores are tied at 1.5-1.5 with Kasparov having the disadvantage of playing the last game on Tuesday with the black pieces.

Sunday's victory, followed by a record audience all over the world, was attributed to the opening choice of the 40-year old Russian who tied-up the machine early in the opening and drove the last nail into the coffin on the 45th move after four and a half hours of play.

In this now-or-never last white game, Kasparov opened with the queen pawn and the machine went for the Semi-Slav defence.

Opting for a less popular variation, the Russian player clamped the black position by locking the pawn structure on the sixth move.

Kasparov's twelfth move was an improvement over a 1948 World Championship game played between

Samuel Reshevsky and Paul Keres. White came up with the age-old resolution of restricting the computer to the edge of the board and succeeded.

Kasparov won a pawn on the 16th turn but had a single file on the queenside to troop in his actions. Fleeing with his king from the middle to the queen side, Kasparov kept improving his position. He timed his pawn sacrifice on the 29th turn to fracture black's harmonious pawn structure and create two soft targets to land his attack on.

Not knowing what was happening, X3D Fritz was moving its king back and forth and had earlier done such wasteful dances with the bishop too in this game.

Severely restricted to a tiny corner of the board, the counter-attack never came from the computer end, making it a lop-sided contest.

Kasparov's opening choice hit the right chord and he tightened his grip right till the end.

Kasparov's winning efficiency was not all the more accurate but black got into such a mess that white could afford such a luxury of slow tightening.

White was amassing his pieces on the queenside and black appeared helpless.

Kasparov won a pawn on the 43rd turn and was poised to regroup for the next strike on the queenside when the machine surrendered. It was a key game of the match and Kasparov excelled with his brilliant opening choice.

Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist, the programmers of Fritz should be lucky that there are no more black games for the machine. Even a draw on Tuesday is a good achievement for the programme which is the most popular in the chess world. The match is in balance and Kasparov's winning probability with black should be much lower than a draw.

The moves: GM Garry Kasparov-X3D Fritz, match game three, Semi-Slav defence, D45: 1. Nf3 Nf6, 2. c4 e6, 3. Nc3 d5, 4. d4 c6, 5.,e3 a6, 6. c5 Nbd7, 7. b4 a5, 8. b5 e5, 9. Qa4 Qc7, 10. Ba3 e4, 11. Nd2 Be7, 12. b6 Qd8, 13. h3 0-0, 14. Nb3 Bd6, 15. Rb1 Be7, 16. Nxa5 Nb8, 17. Bb4 Qd7, 18. Rb2 Qe6, 19. Qd1 Nfd7, 20. a3 Qh6, 21. Nb3 Bh4, 22. Qd2 Nf6, 23. Kd1 Be6, 24. Kc1 Rd8, 25. Rc2 Nbd7, 26. Kb2 Nf8, 27. a4 Ng6, 28. a5 Ne7, 29. a6 bxa6, 30. Na5 Rdb8, 31. g3 Bg5, 32. Bg2 Qg6, 33. Ka1 Kh8, 34. Na2 Bd7, 35. Bc3 Ne8, 36. Nb4 Kg8, 37. Rb1 Bc8, 38. Ra2 Bh6, 39. Bf1 Qe6, 40. Qd1 Nf6, 41. Qa4 Bb7, 42. Nxb7 Rxb7, 43. Nxa6 Qd7, 44. Qc2 Kh8, 45. Rb3 1-0.

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