The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Humans lose

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 25, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Humans lose

Bilbao (Spain): Even though the final score line read 8-4 in favour of the chess softwares, ex-FIDE champions Alexander Khalifman, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ruslan Ponomariov put up a good show to draw their final round games on the last day of the second man vs machine world chess championship here.

Playing with white, former World champion Khalifman had some advantage in the beginning of the game but his attempt to control the `d' file was frustrated by Fritz. Khalifman, however, almost lost the game later on but in the endgame, he sacrificed his last remaining piece and could obtain a draw.

In contrast, Kasimdzhanov played a better game against Hydra even though he had to be content with a draw.

Ponomariov, on the other hand, played a long and boring game against Deep Junior, which could have been drawn by the 18th move. After a long battle, they eventually ended up repeating the moves before signaling a draw.

The final score went in favour of the machine but it was a better performance by the men, considering the score line was 7.5-3.5 last year. — UNI

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