man vs machine

From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Fri Aug 03 2001 - 00:34:03 MDT


"Alex F. Bokov" wrote:

> Now if you Yanks, Tweeds, Mics, Jackaroos, Svens, Krauts, and
> Californians excuse me, there's a bottle of Stoli and a chess game I
> need to attend to.

Aha! With a name like Bokov, I knew you *had* to be a chess player.

{8^D

Speaking of chess, there is another round of interesting carbon vs.
silicon chess coming up in October. In 1997, Deep Blue the IBM
multijillion dollar multiprocessor supercomputer scalped then-champion
Gary Kasparov. Since then, a new heir-apparent, Vladimir Bokov...
kidding, Vladimir Kramnik, has toppled Kasparov and has
demonstrated himself to be superior in anti-silicon chess as well.

So Kramnik has been selected to defend the honor of the carbons,
but theres a new twist. In the upcoming match, Kramnik will face
not a supercomputer, but a rather ordinary workstation or pumped up
PC, reported to be a quad-processor 933 MHz PIII outfit. He will
go up against *commercially available* software. Kramnik will face
a setup that you or I could buy with the contents of our piggy banks,
{assuming of course a large piggy bank} should we want {for
some reason} an opponent whose strength is approximately
equal to the best humans on the planet.

In this match, Kramnik will be allowed access to the software for a
month prior to the match, except for the opening book, which will be
held in reserve by the creators of the software, called Deep Fritz. All
the advantages given to the silicon in the Deep Blue match will now
be cancelled. Any guesses on the results? I have one. After studying
Kramnik's style, I predict an even match: all draws. If this is the case,

the silicon will have accomplished an awesome, stunning achievement.

Go silicon! spike



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