There was an interesting article in the SF Chron last week about
October's chess match between the current human champion and
a desktop computer/commercial grade software combination. I
quote the article below with my comments in square brackets.
When Michail Tal was asked after winning the world title in 1961
about the source of his sudden and brilliant ideas in chess, he
answered: "Most certainly the black coffee I drink before each game."
Today, if he were alive, the beloved Magician of Riga would likely
to be at risk under the new World Chess Federation (FIDE) drug
policy which allows only moderate caffeine intake during competitions.
[In the early 1980s, then-champion Anatoly Karpov would take large
doses of caffeine before each game. Some accounts had it as the
equivalent of 10-12 cups of strong coffee. Karpov is ~55 kg. In a
particularly gruelling match against upstart Gary Kasparov, Karpov's
play collapsed, and the FIDE president stopped the match, declaring
K and K as world co-champions. This bizarre incident nearly ruined
Karpov's health.]
Although Tal was a man of extraordinary imagination, he would
doubtless have been surprised at the hoopla surrounding the recent
London press conference held to promote the upcoming Braingames
man-vs-computer match between Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz.
[Disagree. Tal would surely recognize the deep significance of what
is to take place this October.]
The match was heralded as "bigger than the thriller in Manila."
[thriller in Manila is, *I think* a reference to a world championship
boxing match from the early 70s.] Kramnik was described as
"having the icy focus of an assassin" while Fritz was touted as the
strongest chess-playing machine ever. [300 US$ software package
with quad processor 933 MHz P4 hardware.]
Kramnik appeared at the conference accompanied by two former
world boxing champions acting as bodyguards; Fritz by a pair of
blond models dressed in dark suits and sunglasses. [I would
rather be Fritz here.]
Chess promoters are committed to commercializing chess on as
large a scale as possible. But as Michael Tal would have been
the first to caution: in its essence a chess game is an expression of
man's capacity for play and art before it is a source of profit.
[Bah! Humbug! ALL art and play are great potential sources
of profit. spike]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:14 MDT