Chess champion is "Fritzed" by computer

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 

Vladimir Kramnik at the 2005 Corus chess tournament.

Russian chess grandmaster, Vladimir Kramnik lost the final match of his man versus machine match against the Deep Fritz chess program. The six game match in Bonn, Germany had a final result of 4-2 for the German-developed chess program which runs on readily available computer hardware.

The first match which concluded on November 25 was a draw, Kramnik lost the second game to the computer with some indications that he overlooked a mate in one win. Third through fifth matches were all draws.

Kramnik, whilst the current world chess champion, is actually ranked third in the world. A contributory factor in this is his health problems. The world champion suffers from a rare form of arthritis which makes sitting playing in tournaments extremely painful for him.

Sources

• "World Chess Champion Loses to Computer" — Associated Press, December 5, 2006
• Dylan Loeb McClain. "Once Again, Machine Beats Human Champion at Chess" — The New York Times, December 5, 2006
  

{[archive}}