Man vs Machine in Bahrain - Part 1
A multimedia report on Kramnik vs Deep Fritz
By Frederic Friedel
Please note that the videos listed
below are not included as links on this page.
They total over 600 MB and are only available on the ChessBase Magazine CD.
If you have not been on the proverbial holiday on one of Jupiter's outer
moons, you will know what transpired in October in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain.
About one billion people were confronted by it through television, newspapers
and the Internet. The reigning classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik
was challenged by the strongest chess program currently known to man, Deep
Fritz. They played eight games, Fritz installed on an eight-processor machine,
with each Pentium 3 processor running at 900 MHz. This led to an average speed
of around three million positions per second.
The match started with a ferocious 3-1 lead for Kramnik, who won games two
and three. It looked like it was going to develop into an annihilation of
the machine by the human being. But then the tables turned, with Fritz winning
games five and six. All other games were drawn and the final score was 4-4,
something that very few experts had anticipated. Kramnik got $800,000, of
which $600,000 were the guaranteed "appearance fee"; Fritz took home $200,000,
which will be put into a trust fund for youth chess.
The games were covered live on a special Flash client developed by associates
of ChessBase especially for the event. There were a number of coverage partners,
like Germany's largest news magazine Der Spiegel, Europe's largest computer
magazine Heise/c't and Spain's largest newspaper El Pais. The live commentary
from Bahrain was fed in the client by Mig Greengard (English), Frederic Friedel
(German) and Leontxo Garcia (Spanish).
If you want to read up on the match you will find a list of over 100 articles
on the following page:
http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4000538
This report is divided into two sections. In this first part we look at the
events leading up to the match in Bahrain and including the first four games
there. In part two, which is scheduled for the next issue of ChessBase Magazine
Extra 91 we will bring you videos and interviews of the second half of the
match.
Interview with Der Spiegel
Our multimedia report begins less than three weeks before the start of the
event. We accompanied two reporters of Der Spiegel to a secret location to
interview Vladimir Kramnik. In our web site report (at http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4000516)
we described the trip as follows:
"We were put into a car, with wads of cotton wool taped over our eyes. We
were driven for hours through the forest countryside of an unnamed country
and arrived at an undisclosed place. But in the end we got to see the reclusive
world champion. He was not in a cave but in a nice hotel, posing for photographers,
would you believe."
Kramnik's training camp
Photographing the champ
Okay, maybe we got carried away with some of the details. The
trip was long and tedious, the location of the hotel remote. But in the end
we were able to do a very nice interview that appeared in three pages of Der
Spiegel. The reporters were Dr Erich Follath, who is a senior correspondent
on Middle East politics, and Maik Grossekathöfer, who is part of the sports
department. I filmed most of it and give you excerpts here. In all the sequences
you can see the photographer circling Kramnik and shooting at will.
Video Spiegel01 (5 min 57 sec)
Vladimir compares his upcoming match with Kasparov vs Deep Blue in 1997. He
talks about the basic requirements and preparation strategy for his match against
the computer.
Video Spiegel02 (3 min 34 sec)
Vladimir speaks about his attitude to chess and his feelings towards
his (human) colleagues. It is very interesting to hear about the main problem
of top chess players: to switch off their brains. Unlike other sports people
they carry all their training equipment around with them, all of the time. While
walking or swimming it is easy to analyse positions in their heads, so they
have to resort to highly reactive sports like tennis to force their minds off
the subject of chess.
Video Spiegel03 (2 min 57 sec)
Why are chess matches between humans and computers so fascinating
for the general public? Vladimir volunteers an explanation and also talks about
the strange and weird world of thinking machines.
Video Spiegel04 (1 min 31 sec)
Erich Follath is not just a political journalist, he is also a
strong chess player. In the end he took on the world champion in a blitz game,
and this was not trivially over in a few moves. In fact the two spent quite
a while analysing the game after it was over.
Interview with Vladimir Kramnik (Hamburg)
The action in Bahrain
The first game ended in a draw, after Kramnik had used the Berlin Defence
to thwart the computer's Ruy Lopez. Just as in Kasparov-Kramnik, London 2000,
White got an overwhelming position and in fact a lot of people thought the
computer was going to draw first blood. One of them was visiting GM Nigel
Short, who was doing commentary for the organisers in Bahrain
Video Nigel01 (3 min 13 sec)
Thirteen moves into the game Nigel is already pretty sure that
"the beast" is going to win. Mig Greengard and IM Malcolm Pein think that Kramnik
is too good at doing nothing and will be able to hold the machine to a draw.
The game indeed ended in a draw, with Kramnik finding a very nice fortress in
the end to prevent the white forces from penetrating his position.
Game 1: Deep Fritz - Kramnik,V ½-½
Video G1-press (3 min 57 sec)
In the press conference Vladimir Kramnik is surprised to learn that the Fritz
operator Mathias Feist was not allowed to offer a draw directly. He also answers
an interesting question by Raymond Keene who quotes Garry Kasparov comparing
him to the Fritz program.
Video Nigel02 (10 min 37 sec)
On the free day after game one the local Internet slaves, Mig Greengard and
myself, were visited by Nigel Short who gave us his views on what had transpired
and his assessment of the general playing strength of Fritz: "I have a lot
of respect for my little German friend. He works hard, he's a good lad, and
he's a lot cheaper than most seconds." On game one he says: "Maybe it played
even better than Kasparov in some ways, it made more of an effort." Nigel
and Mig debate whether Fritz should try to play the Berlin again against Kramnik
in this match.
The second game was a convincing win by Kramnik, after he had taken Fritz
out of book with 9.Kf1!? and the program tossed the move 12…Bf8? on the
board, returning its bishop to its original square! In his daily report Mig
wrote: "This bizarre move was something even the lowliest human player would
never consider. It made perfect sense to Fritz, as it thought that the best
move for Kramnik was to retreat his knight, in which case Fritz would have
repeated its move too, settling for a draw. Of course Kramnik had no intention
of repeating and Fritz's move was exposed for the terrible blunder it was."
However the win was not completely straightforward. On move 27 Fritz played
an incredible tactical shot (27...Bc4+ followed by 28...Nd3+) which Kramnik
had overlooked. The world champion was horrified, initially thinking he had
lost the game. But it turned out that he could still retain some of his advantage,
and he used it to decide the game in his favour.
Game 2: Kramnik,V - Deep Fritz 1-0
After each of the games there was a postgame discussion between
Kramnik and GM Daniel King for Bahraini and International television. We eavesdrop
on their conversation after game two.
Video G2-postgame (2 min 47 sec)
Kramnik first shows Danny King the win that he had seen in the final position
(in which Fritz had resigned). Danny King presses Kramnik on whether he had
had the position before 12...Bf8 on the board with Fritz before the match.
Vladimir denies this. He goes on to speak about the Fritz moves 26...Nc5,
27...Bc4, etc. "I would say that no human being would be able to see such
strange tactics".
Video G2-press (3 min 57 sec)
In the press conference after the game Vladimir Kramnik gives us his assessment
of the performance of his computer opponent. He speaks again about the tactics
Fritz had unleashed on move 27 and his feelings at that moment. Nigel Short
takes Fritz author Frans Morsch to task for having resigned the game too early.
Nigel feels that the contestants owed it to the audience to show them why White
was winning. Malcolm Pein asks Kramnik to dictate the main winning line, which
Vladimir dutifully does.
We apologise for the poor sound quality at these press conferences. The noise
in the background is from ventilators, air conditioning, cameras and traffic
on the street.
Video Nigel03 (1 min 47 sec)
Nigel Short is not a man to be mollified by simple explanations
as given in the press conference. On the day after the match we catch him berating
the Fritz team once again for resigning game two in a position in which the
win for White was not obvious. "If your average club player sits down for a
couple of hours he can work out the win - or maybe not. It costs nothing to
play on a few more moves. I think you have certain obligations to the wider
world."
The games were played in a closed studio with no public present. At the start
of each game a few journalists had exactly 120 seconds to get some pictures.
After that nobody was allowed into the room. Of course the action was displayed
on closed circuit monitor screens and recorded for television broadcast all
over the world.
G3-press (5 min 08 sec)
We see the beginning of game three, with the arbiter Enrique Irazoqui
starting the clocks. After the game, which Kramnik won, there is a discussion
for the TV cameras with GM Daniel King. Then comes the press conference in which
Kramnik is asked about the level of play and whether he can keep it up. He gives
us some insight into his daily routine - "mainly working, working, working."
Game 3: Deep Fritz - Kramnik,V 0-1
Game 4: Kramnik,V - Deep Fritz ½-½
Game four was a relatively uneventful draw, and the score was an exhilarating
3-1 for Vladimir Kramnik. The world champion took time out to meet with the
Bahraini chess youth.
Video Kids1 (5 min 08 sec)
GM Julian Hodgson, who was in Bahrain as a commentator, starts
things off with a simultaneous exhibition. Afterwards the kids visit the abode
of the Internet slaves. Mig shows them some Photoshop magic, and some of the
boys play a few games on the Fritz server. Then Kramnik turns up and signs brochures
and T-shirts. He also gives a very nice press conference for the chess kids.
All the games from the event
Mig's corner
Mig Greengard at work, watched by the Russian Ambassador Valery Vlassov
One person who had followed the match very closely was my colleague
Mig Greengard, who looked after the official Brains in Bahrain web site and
wrote the daily reports (which were cheerfully copied by Reuters and others).
After the match was over I cornered Mig, who is a 2300 player, and asked him
for his summary impressions of the match. You can learn a lot about computer
chess by listening to his comments.
Video Mig01 (4 min 39 sec)
Mig talks mainly about game one and the Berlin. Remember this
man spent many weeks in London at the end of 2000 watching Garry Kasparov unsuccessfully
attack Kramnik's Berlin Defence. On game two Mig is convinced that Kramnik had
seen Fritz's 12…Bf8 retreat in his home preparation.
Video Mig02 (4 min 18 sec)
Mig talks about game three and explains how Kramnik was probably well prepared
for the Scotch. He explains why computers have problems with certain pawn
moves which players of Kramnik's calibre can cash in on. Mig also describes
how the world champion "skated through" game four. He summarises the strategy
Kramnik had so successfully employed: get the queens off the board because
they represent immense tactical complications.
Interview with Vladimir Kramnik
In closing we have one more little jewel for you. Immediately after the end
of the match Mig Greengard visited Vladimir Kramnik in his Royal Suite at
the Gulf Hotel. In a private, intimate atmosphere the two spoke about what
had transpired in the past three weeks in Bahrain, but also about life in
general, like what it feels like for a kid from Tuapse, Russia, to find himself
a dollar millionaire. For this interview, which lasts almost three quarters
of an hour, we have removed the video, which would have eaten up most of the
storage space on the ChessBase Magazine CD. Instead Mig has inserted still
digital photos which he took during the three weeks of the match.
Mig's interview is in a separate file on the root directory of the ChessBase
Magazine CD. It is called Kramnik-Interview.avi and can be started with a
double click. But you can also try loading it directly from ChessBase or Fritz
by clicking the following link:
Kramnik-interview.htm
This ends our coverage of the first half of the match Man vs
Machine, Brains in Bahrain. The second part is scheduled to follow in ChessBase
Magazine Extra 91. It contains some very interesting interviews and will be
announced on our web site at www.chessbase.com.
ChessBase Magazine 91 costs € 19.95 (around US$19).
You can order it in the ChessBase
Shop.
