Indochess Match – Man vs Machine
It
was billed as "one of the more spectacular chess events in 2005," and staged
by the Indonesian chess website Indochess,
working in conjunction with the Indonesian Chess Federation: a "first ever
Man vs Machine chess shoot-out".
The event was inaugurated by the Minister of Sports Adhyaksa Dault and featured
GM Utut Adianto, GM Susanto Megaranto, FM Tirta Chandra, FM Taufik Halay –
a team commonly known as the 'Indonesia Bangkit'. The humans faced the world's
top chess programs, Fritz 8, Junior 8, Shredder 8 and Chessmaster 9000.
The event was held in the Ruang Teater Mandala in Jakarta, on January 10th
and 11th, with the games starting from at 15:00h local time.
On the first day the humans lost devastatingly to the machines, scoring only
a single draw (Taufik Halay against Chessmaster 9000). On the second day they
fared only slightly better, with Junior 8 drawing to Halay and Shredder 8 to
Megaranto. Adianto and Chandra lost all their games, Fritz won all four of
its encounters.
The games provided on the site were manually entered and contained numerous
illegal moves. We have attempted to clean them up as far as possible, but there
may be residual errors.
Jakarta
Post, 12.01.2005
Computers outsmart humans in chess battle
It was touted as a battle of "man vs machine", with some of the
country's best chess players pitting their mental smarts against hi-tech computer
programs. And as expected, the computers came out on top.
GM Utut Adianto, who is the interim chairman of the Indonesian Chess Association
(Percasi) after the resignation of Jeffry Geovanie in December, took the widely
expected defeat in stride. "Of course, we battled hard for an edge against
the computers. But the fact that we lost doesn't bother us ... because the
most important thing is that we have taken a big step in a bid to improve our
chess performance in international tournaments," he said. "The world
of chess, just like other sports, is indispensable with (use of) high technology.
Utilizing computers in our chess training is a must if we are to catch up with
the world."
Against Fritz8 in the first game, Utut had a chance to force a draw but with
time ticking away, he made a tactical mistake to hand victory to his opponent.
Utut only had about two minutes left, compared to a comfortable 15 minutes
for Fritz8.
"They moved accurately throughout," young players Susanto, 17, and
Tirta, 18, concurred of their opponents. Taufik received applause for his feat
against Chessmaster 9000 in the second game, but the 17 year old also found
himself running out of time.
For our Indonesian visitors:
Tanpa kesulitan Berarti, Mesin Taklukkan Manusia 14,5-1,5
Tak ada seorang pun dari empat pecatur tangguh Indonesia yang mampu menundukkan
empat program komputer catur canggih nan kuat di dunia saat ini.
Pada hari kedua yang kembali mempertandingkan delapan partai, hanya dua pecatur
yang mampu menahan remis lawan mesinnya, yaitu MF Taufik Halay yang memaksa
Junior8 melancarkan skak abadi pada babak ke-3 jika tidak mau mati dalam satu
langkah. Taufik menjadi satu-satunya pecatur yang mampu menahan remis dua program
komputer setelah pada babak kedua juga menahan remis Chessmaster 9000.
Orang kedua yang mampu menahan seri sang komputer adalah GM Susanto Megaranto,
juga pada babak ketiga. Setelah bertarung habis-habisan Susanto menahan remis
Shredder8 setelah keduanya hanya menyisakan satu Benteng dengan Susanto tinggal
dua bidak sementara Shredder8 masih tiga bidak tetapi dua bidaknya bertumpuk
pada lajur-h dan terjadi beberapa kali pengulangan langkah.
Sedang partai lainnya seluruhnya dimenangkan oleh komputer. MF Tirta Chandra
yang paling tidak dapat memberikan perlawanan, dan takluk 0-4, sementara GM
Utut Adianto walau memberikan perlawanan keras dan sempat beberapa kali memperoleh
posisi lebih baik, toh pada akhirnya harus takluk 0-4 pula.
Secara keseluruhan, manusia takluk 1,5-14,5. Notasi seluruh partai yang dimainkan
dapat dilihat dalam situs ini.