Computer poised for victory

Republica Argentina Chess Master 2002

A computer program, Hiarcs 8.0, is the star of this year's annual Republica Chess Master in Argentina. This is not surprising, since already in 2001 it was Chess Tiger won the same tournament by a margin of two points, achieved a GM norm and was elected "winner of the month" by Germany's largest computer magazine (Porsche was the loser).

The tournament is being held from July 19 to 27. You will find the reports (in Spanish) and games at the official web site. You can buy Hiarcs and Chess Tiger in the ChessBase Shop.

Report after round eight

Hiarcs wins again and closes gap to the leaders

By Roberto Alvarez

After eight rounds it is still completely unclear who will be the tournament winner. Four participants (three humans and one computer) are fighting for the honour: GM Oscar Panno, IM Bernardo Roselli, GM Andres Rodriguez and Hiarcs 8.0. The last two scored very important wins in round eight.

Hiarcs, with White pieces, won without trouble against IM Enrique Scarella. FM Carlos Bulcoulf, who annotates the most important games for the public on demonstration boards, said "Formerly humans used to put computers 'out of book', now we see that the computers are the ones who put humans in this situation!" That is what happened in the game Hiarcs-Scarella. After 1.d4 Black played 1...c5 with the idea of getting a closed center after the usual 2.d5. But the computer played 2.dxc5!?, which, of course, drives the game to an open scenario, suitable for tactics. After the mistake 8...Bg7?, Hiarcs wons a pawn, exchanged queens, and then managed to stop all tactical attempts at counterplay by Scarella. The program won convicingly in only 27 moves.

The computer participation still dominates the news reports

GM Andres Rodriguez beat IM Diego Valerga using his pet line, the French Defense. Black got a comfortable position, and with positional maneuvers scored an important victory. Now Hiarcs and Rodriguez are tied for third place, and they will be face to face in the upcomming 9th round.

The tournament leaders IM Bernardo Roselli and GM Oscar Panno drew their game after 24 moves of a Closed Sicilian. Both remain unbeated. Panno has a "rest day" in the on 9th round, so Hiarcs or Rodriguez can overtake him in case of a win.

In the most beautiful game of the 8th round GM Sergio Slipak showed his real strength, beating IM Jeffersson Pelikian after a beautiful sacrificial attack which ended in a win after 24 moves of a Queen's Indian Defense.

In the game file below we provide all the games. I have carried out a check with the players, after some strange "blunders" which appeared in the on-line transmission. Fortunately, we found that they played much better and that many of the mistakes didn't happened. They were only transcription errors.

All the games played so far in PGN

V Rep.Argentina  2002 - FIDE crosstable
                                       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 
1   Panno,Oscar            2480  +113  * ½ ½ 1   ½ 1 ½ 1   ½   5.5/8
2   Roselli,Bernardo       2426  +196  ½ * 1     ½ ½ 1 ½   1   5.0/7
3   COMP Hiacs 8.0         2600   -61  ½ 0 *   1 1 ½     1 ½   4.5/7  15.25
4   Rodriguez,Andres       2467   +50  0     * ½   1 1 ½ ½ 1   4.5/7  12.50
5   Pelikian,Jefferson     2409   +35      0 ½ * 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1   4.0/8
6   Slipak,Sergio          2493   -58  ½ ½ 0   1 * 0   1   ½   3.5/7
7   Valerga,Diego          2487   -76  0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 *     1     3.0/7  10.75
8   Spangenberg,Hugo       2512  -165  ½ 0   0 ½     * ½ 1 ½   3.0/7  9.50
9   Granara,Sebastian      2261   +83  0 ½   ½ ½ 0   ½ * ½     2.5/7  9.50
10  Scarella,Enrique       2358   -17      0 ½ ½   0 0 ½ * 1   2.5/7  7.50
11  Paglilla,Carlos        2381  -108  ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½   ½   0 *   2.0/8

V Rep.Argentina  2002 - Prize Distribution Crosstable
                                  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 
1   Slipak,Sergio          2493   * 1 1 0 1 3 3   0       9.0/7 
2   Roselli,Bernardo       2426   1 * 3 3 1   1   1   3  13.0/7 
3   Paglilla,Carlos        2381   1 0 * 1 1 0   0   0 1   4.0/8 
4   COMP Hiacs 8.0         2600   3 0 1 * 1 3   3 1      12.0/7  
5   Panno,Oscar            2480   1 1 1 1 *   3   3 3 1  14.0/8  
6   Pelikian,Jefferson     2409   0   3 0   * 1 1 3 1 1  10.0/8 
7   Granara,Sebastian      2261   0 1     0 1 * 1   1 1   5.0/7
8   Scarella,Enrique       2358       3 0   1 1 * 0 1 0   6.0/7  
9   Valerga,Diego          2487   3 1   1 0 0   3 * 0     8.0/7 
10  Rodriguez,Andres       2467       3   0 1 1 1 3 * 3  12.0/7 
11  Spangenberg,Hugo       2512     0 1   1 1 1 3   0 *   7.0/7
(win=3, draw=1, loss=0)