Deep Shredder cuts 2642 Super-GM to strips

GM Sergey Volkov vs Deep Shredder 7

On January 14 and 15 there are two interesting man vs machine games taking place on the Playchess server: Super-GM Sergey Volkov, Elo 2642, faces Deep Shredder in two tournament games. The times are

• First game: Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 18:00 GMT (= 20:00h Paris/Berlin, 19:00h London, 2 p.m. New York)

• Second game: Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 18:00 GMT (= 20:00h Paris/Berlin, 19:00h London, 2 p.m. New York)

Time controls: 120 minutes for the game + 10 sec increment for each move.

Game 1

"It isn't easy to play with the black pieces against a computer", Sergey Volkov sighed, after he had lost to Deep Shredder in just 33 moves. "Shredder played like a strong grandmaster!" The Russian Super-GM tried to steer the program into the calm waters of a Slav, but was surprised and impressed by the precise and forceful play of the computer.

Game 2

Deep Shredder 7, operated by Martin Müller, struck again. Former Russian champion Sergey Volkov lost his second game. The GM from Saransk played very ambitiously but ran into serious problems in development. Once the game was opened the chess engine programmed by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen started to put the pressure on its opponent. In a final elegant flurry Shredder took the game for a 2-0 overall score in this match.

You can replay and download both games here.

The players

Grandmaster Sergey Volkov, Russia, born 7.2.1974 Saransk, the administrative center of Republic of Mordovia, Elo 2642. Third place in European championship 2002, Russian champion 2000, Cup of Russia winner 2000, winner of tournaments in Minsk 1996, Kstovo 1997, Krasnoyarsk 1998, Krasnodar 1998, St Peterburg 1998, 1999, Antalyia 2002, Korintos 2002; vice champion in the European team championship 2000, Russian team champion 2000 and 2001, chess trainer in the "GM Volkov" chess school in Saransk.

His opponent is the current world multi-processor computer world champion Deep Shredder 7, one of the most successful tournament programs in the world. Since 1996 Shredder has won the world computer championship four times (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001), in this year's event it came equal first and lost narrowly in the playoff, but winning the computer blitz world championship outright. Now it's out, in a brand-new version, ready to challenge Fritz and co. at the top of the computer ratings lists

Deep Shredder is running on a Diversimex Computer, Dual PIII 2 x 1GHz with 1.5 GB RAM, 500 GB hard disk (1x120, 1x100, 2x80, 2x60 GB). Operating system: Windows XP. Openings book: 8.372.672 Bytes, endgame tablebases (2-5 men): 7.05 GB.

The tournament machine is owned by Martin Müller (left), a computer chess fan who plays a lot with his machine on the Internet (handle: Smurskie), Martin is 48 and lives in Zurich, Switzerland, and has staged a number of public matches against strong GMs. For the Dreev game he will use a special 8 MB openings book especially compiled for the event.

Previous matches

These are the results Martin has achieved with his super computer:

Time controls 60 min + 30 min rest
16.08.01 DF -GM Sergej Volkov (RUS) draw

Time controls 60 min + 0 min rest
26.05.01 Deep Fritz-GM Pablo Zarnicki(ARG) 1-0
26.05.01 Deep Fritz-GM Pablo Zarnicki(ARG) draw