Scrumpy evaluates chess programs

11/24/2003 – Recently GM David Norwood decided to test the latest chess software. Unfortunately his puppy-dog Srumpy got at the CDs first. The review took on a different focus: which of the programs could survive a canine onslaught? Here are this and other stories by the very entertaining Telegraph columnist.

Our readers reply to Kasparov

11/24/2003 – The discussion of Garry Kasparov's book "My Great Predecessors" continues. In our previous column we discussed his assessment of Alekhine's famous queen sacrifice against Mieses. Our readers put a lot of effort into analysing the position, as well as Anderssen vs Dufresne. GM Karsten Müller presents the results.

Brutus defeats Fritz in round four

11/24/2003 – Round four at the Computer Chess World Championship in Graz brought a first clash of the titans: the two leading programs, Fritz and Brutus, faced off with three points each on their scorecards. Running on eight parallel FPGA cards the hardware machine Brutus, programmed by Chrilly Donninger, overcame Fritz in an aggressive attacking game. Details...

Chess moves in Iraq

11/23/2003 – Last week the game between grandmaster Saidali Yuldashev and the Uzbek TV audience, assisted by visitors to this site, brought a moving letter from a child in India. This time two British soldiers in Iraq sent in a move and a picture. Isn't it amazing what a game of chess can do? Here are the details...

Chess in a cave – live from Graz

11/23/2003 – The second round in Graz, Austria, saw Fritz beating Sjeng with a spectacular queen sacrifice. The other favourites Shredder, Junior and Brutus also won their games. In round three Fritz overcame many-time world champion Shredder in a fine effort. Tomorrow the program faces Brutus, which also has three points. Here are results, games and pictures.

Man vs. Computer: it's still a match (and a news story)

11/22/2003 – "Scoff if you will, but I stayed home Tuesday to watch a chess game," writes Charles Krauthammer (picture), the influential columnist of the Washington Post. He had to stay at home because in his office he did not get ESPN, where the final game of the Garry Kasparov vs X3D Fritz match was being shown. Krauthammer and his colleagues all over the world covered the event in broadsheets and news portals.

Live from Graz: Computer Chess World Championship

11/22/2003 – The first day (and round) brought us a first shocker: titel holder Deep Junior lost to the amateur program Ruy Lopez. Fritz, Shredder and Brutus won their games. The event is being covered live, with audio commentary by Peter Wells, on the Playchess.com server. Here is an illustrated report .

Workshop: with hash tables size matters

11/22/2003 – Time and technology march onward. The newer machines with faster processors and higher amounts of RAM have made the old formula for setting hash tables obsolete. In this week's ChessBase Workshop by Steve Lopez you can get the latest information on setting the proper hash table size for the Fritz family of playing programs. More...

Back to reality after the virtual reality battle

11/21/2003 – Garry Kasparov was in a fine mood when he sat down to go over the games and the match in an exclusive press conference. We filmed the entire remarkable session as Kasparov dissected the games and discussed the differences between X3D Fritz and Junior, anti-computer strategies, comp-comp chess, possible improvements for the next match, and much more.

Kasparov vs X3D Fritz match finishes 2-2 after game four draw

11/19/2003 – Things cooled down as quickly as they had heated up in game four of the Man-Machine World Championship in New York City. Kasparov worked out of a difficult opening to reach a draw with black against X3D Fritz. The match ended in a two-two draw with a win for each player and two draws. Early report and game with notes here.

Pictures from Manhattan

11/18/2003 – With the match between Garry Kasparov and X3D Fritz tied 1.5:1.5 after three games the tension is very high in New York, where the ESPN coverage of the event is drawing more viewers than anyone anticipated. Before the critical fourth game we bring you a pictorial report and new analysis of game three.

Kasparov strangles X3D Fritz in game three

11/17/2003 – Just in case you thought the rise of the machines was inevitable, Garry Kasparov stood up for humanity in game three against X3D Fritz in New York City. Actually, it was more a case of X3D Fritz lying down while Kasparov rolled over it like he was the Terminator instead of the human. The match is now tied 1.5-1.5. The final game is Tuesday and X3D Fritz will have white. Report and full analysis.

It is in the news

11/16/2003 – Everybody is talking about it – the coverage in thousands of newspapers all over the world comes in addition to the massive cable TV coverage on ESPN and TV news reports in stations around the world. Even Al Jazeera is following the progress of "Chess czar Gary Kasparov" in his New York match against X3D Fritz. Here are links to a small sample of the international media coverage.

A message from India

11/16/2003 – ChessBase.com visitors are participating in a game between grandmaster Saidali Yuldashev and the Uzbek TV audience. And the messages are pouring in. "Hi uncle Jam," worte a seven-year-old from India, "the only joy in my life is chess. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to play a real grandmaster!" Jamshid Begmatov reports.

Alexander Aljechin vs Garry Kasparov

11/15/2003 – The man in the photo is Alexander Alekhine. In 1913 the future world champion played a legendary game agaist Jaques Mieses, sacrificing a queen for positional consideration and winning brilliantly. In his book "My Great Predecessors" Garry Kasparov thinks Mieses could have parried the attack. We invite you to debate the point with the author.

X3D Fritz wins game two after Kasparov blackout

11/14/2003 – The second game of the spectacular Man vs Machine encounter in New York ended with a stunning loss by Garry Kasparov. The greatest player of all time was actually doing quite well with the black pieces against X3D Fritz, when suddenly a time trouble blunder put an end to all chances. Here's our illustrated report.

Vladimir Kramnik vs the German national team

11/13/2003 – A national team consists of four strong grandmasters. The German team is strong enough to have won the the silver medal at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Now classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik is taking on the entire team in a clock simul. Here's the official press release...

A semi-virtual trip to New York

11/12/2003 – The spectacular match between Garry Kasparov and X3D Fritz in the exclusive New York Athletic Club has started, the first game was trasmitted live in a unique TV chess spectacular. In the playing hall hundreds of guests followed the action, including the US Women's Olympiad team. Here's an illustrated report.

How (not) to play chess against computers

11/11/2003 – Is there any way that human chess players can withstand the onslaught of increasingly powerful computer opponents? Only by modifying their own playing style, suggests statistician Jeff Sonas, who illustrates a fascinating link between chess aggression and failure against computers. There may still be a chance for humanity. More..

Putting your money where your mouth is

11/11/2003 – Kasparov vs X3D Fritz. What will be the opening move? How many checks will there be in each game? What will be the final score? Who will win each game? If you think you know the answer to any of these questions, then why not back your judgement at the Betsson online betting exchange.

A swat team to New York

11/11/2003 – Our trip to New York to play in the upcoming match between Garry Kasparov and X3D Fritz started on a frightening note. Take a deep breath before you read the following story. We would like to warn you that some readers may find the images disturbing. Here is our express report.

Putting his money where his stats are

11/11/2003 – We hope you've been keeping up with statistician Jeff Sonas' fascinating series of articles on man-machine chess. After looking at computer ratings, human playing styles, openings, and tossing it all into the analysis blender, he is ready to take the logical last step in this fifth and final article: predicting the result of the Kasparov-X3D Fritz match that starts today. The envelope please...

Emil Sutovsky is European Internet Champion

11/10/2003 – Emil Sutovsky from Israel is the first European Internet Champion. After an exciting tournament he managed to beat Etienne Bacrot in the final, witnessed by an audience of about 800 chess fans on the playchess.com server. The sympathetic Champion got a lot of applause after the final when he analysed the most exciting game for the viewers. The tournament was organized in partnership with the European Chess Union. More...

Workshop: Chess Media System Part 2

11/10/2003 – In the new ChessBase Workshop we take a look at the new Chess Media System feature in Fritz, have a tour of its buttons and commands, and show you how easy it is to enjoy multimedia chess lessons as part of the Fritz8 program. Workshop...