The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge
The event, which is sponsored by FIDE and Kalmyk President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
takes place from June 6th to June 12th in the Goverment House, Elista, Republic
of Kalmykia. This is the venue of the Candidates Matches for the (human) World
Championship. The computer games will be played on the same stage, starting
at 11:30 a.m. during the final stages of the Candidates.
May 2007 |
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May 26 – June 14 |
FIDE Candidates Tournaments 2007, Elista, Kalmykia |
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June 6 – June 12 |
President’s Cup Computer vs. Computer |
The opponents are the reigning computer chess world champion Deep Junior and
the winner of the 2006 match against the human world champion Vladimir Kramnik,
Deep Fritz. The rate of play for the computer match is Rapid Chess 75 min for
the game + 5 sec per move. Arbiter is IM David Levy, President of the ICGA (International
Computer Games Association). The prize fund is US $100,000 ($60,000 to the winner,
$40,000 to the loser).
Tal vs Capablanca
The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge pits two of the world’s strongest and
most exciting programs in a six-game battle against each other. The event takes
place during the final stages of the Candidates Matches for the World Championship
(human), which will be held from May 26 to June 14, 2007 in Elista, Kalmykia.
Deep Junior
This chess program, written by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky of Israel, is the
reigning World Champion in computer chess. Junior won
the title during the Chess Olympiad in Turin last year, ahead of the programs
Shredder, Rybka and Zappa (which was running on a 512 processor super-computer
calculating 100 million nodes per second). It was Junior's fifth world championship
title in this millennium.

The winning Junior team in action in Turin: Amir Ban (left) and Shay Bushinsky
(right)
Deep Junior is a program that is capable of producing very deep computations
to outwit the opponent. It is also well known for its unique handling of “compensation”.
Junior is willing, like no other program, to sacrifice material for initiative,
activity or a promising attack. This causes it to come up with highly unexpected,
imaginative ideas. Chess players appreciate the “wild” side of Junior’s personality
and use the program to find new ideas in their chess analysis. Junior is generally
regarded as the Mikhail Tal of computer chess.

The famous game five is about to begin

The stunning piece sacrifice by Junior on move ten
Junior showed its unique quality of play in 2003 by producing a stunning move
in its match against 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov. From a quiet opening
in a standard-looking position, the program, on move ten, sacrificed a bishop
out of a clear blue sky to drag Kasparov's king out into the open. Attacking
with only a queen and knight, Junior put the white king under heavy fire. The
game as well as the six-game match ended in a draw.
Deep Fritz
Deep Fritz, written by Frans Morsch of Holland and Mathias Feist of Germany,
dominated the computer rating lists for almost a decade. Just over two years
ago the authors decided to rewrite the program. Instead of further optimizing
it for speed they started implementing large amounts of chess knowledge, derived
from centuries of research by human chess masters. This allows Fritz to find
constructive ideas even in situations where there are no tactical motifs to
guide the course of the game.

In 2003 Garry Kasparov played a four-game
match against Deep Fritz in New York. It was broadcast live on ESPN and
to a vast Internet audience. The final score: 2-2.
The advantage of this strategy is that the program becomes much better at playing
against human beings, and also turns it into an extremely well-balanced analysis
partner. This is greatly appreciated by chess professionals who consider Fritz
the “voice of reason”. Fritz is often compared to the great Cuban world champion
Capablanca for its playing style.

Deep Fritz vs world champion Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn, Germany, November
2006
In November 2006 Deep Fritz played a six-game
match against reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn, Germany.
In the final round Fritz played one of the finest games ever seen by a computer,
displaying great strategic understanding and inventiveness, to win the game
and take the match 4:2. An earlier match between Kramnik and Deep Fritz, 2002
in Bahrain, had ended in a 4:4 score.
The Clash of Systems
The Elista match is a chance to see how these two great computer rivals with
their different strategies and styles of play fares against each other. Will
Fritz’s knowledge-based approach detract from its computational speed and allow
it to fall prey to Junior’s tactical ferocity and imaginative play? Will Junior
see compensation where not enough exists and succumb to Fritz’s ruthless strategic
precision? In any case this will be an exciting experiment.
Fact Sheet
Title |
The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge |
Event |
President’s Cup Computer vs. Computer |
Sponsor |
President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov |
Presenter |
Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) |
Sanctioned by |
Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) President: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
International Computer Games Association (ICGA) President: David Levy |
Players |
Deep Junior vs. Deep Fritz – The reigning World Computer Champion
vs. the winner against the world human champion |
Venue |
Goverment House, Elista, Republic of Kalmykia |
Dates |
Tuesday, June 5th – Tuesday 12th June 2007 |
Format |
Rapid Chess 75 min for the game + 5 sec per move |
Schedule |
Wednesday |
June 6th |
Game 1 |
11:30 a.m |
Thursday |
June 7th |
Game 2 |
11:30 a.m |
Friday |
June 8th |
Game 3 |
11:30 a.m |
Saturday |
June 9th |
Game 4 |
11:30 a.m |
Sunday |
June 10th |
Game 5 |
11:30 a.m |
Monday |
June 11th |
Game 6 |
11:30 a.m |
Tuesday |
June 12th |
Tiebreak (if required) |
11:30 a.m |
|
Ceremonies |
Tuesday, 5th June: Press Conference & Opening Ceremony
Tuesday, 12th June: Closing Ceremony & Prize Giving |
Prize fund |
US $100,000 ($60,000 to the winner, $40,000 to the loser) |
Arbiter |
IM David Levy |
Regulations |
FIDE laws of chess, ICGA official computer chess rules |
Contacts* |
FIDE Vice President |
Israel Gelfer |
gelfer (at) fide.com |
FIDE President assistant |
Berik Balgabaev |
fide (at) inbox.ru |
Deep Fritz interviews |
Frederic Friedel |
info (at) chessbase.com |
Deep Junior interviews |
Shay Bushinsky |
shay (at) cs.haifa.ac.i |
* Replace (at) with @ in the email address. |
Formal announcement at FIDE.com