The
chess duel Man vs Machine, Vladimir Kramnik vs Deep Fritz is being staged from
November 25 until December 5th. It is sponsored by the RAG
AG, one of Europe's largest energy companies. The venue is the National
Art Gallery in Bonn, Germany. Schedule:
| Game 1: | Saturday | 25.11.2006 | 15:00 h |
| Game 2: | Monday | 27.11.2006 | 15:00 h |
| Game 3: | Wednesday | 29.11.2006 | 15:00 h |
| Game 4: | Friday | 01.12.2006 | 15:00 h |
| Game 5: | Sunday | 03.12.2006 | 15:00 h |
| Game 6: | Tuesday | 05.12.2006 | 15:00 h |
There will be full live coverage on the Playchess server, as well as on the official site and a number of partner sites.
The match Vladimir Kramnik vs Deep Fritz is set to begin on Saturday, November 25, 2006. All the important protagonists had taken up residence in the former German capital of Bonn a few days before this critical date. The ChessBase team are in the Novotel, about ten minutes by taxi from the playing venue; Vladimir Kramnik and his team are in a separate ("secret") hotel, where he can only be found by journalists and fans who invest some effort in the enterprise.
On Friday afternoon the venue was dressed and the technology up and running – time for the opening press conference and drawing of colours.
The press conference was attended by TV companies from Germany, Russia and
other countries
Participants at the press conference were (from left to right) the arbiter Albert
Vasser, press officer Rolf Behovits, ChessBase CEO and head of the Fritz team
Matthias Wüllenweber, world champion Vladimir Kramnik, translator Patricia
Stöcklin, and project manager of the Art Gallery Stephan Andreae
The opponents: Matthias Wüllenweber for Fritz, Vladimir Kramnik for humanity
Matthias speaks (in German) about the new program that will face Vladimir Kramnik...
...who gets every word translated by the highly competent Patricia
The drawing of colours began with a coin toss by arbiter Albert Vasser...
... which determined who would start opening the Matryoshka dolls
Vladimir struggling with the tiniest doll – he got the white pieces
in game one
The press photographing and filming the drawing of colours
Then at last the one-on-one (sort of) TV interviews with the world champion
Meanwhile Deep Fritz, not really dressed up for the occasion, sulks in its corner
After the press conference a banquet with sponsors and VIPs
The guests listen to the pre-dinner speeches
At the head of the table Vladimir Kramnik with FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Ilyumzhinov addresses the visitors, his remarks translated by Marina Zakharova
Listening to the words of the President
Kirsan in his element...
...making points that are worthy of discussion.
Okay – and please stop shouting – she is Marie, a French journalist who writes front-page stories for a major Paris newspaper. And yes, they are serious, quite obviously so.
