We can learn from chess programs!

Boris Alterman writes: Junior, a program developed by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky of Israel, had already won the title in 1997, 2001 and 2002. In 2003 it was Shredder who won the title. Now, just seven months later, Junior has won back the title.

I'd like to sum up the Bar Ilan Tournament by showing you two brilliant examples from the World Computer Chess Championship. These two games prove the great ability of chess programs. Looking at fantastic positional sacrifice by Junior in his game against Diep and the thrillier game from the last round Falcon-Shredder I must say – chess programs have a lot to teach us about playing chess!

Boris Alterman is a consummate computer expert and an internationally feared computer killer. In 2000 he played a remarkable game against Deep Fritz in Holland, at one stage reaching the following historical position, which has come to be known as the "Alterman Wall":

Boris won the game against Fritz in 87 moves.

For those of you who have not been following our Chess Puzzle section for many years there's a charming little story involving Garry Kasparov and the young Boris Alterman. It was part of our Christmas Puzzle 1999.

Here are the world-wide starting times for Alterman's lectures.