Kraminik proves humans still have their last word
against the machine World chess champion insists it is still too early to entirely write off man in his battle with machine.
MANAMA - World chess champion Vladimir Kramnik won 700,000 dollars in prize money from Bahrani King Hamad Saturday after tying the eighth and final game of the tournament to draw with the world's most powerful chess computer, Deep Fritz, organizers said.
Kramnik's draw with the machine exceeded the performance of his predecessor as world champion, Gary Kasparov, who in 1997 was defeated by supercomputer Deep Blue in New York.
The final game was the shortest of the contest, with the 21 moves taking just under two hours.
After two wins each and four draws the final tally was 4-4.
"I am just exhausted," Kramnik told a post-match press conference. "It was a very difficult match as anything can happen when you are playing a computer.
"There has been some very dramatic play and it takes so much energy. I was trying my best, but today, I couldn't manage to do anything to beat Deep Fritz.
"I didn't sleep so well last night and if you cannot catch the computer out at the opening of the game, you don't stand much of a chance.
"The computer is so strong, it defended perfectly."
The world champion said he had been amazed by the strong performance of Deep Fritz through the tournament, which had been "incredibly much stronger" than chess programmes he had played even a year ago.
"It is stronger in a positional way," he said. "It is not just strong in terms of calculations, which is to be expected, but in terms of positional moves, it plays like a very strong human, these are human moves."
The Deep Fritz team said they had learnt a lot from the eight match tournament with Kramnik, vowing to further refine their creation to make it even better.
"The next generation of Fritz will benefit immensely from this tournament," said team member, Frederic Friedel.
"It was something we constantly asked ourselves -- if Fritz is better than the world champion. In a few years, I think it will be. Deep Fritz is tactically a monster and will always put you under pressure."
But the world champion insisted it was still too early to entirely write off man in his battle with the machine.
"I believe that we (humans), still have some years yet before we cannot beat the computers," he said.
Here are the moves of the final game:
White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Deep Fritz
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. O-O
dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nd5 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 11. Rc1 Nxc3 12. Rxc3 e5 13. Bb3 exd4 14. exd4
Nf6 15. Re1 Qd6 16. h3 Bf5 17. Rce3 Rae8 18. Re5 Bg6 19. a3 Qd8 20. Rxe8 Nxe8
21. Qd2 1/2-1/2