The Chess Mind

Rybka (surprise, surprise). The 15th World Computer Chess Championship finished earlier today in Amsterdam, and Rybka won with an undefeated 10-1 score; Zappa (sold by ChessBase, at least in an earlier edition) went 9-2 and was also undefeated. Shredder, in years past my favorite ChessBase program, finished tied for fourth with a 7-4 score (behind Loop's 7.5-3.5), while ChessMaster fans (if any) will be distressed to see The King in next to last with a 2.5-8.5 score.

Will there be a match between Rybka and Ultimate Challenge winner Deep Junior? I think the probability is extremely close to zero, but fans can hope.

Tournament website here.

In the previous post, I suggested, semi-seriously (on the false assumption that anyone was actually playing), that the "Ultimate Chess Challenge" between Deep Junior and Deep Fritz is the year's real world chess championship event. But neither "player" had to qualify, and there are other playing programs, too - at least one of which has a great claim to have the best chips in the salsa bowl.

Happily then, there's another computer event going: the World Computer Chess Championships in Amsterdam. It started on the 11th and continues through the 18th; participants include Rybka, Shredder, Zappa and The King.

HT: Philippe Dornbusch, who is covering the event on his blog (in French).

The Candidates matches in Elista were great fun, but they weren't the only show in town. Concurrent with the second round of matches was the intermural battle between ChessBase programs Deep Fritz and Deep Junior in the so-called President's Cup/Ultimate Computer Challenge. The match ended a couple of days ago, and was won by Deep Junior, 4-2. (Two draws, two wins, then two more draws.)

The games are here, with a bit of extra attention paid to the theoretically significant third game.

*Or at least, it would be a candidate for the world championship, if anyone was playing.

Well, sort of.

Alongside the second round of the Candidates matches, Deep Fritz and Deep Junior are playing a six-game match (or so we all pretend, but we'll revisit that topic some other time), with $60k to the winning side and $40k to the "second-place" finisher. The reason for the "sort of" comment above is that Rybka, which has been the top-rated program for over a year, wasn't invited, and its programmer, IM Vas Rajlich, isn't happy. He offered a counter-challenge, but it's unlikely to go anywhere, even if the Deep Fritz-Deep Junior winner is on a par with Rybka. ChessBase programs already have the lion's share of the market, so they have little to gain and tons to lose by accepting Rajlich's challenge.