Kasparov and thirty years of computer chess

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Ted Summers
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Kasparov and thirty years of computer chess

Post by Ted Summers » Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:08 am

Garry Kasparov wrote:"At some point I realized that I was drifting into trouble in a game against one of the "Kasparov" brand models. If this machine scored a win or even a draw, people would be quick to say that I had thrown the game to get PR for the company, so I had to intensify my efforts. Eventually I found a way to “bluff” the machine with a dubious sacrifice that any modern chess computer would refute in a split-second. But in the good old days of computer chess (to me!) and in my spry youth I could keep coming back to the board fast enough to terrorize the machine with a mating attack."
[Event "Hamburg Spiegel sim comp"]
[Site "Hamburg"]
[Date "1985.??.??"]
[Round "26"]
[White "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Black "Comp Turbostar 432"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A13"]
[WhiteElo "2715"]
[Annotator "Garry Kasparov"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "1985.??.??"]
[EventRounds "32"]
[EventCountry "GER"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2001.11.25"]

1. c4 e6 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. O-O c6 6. a4 Be7 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8.
Qxc4 Nb6 9. Qc2 Nfd5 10. Nc3 Nb4 11. Qd1 O-O 12. d4 a5 13. e4 Bd7 14. Qe2 Be8
15. Rd1 f6 16. Be3 Bh5 17. h3 f5 18. Bf4 Qd7 19. Re1 Bxf3 20. Bxf3 Bd6 21. Bxd6
Qxd6 22. Rad1 f4 23. g4 Rad8 24. Rd2 e5 25. d5 h6 26. Red1 c5 27. Qb5 Ra8 28.
Qf1 Qd7 29. b3 c4 30. bxc4 Rac8 31. g5 Nxc4 {[#]After getting a fine position
out of the opening, I drifted a little and the computer managed to get a small
advantage. As you can see in the diagram the black knights are menacingly
placed. After a passive move like Re2, the position would have been unpleasant
but only slightly worse for White. Instead I decided to throw the machine off
balance and sacrifice an exchange, which was objectively terrible but
"psychologically" brilliant. At the time, it was understood by any strong
player with experience versus computers that their main weakness was...
tactics! In particular, combinations more than a few moves deep or involving
pawn promotion, as the case here.} 32. Ra2 $2 {A terrible move, but not an
oversight!} (32. Re2 $17 {White's position would not be so bad.}) 32... Nxa2
33. Nxa2 Qxa4 {Against any good human player, it should be all over, but...}
34. gxh6 Qxa2 {So far so good...} 35. Qg2 Rc7 36. d6 Rd7 (36... Rcf7 $19 {was
better. But I was gambling that the computer would want more material instead
of returning any.} 37. Bh5) 37. Bg4 Qb3 $4 {What a relief! It's all over now.}
(37... Qa4 $1 $19 {This would have been much better but the computer back then
did not realize that it was more important to defend d7 than to take on d1. I
could still capture on d7 hoping it would blunder and take the rook with check
instead of taking the bishop.}) 38. Bxd7 Qxd1+ 39. Kh2 {The mate on g7 is
impossible to defend.} Rf7 40. Be6 Kf8 41. h7 $1 {The h-pawn queens.} Nxd6 42.
h8=Q+ {My modern computer says 42.Qg5 is a faster mate, so pardon me for
playing like a human.} Ke7 43. Bxf7 Nxf7 44. Qhxg7 {A slightly embarrassing
escape for me, I admit, but one that nevertheless serves as an educational
time capsule of the state of computer chess at the time. Despite this swindle
and a few other weak computer efforts, I wouldn't want to diminish my own play
entirely. Looking at all the games again, the computers rarely blundered and
it required energy and precision to make a clean score against them on so many
boards even 30 years ago.} 1-0

http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-a ... uter-chess
"Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions."

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