November 18, 2003
ON THE FRITZ (via Bruce Cleaver):
Kasparov beats computer to tie up match (JENNIFER FRIEDLIN, November 17, 2003, Chicago Sun-Times)
World chess champion Garry Kasparov claimed a crucial victory Sunday in the third of a four-game match with his computerized rival X3D Fritz, tying the first virtual-reality showdown at 1.5 points each.The match pitted Kasparov against the 12-year-old program that has recently been developed into a virtual-reality game by X3D Technologies, a sponsor of the match.
"It was just a dominating performance by Kasparov," said John Fernandez, X3D's chess consultant. "He disarmed the computer's biggest weapon, which is its calculating ability."
Kasparov, 40, tied the computer last week in the first game and lost the second one. Players get 1 point for a win, 0.5 point for a tie and no points for a loss.
Following the match, a confident Kasparov said that he was "in a very good mood now."
Unfortunately, the machine doesn't have moods to contend with. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2003 12:26 AM
Quite a show by Kasparov. He was playing a strange anti-computer chess; clearly he understood that some positions that would be unfavorable against a human are favorable against the computer because they confuse it. He sought these out in a peculiar-looking game, and Fritz was completely boggled. It apparently never had the faintest clue what was going on as Kasparov patiently boxed it into a progressively tighter corner; the programmers resigned for it to save embarrassment and to be polite, as Fritz had no chance but was convinced the game was even.
Analysis from the commentators.
Posted by: mike earl at November 18, 2003 12:57 AMWhat Kasparov demonstrated was a fundamental limitation of the current computer algorithms. Computers excel at tactics, but have no conception of strategy.
Posted by: jd watson at November 18, 2003 3:39 AMJD and Mike are exactly right. The machine (Fritz) had the game pegged as about even for most of the moves, while the commentators and even strong amateurs (such as myself)could see Fritz was getting rolled. This wasn't limited to Fritz; I analyzed the game with other very strong software (Ruffian, Comet, Yace) and they all showed the same misunderstanding.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at November 18, 2003 9:16 AMWeird game. The computer basically did nothing while Kasparov built up a crushing position on the queenside. Fritz couldn't see a win for Kasparov within its horizon, so it just waited around instead of trying for counterplay on the kingside. Looks like the way to play computers is to avoid tactical threats while quietly building up a position that doesn't look scary within the machine's calculation horizon.
Sooner or later (probably sooner) the calculation horizon will get so long that computers will be unbeatable. But the machines are still vulnerable now.
Posted by: Casey Abell at November 18, 2003 9:19 AM