November 10, 2003

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREECH... (via Bruce Cleaver):

Opening ceremony with kasparov and x3d at the espnzone in times square (Kasparov vs. X3D Fritz, Nov. 7, 2003)

The match was officially opened and all the VIPs were in Times Square. ESPN, which will show over 17 hours of the match live, hosted the opening ceremony at the famous ESPNZone on Broadway. Kasparov expressed optimism and spoke at length about the new challenges presented by X3D Fritz.

Game 1 is tomorrow at 1pm, apparently live on ESPN2

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 10, 2003 3:03 PM
Comments

I know this subject may not have for others the fascination it holds for me... but surely everyone can agree that the sentence: "Kasparov vs. X3D Fritz chess match, live on ESPN" is about the most improbable outcome since...well, since Arnold was elected Governor.

I'll stick to a 2-2 prediction.

Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at November 10, 2003 3:29 PM

Fritz runs on off-the-shelf hardware, so Kasparov may have a few more years, but human-computer chess matches are rapidly becoming as interesting as human-motorcycle races. It's at the point where any reasonably competent programmer can write something that will beat any but a master-level human player.

Build a robot that can play shortstop and then I'll be impressed.

Posted by: Mike Earl at November 10, 2003 3:36 PM

The strength of programs with increasing CPU power grows more slowly than you might think (at least versus humans), but sadly, Mike Earl is right. We are witnessing rough parity with top-notch Grandmasters. Specialized hardware a la Deep/Deeper Blue would probably put the match at 3.5-0.5 for the machine.

I'll note that there is a fellow named Chrilly Donninger that is experimenting with running chess programs on Field-Programmable Gate arrays (FPGs), a sort of poor-mans programmable hardware. The results are aweome.

Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at November 10, 2003 3:49 PM

Beating humans at chess isn't so special.

When they can build a programme which beats everyone at Go, then it's time to get worried.

Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at November 10, 2003 4:14 PM

Oh, great. Televised Beta testing.

Posted by: David Cohen at November 10, 2003 4:23 PM

Beat a human at Go, yes. And bridge, too. Now *there's* a real Turing Test.

Posted by: Patrick H at November 10, 2003 5:37 PM
« PROUD FEW (via ef brown): | Main | CAN THE GOP SWEEP?: »