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Watch Smirin battle the beasties - today!
14.04.2002
– This is going to be exciting. Ilya Smirin, the world's
number 15 player, is taking on four of the world's top programs. You can watch the action live, discuss
the games as they unfold with people all over the world. Simply fire up your Fritz
and log into the Playchess site. If you do not have Fritz you can get a free ten-day
client. Full information on the match is on our special
coverage page...
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The best of all possible world championships
14.04.2002
– FIDE have recently concluded a world
championship cycle, the Einstein Group is running their own world
championship, and Yasser Seirawan has proposed a "fresh
start". Now statistician Jeff Sonas has analysed the relative merits
of these three (and 13,000 other possible) systems to find out which are the
most practical, effective, inclusive and unbiased. There are some suprises in
store (the FIDE system is no. 12,671 on the list, Seirawan's proposal is no. 345).
More
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Garry Kasparov begs to differ...
12.04.2002
– A few days ago world champion Vladimir Kramnik, in a widely-read
interview, spoke about his upcoming match against the world's strongest
PC program. Comparing it to the IBM computer that beat Garry Kasparov in 1997
Kramnik said: "Fritz is clearly stronger than Deep Blue, whatever the hardware."
Kasparov takes exception to these remarks. "Deep Blue’s play in some
of the games was close to perfection". Kasparov's interview and all his games against Deep Blue are
here.
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Vladimir Kramnik on Man vs Machine and world championships
11.04.2002
– In July we are going to see a big qualification
tournament for the right to challenge world champion Vladimir Kramnik. In
October there will be a spectacular Man
vs Machine battle in Bahrain. Now the man at the center of these exciting
events has speaks out and discusses computers, Fritz, Deep Blue, the classical
world championship and FIDE. You will find the exclusive interview
here
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"The Kournikova of Chess"
11.04.2002
– She won our Chess
Player of the Year award, and has been seen in plenty of magazines and TV
shows. Now Germany's most prestigious news journal Der Spiegel has
discovered Alexandra Kosteniuk. They gave her a nice spread in the "Personality"
section, citing our poll and calling her the Kournikova of chess. "But unlike the tennis star, Alexandra has won eight tournaments," they note. You will find
the article (in Deutsch, natürlich) and the picture (click to enlarge) on the
Spiegel web site. Oh yes, and there are more pictures of Alexandra here
and here.
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He jes' keep rollin' along
10.04.2002
– List after list, year after year – for almost the entire lifetime of some of his rivals – Garry Kasparov has sat on top of the rating list. This time he has only one "crown prince" by his side – Vladimir Kramnik, 29 points below him. Then a big 57-point gap, where a sagging Vishy Anand is being pressed by three other players. You will find the top hundred
here.
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Smirin on computers: God bless me!
10.04.2002
– In a few days GM Ilya Smirin is going to start his match
against four top chess programs. It will be broadcast live on the Fritz7
Playchess server and on Kasparov
Chess. This comes after experienced Grandmaster Boris Gulko, Elo 2605, lost
his match 3:5 points. Will Smirin do better? He is an Elo 2702 Super-GM and
the world number 15, and he has experience playing computers. Ilya shares his
thoughts on the forthcoming match with us
here.
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Peter Leko wins Dubai Grand Prix by two seconds!
08.04.2002
– "I have been a gentlemen so many times, this time I decided to win!"
After two draws against Alexander Grischuk in the rapid chess games, and two
more in the blitz tie-break games, it all depended on the "sudden death"
playoff. Here White has an extra minute on his clock but must win the game.
In a crazy time scramble with both sides playing against the clock it was Grischuk
who ran out of time. Leko had exactly two seconds on his clock! Reports, games
and pictures are available on our special
Grand Prix coverage page.
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Garry Kasparov: A History of Profesional Chess
08.04.2002
– At the end of February Yasser Seirawan presented a detailed
proposal for sorting out the chaos that current afflicts top-level chess.
Soon after that Garry
Kasparov replied directly to Seirawan's proposal. Michael ("Mig")
Greengard, who had spent the weekend interviewing the world's number one player
in New York, also got a full chronology of the GMA and the PCA from Kasparov.
He now passes ít on to the chess public in an extensive keynote article
here.
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Grischuk and Leko in the finals
07.04.2002
– Guess who set fire to the board in the semi-finals of the FIDE
Grand Prix in Dubai. It was Grischuk in his victory over Shirov. The two
gave us some wonderful attacking games, with both player only interested in
mating the enemy king. Peter Leko was the second player to qualify after five
hour of gruelling play and a decision in the final sudden-death game. You get
all the games on our special
coverage page.
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Eric van Reem – Impressions of Dortmund
07.04.2002
– On Friday we reported on the press
conference that was held in Dortmund, which provided full details of the
Einstein Candidates' Tournament that will be held in July this year. Our contributor
Eric van Reem visited the conference and supplied the pictures. In the meantime
Eric has sent us a report with his impressions of the press conference and the
plans of Dortmund and Brain games.
More
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Dortmund hosts world championship qualifier
05.04.2002
– This year the traditional Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is not just a super-strong tournament. It doubles as the Einstein Candidates' Tournament, and the winner earns the right to challenge Vladimir Kramnik for the Classical World Chess Championship. Eight players have been invited, according to their standing in the ratings lists (Kasparov and Anand have refused). In a press conference today all details were revealed to the public. You will find them
here.
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