Rybka 4 beaten blindfold by neurosurgeon

[Mincho Georgiev]

This is very interesting. As far as I understood (I didn't read the article though) we're talking about a match and not about a single game.
If that's the case, I can say that it takes much more than phenomenal memory to win this. Yes, of course memory is vital for chess (not to mention blindfold), but that's not all. You need significant knowledge, experience in modern tournament chess and so on. So above all of this there is a BS waving flag. I would really love to be 100% true though!

[Father]

Great !!! Where are the games? I would like to see them

[Graham Banks]

Great !!! Where are the games? I would like to see them

[Event "Перша партія"]
[Date "2011.04.27"]
[White "Sliusarchuk"]
[Black "Rybka 4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B80"]
[PlyCount "111"]
[EventDate "2008.10.23"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Qc7 6. g3 a6 7. Bg2 Nf6 8. O-O
d6 9. Re1 Bd7 10. Nxc6 Bxc6 11. Nd5 Bxd5 12. exd5 e5 13. Re3 Be7 14. Rc3 Qd7
15. a4 O-O 16. a5 Rfc8 17. Rb3 Rc4 18. Bf1 Rc7 19. Be3 Re8 20. Rb4 e4 21. Bg2
Qf5 22. c3 Bf8 23. Qb3 Qh5 24. Re1 Qxd5 25. Qxd5 Nxd5 26. Rxe4 Rxe4 27. Bxe4
Nxe3 28. Rxe3 g6 29. Bd5 Rc5 30. c4 Rxa5 31. Rf3 b6 32. Bxf7+ Kh8 33. Bxg6 Bg7
34. Be4 Bxb2 35. Rf7 h5 36. Bd5 b5 37. cxb5 axb5 38. Rd7 Ba3 39. Kg2 Bc5 40. f4
Ra7 41. Rd8+ Kg7 42. Kh3 Kg6 43. Kh4 Re7 44. Rg8+ Kf6 45. Kxh5 Rh7+ 46. Kg4
Rxh2 47. Rf8+ Ke7 48. Rf7+ Ke8 49. Rb7 Kd8 50. Rxb5 Rd2 51. Be4 Rd4 52. Kf5 Rb4
53. Rxb4 Bxb4 54. Ke6 Ke8 55. f5 Kd8 56. g4 1-0

[Event "Друга партія"]
[Date "2011.04.27"]
[White "Rybka 4"]
[Black "Sliusarchuk"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B94"]
[PlyCount "56"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. f4 e5 8. Nf5
Qb6 9. Qd2 Qxb2 10. Rb1 Qa3 11. fxe5 dxe5 12. Bc4 Qa5 13. O-O Qc5+ 14. Ne3 b5
15. Bd5 Ra7 16. Kh1 Rc7 17. Rb3 h6 18. Bh4 b4 19. Ncd1 a5 20. Nb2 Be7 21. Nd3
Qb6 22. a3 Nc5 23. Nxc5 Qxc5 24. axb4 axb4 25. Bg3 Bd6 26. Bh4 Be7 27. Bg3 Bd6
28. Bh4 Be7 1/2-1/2

http://cerebrum.org.ua/en/promo/the-game/

[M ANSARI]

Beating Rybka 4 blindfold I would think is possible, but remembering 30 million pi numbers is just simply BS. Maybe this was supposed to be posted on April 1 and simply got delayed in publication.

[Graham Banks]

Beating Rybka 4 blindfold I would think is possible, but remembering 30 million pi numbers is just simply BS. Maybe this was supposed to be posted on April 1 and simply got delayed in publication.

Indeed!

[Kempelen]

Beating Rybka 4 blindfold I would think is possible, but remembering 30 million pi numbers is just simply BS. Maybe this was supposed to be posted on April 1 and simply got delayed in publication.

Maybe it is not a question of memory but mental speed, I mean, if you now a formula to calculate the n decimal you can claim you remember it. What I dont know is if is there any public algorithm that would be enought fast and easy for a smart mind.

[playjunior]

http://www.chessblog.com/2011/04/comput ... eaten.html

This one's for all humanity. Ukrainian Andrew Slyusarchuk, 39 years old, neurosurgeon by profession, has taken on Rybka-4 and beaten him(her/it) blindfold!

Nope, he's not a grandmaster (and doesn't intend to give Vishy Anand any competition). He says, he wanted to display to the world the power of the human mind. What a celebration for all of us!

Andrew was searched thoroughly for any hidden devices before the event. He says, he just learned it all up! He won with white then drew with black to win the match. Incidentally, Andrew plan a simul against 150 Grandmasters. By the way, Andrew specialises in improving memory technologies and knows by heart 20,000 books and 30 million digits of the pi.

The problem is that the claims would need to be verified, and claiming they *were* verified is even more unbelievable than the claim they were done. Why?

Consider the claim he memorized 30 million PI numbers. It isn't so much that it is impossible, I wont judge that, but how one tests it. For example, as a mere reference, one digit per second, non-stop, 24h in 24, would take 347+ days. And so on.

proving that he does not remember 30 million digits of PI is easy

choose 1000 random numbers 1-30,000,000 and test him if he can write the digits in the relevant 1000 places.

If he is going to fail then we have an evidence that he does not remember and if he is not going to fail then he probably cheats by using a computer
because I do not believe that humans can remember the first 30,000,000 digits of pi.

Most of the times those who remember decks of cards or whatever do it "as a whole", like a sequence or a pattern. So they can reproduce the whole deck but if you ask "whats the 21st card" they cannot answer you without actually reproducing 1 to 20 first.

Indeed the digits of pi is total BS.

[Father]

Thank you Graham!!

[Uri Blass]

Beating Rybka 4 blindfold I would think is possible, but remembering 30 million pi numbers is just simply BS. Maybe this was supposed to be posted on April 1 and simply got delayed in publication.

Maybe it is not a question of memory but mental speed, I mean, if you now a formula to calculate the n decimal you can claim you remember it. What I dont know is if is there any public algorithm that would be enought fast and easy for a smart mind.

You cannot calculate without memorizing and if you calculate the n decimal digit of pi you need also to memorize at least n digits for your calculation so I think that memorizing n digits of pi is easier than calculating n digits of pi

I wonder if there are people who can calculate 3600 digits of irrational numbers of the type sqrt(n) only by their head without pen and paper
for every 2<=n<=99999999 and what is the maximal number of digits that people can calculate for these numbers(when they get 5 hours to calculate before giving their answer).

I will be very surprised if the number is bigger than 10,000.

[Dann Corbit]

Beating Rybka 4 blindfold I would think is possible, but remembering 30 million pi numbers is just simply BS. Maybe this was supposed to be posted on April 1 and simply got delayed in publication.

Maybe it is not a question of memory but mental speed, I mean, if you now a formula to calculate the n decimal you can claim you remember it. What I dont know is if is there any public algorithm that would be enought fast and easy for a smart mind.

You cannot calculate without memorizing and if you calculate the n decimal digit of pi you need also to memorize at least n digits for your calculation so I think that memorizing n digits of pi is easier than calculating n digits of pi

I wonder if there are people who can calculate 3600 digits of irrational numbers of the type sqrt(n) only by their head without pen and paper
for every 2<=n<=99999999 and what is the maximal number of digits that people can calculate for these numbers(when they get 5 hours to calculate before giving their answer).

I will be very surprised if the number is bigger than 10,000.

Have you seen the special called "Brain Man" about Daniel Tammet?