Congratulation for Vishi !!!

[hristo]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

[VP]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

Yes, he is probably the best.
Such a great player, and yet so humble.
I think he has won the chess Oscar for the maximum number of times...
Still some way to go, but even if he scores three draws in the next three, he will probably still win it.
Against Leko, if he offers a draw after fifteen moves, he would probably get it

[swami]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

Yeah he played well in the tourney.A blitz King too, I wonder if any engine gets the chance to play with him any time soon, he is reasonable to deal with, for authors, in making a prize offer for such a match.

[hristo]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

Yeah he played well in the tourney.A blitz King too, I wonder if any engine gets the chance to play with him any time soon

I wish he never plays a chess engine! It is much better that way, IMO ... let those who can't win tournaments play the machines.

The up shot for him is that at the 'end', whenever he decides that to be, he can play one match (against a computer) and collect a bunch, rather than squander his fame on fighting silicon for measly pennies. (I might be wrong about this, but playing chess programs seems to cheapen chess, from a GM standpoint.)

Vishi is great and he has the chance to go down in history as the last great one ... I have no faith in the rest of the pack, at the moment. (although there is one young kid that seems quite promising)

Regards,
Hristo

[swami]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

Yeah he played well in the tourney.A blitz King too, I wonder if any engine gets the chance to play with him any time soon

I wish he never plays a chess engine! It is much better that way, IMO ... let those who can't win tournaments play the machines.

The up shot for him is that at the 'end', whenever he decides that to be, he can play one match (against a computer) and collect a bunch, rather than squander his fame on fighting silicon for measly pennies. (I might be wrong about this, but playing chess programs seems to cheapen chess, from a GM standpoint.)

Vishi is great and he has the chance to go down in history as the last great one ... I have no faith in the rest of the pack, at the moment. (although there is one young kid that seems quite promising)

Regards,
Hristo

I see you do have a point, but i don't think Grandmaster playing against chess engines cheapens chess, man vs machine is the great event,it kind of sounds like world championship.
It is GM losing(or even scoring equal points) against chess engines that cheapen chess.

If Vishy is confident of taking up man vs machine,then he can go for it,prize fund is more in such an event compared to the prizes he got from GM only tournament.But I don't think he cares about prize money.

[Eelco de Groot]

Many things can still happen, but Vishi is a hero and a true fighter.

Congratulations Vishi! You are the world chess champion!

It is great to see that there are people like Vishi still roaming the chess landscape.

Regards to all,
Hristo

Yeah he played well in the tourney.A blitz King too, I wonder if any engine gets the chance to play with him any time soon

I wish he never plays a chess engine! It is much better that way, IMO ... let those who can't win tournaments play the machines.

The up shot for him is that at the 'end', whenever he decides that to be, he can play one match (against a computer) and collect a bunch, rather than squander his fame on fighting silicon for measly pennies. (I might be wrong about this, but playing chess programs seems to cheapen chess, from a GM standpoint.)

Vishi is great and he has the chance to go down in history as the last great one ... I have no faith in the rest of the pack, at the moment. (although there is one young kid that seems quite promising)

Regards,
Hristo

I see you do have a point, but i don't think Grandmaster playing against chess engines cheapens chess, man vs machine is the great event,it kind of sounds like world championship.
It is GM losing(or even scoring equal points) against chess engines that cheapen chess.

If Vishy is confident of taking up man vs machine,then he can go for it,prize fund is more in such an event compared to the prizes he got from GM only tournament.But I don't think he cares about prize money.

May I remind you gentlemen:

Rebel vs. Anand







This was Anand versus


Used software by Rebel

• Rebel 10 experimental.
• Rebel 10 (experimental) is estimated at least 30 elo points stronger than Rebel9.
• Improved search algorithm rewritten from scratch, better tactics.
• Less selective than Rebel9, better results.
• Experimental ANTI GRANDMASTER software

Used hardware by Rebel

• A KryoTech Cool K6-2 450 (based on a 450MHz KryoCooled AMD-K6-2 processor) supplied by Kryotech
• 128 Mb EDO Ram
• 512 Kb second level cache
• Expected NPS (nodes per second) about 200,000 - 250,000

Jeroen Noomen about the third day game that Anand won:

Rebel vs. Anand: Day 3 by Jeroen Noomen

----------------------



The last game was played on Thursday 23rd of July. My

preparations already started the day before. A difficult

choice for me: What to play? My first impression was simply

play 1. e4 and strive for an open position. What would Vishy

do against 1. e4: A Sicilian, Caro Kann, Ruy Lopez or perhaps

the Modern Defence? Because 1. e4 was so obvious for a

chess computer, I decided on a little surprise by opening

1. d4 instead. Of course I prepared for all openings Anand

plays: Grunfeld, Queen's Gambit Accepted, Slav Defence.



The game started around 14:30 p.m. and to my big surprise

Vishy had decided on a Queen's Indian. That was not expected!

My pre-prepared book had Petrosian's 4. a3 against the Queen's

Indian, but as soon as the game was going I was a bit angry at

myself for not choosing 4. g3 instead.



Anyway, we got an interesting position after the opening, where

Anand's ... Qc8 put Rebel out of book. Here a small incident

took place: One of the people taking care of the power supply

accidently touched the ESC-key, after which Rebel immediately

played its move, Bb5. Taking this back and restarting the thinking

process costed Rebel about 4 minutes on the clock. Besides, I

was not too happy about Rebel's plan of giving up the pair of

bishops and following it up by Ne5 and Qd3. After Anand's move

b6-b5 (presumably to prevent Nc4 tricks), Rebel came up with the

very interesting Qf3! This contains a huge trick: If Black tries

to castle quickly by playing ... Be7, he will be surprised by

Bg5!



Anand thought for nearly 20 minutes and came up with the

positional sacrifice ... Bd6! Rebel's score went up immediately,

the following moves were pretty forced, leading to an exchange

of queens and a very unclear ending. Although White has many

pawns, it is not easy for him. Black has a clear plan of invading

on the c-file, combined with advancing the a- and b-pawn, making

a very strong passed pawn. In the meantime it is very difficult

for White to get his pawns on the King's side going. I wonder if

there is a program that evaluates this position correctly.



In the further course of the game Rebel could not find the correct

plan. When the Black rook came to c2, I began to feel very

pessimistic about White's chances. He is paralysed, Black is

going to make a passed pawn and White's passed pawns are

incredibly helpless. Rebel tried to make something out of the

passed d-pawn, but after d5, exd5 it appeared that taking back

on d5 would lose. So there came Rh3?! (honestly, I was thinking

about resigning at this point!), later followed by the little

trick f4! At last the unfortunate rook was activated.



After f4 Anand thought again for a while, but came up with the

decisive push d5-d4. Now with two Black passed pawns it was a

hopeless business. It's crazy to see that 4 White passed pawns

can do absolutely nothing. Black keeps his king on g7 or h7,

puts his bishop on e4 and the pawns are stopped. With the strong

... Rc3! Anand got his pawn to b3, after which I resigned on

behalf of Rebel. The score dropped to -2, furthermore White is

completely helpless against the Black majority on the queen's

side.



Anand was visibly relieved and we spoke about 5 minutes with

each other. The first thing he said was that he appreciated my

draw offer in the first tournament game. He told me that the

position was drawn, but he was afraid that I would continue

playing, trying to take advantage of his fatigue. This had never

been in my mind, I have too much respect for Vishy to try to win

in such a manner. I told him that I don't like to try for a win

this way. He appreciated that very much, which gave me a good

feeling!



Next we spoke about today's game. Anand said that the idea of

Bb5xd7, Ne5, Qc2-d3-f3 seemed very strong to him. After Qf3! he

saw only one other alternative, ... h5?! According to Anand the

ending was very unclear, Rebel's h4? being a clear mistake.

Vishy expected Ke2! with the idea of activating the King and to

connect the rooks. Now the rook came to c2 and this paralysed

White.



After this we had to pose for the cameras, after which there was

a press conference with Anand and Ed Schroder. Anand told he

first wanted to rest and maybe later analysing the games of this

match. When asked about a re-match, Anand said that he will have

to think about that.



So the match ended in a 5-3 victory for Rebel. For me the most

important was that Rebel played very interesting chess, all the

games were full of tense moments and I think a lot of positions

need more analysing to come to a final conclusion. Especially

the first tournament game is something to be very proud of.

I hope you all liked this match and our coverage. And maybe,

maybe more of such events will be organized in the future!

This was I believe the only time that Anand took it up against a computer program in a serious match! The games were certainly interesting but I think against Rebel on today's hardware, imagine a Rebel on 8 processors each at least 10 times faster than a Kryotech K6-2, Vishy would have to fight much harder! The rematch sadly never happened!

Regards, Eelco

[VP]

Eelco, may I just add that we should not consider blitz games?
July-21 4 blitz games (5 minutes + 5 seconds Fischer for each move) and 2 semi-blitz games (15 minutes)
July-22 1 tournament game (40/2:00, 1 hour)
July-23 1 tournament game (40/2:00, 1 hour)
In classical time control, Anand beat the Rebel machine 1.5-0.5.

Yes, it would be interesting to have Anand, Kramnik, P.Leko and Topalov pitted against Rybka, Zappa, Hiarcs and Naum ( I know someone is going to complain why I have not considered Deep Junior, Shredder or Deep Fritz, and the reason that I named the four is because I believe them to be the best at current- I think Shredder also deserves a mention, and I am sure the ver 11 would be much stronger than 10)
I think the GM stand a better chance if he has time to think, again, Anand did not get the rebel engine to prepare against, as did Kramnik.
What engines lack in time control, they make up by using 8 cores
This achieves the move search in one-fifth the time.

[jdart]

I am very impressed with Anand. He gave Kramnik a hard time and fought hard to win against Morozevich. Meanwhile Kramnik played another Petroff .. snore.

--Jon

[Ovyron]

Here's the PGN:

[Event "game-8"]
[Site "8 game match"]
[Date "1998.07.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Rebel10 (exp)"]
[Black "Anand,V"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "2795"]
[ECO "E12"]

1. d4 { A difficult choice. From a computer's point of view 1 e4 is the
most likely choice to be played, but I like surprises and I had something
in mind. } 1... Nf6 2. c4 e6 { Whoops, didn't count on that one. In the
specially prepared openingbook I counted on the Grunfeld, the Queen's Gambit
Accepted and the Slav. Also the Queen's Indian was prepared, but less thoroughly
than the other openings. } 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 { During the game I wished I
had chosen 4 g3 instead. But 4 a3 is not bad at all, leading to a lively
game. The move is still popular and 4 g3 leads to a much more quiet game.
} 4... Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Qc2 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Nd7 9. e4 c5 10.
Bf4 Qc8 { Out of book. Rebel only knows 10 ... Be7 and 10 ... cxd4. I must
confess that I thought that 10 ... Qc8 was a novelty, because I had never
seen it before. } 11. Bb5 { Heavily criticised, because the bookmove 11
d5 scored a clear 3-0 for White recently. But this is nonsense IMO: A great
player like Anand would NEVER play 10 ... Qc8 if this can be refuted by
11 d5. Anand confirmed after the game that Rebel's move 11 Bb5 is a good
one. } 11... a6 12. Bxd7+ Qxd7 13. Ne5 Qc8 { Rebel expected 13 ... Qd8
14 Rd1. } 14. Qd3 { An interesting move. First Rebel wanted to play 14
Nc4, but the reply 14 ... Qc6 is sufficient in that case. } 14... b5 {
Stops 15 Nc4, but overlooks White's next move. Maybe it was better to complete
development first. } 15. Qf3 { Very surprising! The main idea is 15 ...
Be7? 16 Bg5! It is very difficult to find a good move for Black here. }
15... Bd6 { A brilliant solution. Anand gives some material to reach an
unclear ending. Other moves have been analysed, but all seem insufficient.
All in all anand used about 20 minutes to come to this decision. Again
no quiet game! } 16. Nxf7 { Immediately indicating an evaluation of +2,
but this is far too optimistic! } 16... Bxf4 17. Nxh8 Qc7 18. Qh5+ { Less
good is 18 g3 Bh6! Black plans 19 ... 0-0-0 20 Nf7 Rf8. } 18... g6 19.
Nxg6 hxg6 20. Qxg6+ Qf7 21. Qxf7+ Kxf7 { So White has rook + 3 pawns for
2 bishops. But one pawn will fall (d4 is weak) and it is not easy to get
the pawns on the king's side going. According to Anand the ending is unclear.
Most chess programs, though, still think White is clearly better. } 22.
g3 { Rebel was debating between this move and 22 f3. After 22 g3 the move
22 ... Bxe4?? fails to 23 f3 Bxf3 24 Rf1 winning a piece. } 22... Bh6 23.
f3 cxd4 24. cxd4 Rc8 { Taking control of the c-file. Because of the weaknesses
on d4 and a3, Black is always able to win back one pawn. } 25. h4 { This
is a clear mistake. Anand indicated after the game that 25 Ke2 should be
played, with a very unclear endgame. } 25... Rc2 { This rook is seriously
hampering White's game. } 26. g4 Be3 27. h5 Kg7 { Stopping the pawns. Note
how useless the White king's side pawns are. } 28. Rd1 a5 { Planning b5-b4
creating a strong passed pawn. White has to activate the h1-rook quickly,
or else it is over. } 29. d5 exd5 30. Rh3 { Not a nice move, but it contains
a little trick. Rebel first wanted to play the normal 30 exd5, but then
30 ... b4, or first 30 ... Ba6 followed by 31 ... b4 would have been decisive.
} 30... b4 31. axb4 axb4 32. f4 { Here it is. White finally activates his
unfortunate rook. The tactical point is 32 ... d4?? 33 Rxe3 dxe3 34 Rd7+.
} 32... Bf2+ 33. Kf1 Bc5 { The cleanest way. } 34. Ke1 d4 { Creating a
second passed pawn. Because the White pawns cannot accomplish anything,
the game is over. } 35. e5 Rc3 { Securing the further advance of the pawns.
} 36. Rh2 b3 37. h6+ Kh7 { Here I resigned the game before Rebel could
play 38 Rb2. White's game is hopeless. 0-1 } 38. Rb2 0-1

I think against Rebel on today's hardware, imagine a Rebel on 8 processors each at least 10 times faster than a Kryotech K6-2, Vishy would have to fight much harder! The rematch sadly never happened!

Regards, Eelco

Latest Rebel is free ProDeo 1.5, and it does not support multiple cores