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Free ten-day trial version of Fritz7 PlayChess client
29.03.2002
– Like to play a game against a friend? No problem, even if it is the middle of the night, and he is 5000 miles away. On our Playchess server you can make new friends, play casual games, watch strong players, follow and discuss live events with other visitors. Normally you need Fritz 7 or Shredder 6 to do so, but now we are offering you a free 10-day trial version, so you can see what it is like to be part of this exciting new global chess community.
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Morozevich wins Amber tournament
28.03.2002
– He was playing for the first time in the combined rapid and blindfold tournament,
staged once a year by Dutch millionaire J.J. van Oosterom. But Alexander Morozevich
went through to take the overall victory with 15/22 points (and an incredible
9/11 in the blindfold). In second place: Alexei Shirov, followed by Leko, Ivanchuk
and Gelfand. Congratulations Alexander – and you can open your eyes now.
Pictures, reports, games and links are to be found here.
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Get dressed for the Dubai Grand Prix
28.03.2002
– The inaugural FIDE Grand Prix will take place in Dubai from April 2–10.
The venue is the Al-Bustan Hotel and the Dubai Chess Club, the most modern in
the world. 32 paricipants have been nominated, and Fide has given very specific
instructions with regard to dress code and official appearances. In case you
want to suit up and go to Dubai you will find full information here.
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The blindfold king
28.03.2002
– Alexei Shirov move over. Moscow GM Alexander Morozevich, who has an extraordinary
ability to play blindfold chess (scoring 8.5/10!), has gone into the overall
lead at the Melody Amber tournament in Monaco. Two rounds before the end he
has 13.5/20 points and is followed by Shirov 13.0, Leko 12.5, Ivanchuk 12.0,
Bareev 11.5, Gelfand 11.0, Kramnik and Topalov 10.5. Pictures, reports, games
and links are to be found here.
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Fritz back on the top
28.03.2002
– The Swedish Svenska schackdatorföreningen (SSDF, Chess Computer Association)
is an independent that tests the stronges chess programs in the world. Over
the years they have played no less than 85,022 (!) games between different computers.
On the last 22 lists our Fritz engine has been on top 15 times. In the February
list Shredder 6 took the lead. But now the newly tested Fritz 7 is number
one again, 34 points ahead of the field!
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Garry Kasparov on Harald Schmidt
27.03.2002
– Harald who? Schmidt, who does a David Letterman clone show on the German Sat
1 TV channel. If you are in the footprint of the satellite channel or get Sat
1 by cable tune in at 11:15 p.m. to catch Schmid interviewing "the man
with countless world championship titles, who almost defeated the unbeatable
IBM computer Deep Blue, and who is a great mathematician, computer expert, book
author and speaker of 15 languages". The Sat 1 blurb is here...
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The Empire strikes back – Gulko-computers 3:5
27.03.2002
– An important blow for humanity. After drawing his four games and losing three
against the world's best programs Boris Gulko struck back in his last game
against computer single-processor world champion Shredder. The final
score is 5:3 for the computers. Gulko has taken is all with great sporting spirit,
even providing the Internet audience with his commentary on what transpried.
You will find it all on our special coverage
page...
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Big bad machines 5 – friendly grandmaster 2
25.03.2002
– It is a wee bit frightening. An experienced GM, winner
of both the Russian and USA national championships, world championship candidate,
is getting stomped on by chess playing computers. Today Boris Gulko played
too passive against the brandnew Hiarcs 8 program and was severely punished
for his temerity. And from his own commentary we discover that yesterday's draw
against Fritz was quite lucky – for the GM. You can replay all the games on our special event report page.
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Alexei Shirov in the lead in Monaco
25.03.2002
– The best rapid + blindfold player in Monaco at the moment appears to be Shirov,
who leads the field with 11 points from 16 games. He is being chased by Leko
and Bareev (10.5/16). World champion Vladimir Kramnik lost two 7th round games against his second Evgeny Bareev. Pictures, reports,
games and links are to be found here.
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Hoovering the board against Fritz
25.03.2002
– Who says humans cannot learn from their mistakes? After losing depressingly
in his first-round games to Fritz and Schredder Boris Gulko has employed a new
strategy in the return matches: just don't let anything happen in the games.
Against Fritz this involved a well-known technique called "hoovering".
In 28 moves he had got rid of all pieces from the board except for a pair of
rooks. He held this endgame effortlessly against Fritz. More...
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How Sashenka Kosteniuk got elected
24.03.2002
– As you probably know we conducted a Player
of the Year poll in February, and it was surprisingly won by not by Kasparov,
Kramnik or Ponomariov, but by 17-year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk (the exact results
are here). Today we give you some excerpts
from the messages we received. They give you a good insight into the grass-roots
feelings in the chess world.
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Shirov in the lead at Hotel Le Métropole Palace
22.03.2002
– After five rounds of the Melody Amber chess tournament in Monaco it is Alexei
Shirov in the overall lead, with Bareev and Morozevich in persuit (the latter
has found his calling and scored 4.5/5 in the blindfold section). Vladimir Kramnik
is not doing so well and is in sixth, Loek van Wely disasterously in last. Pictures,
reports, games and links are to be found here.
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