Sunday 9 March 2008

A couple of odd matches

There were a couple of odd matches played over the last week.
The first was between Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili and the computer program Rybka. Just as in a previous match between GM Elvehst and Rybka, the GM received the odds of pawn and move (ie Rybka was always Black and started without a pawn). It was an 8 game match, with Rybka removing a pawn from a different file each game. The first game was without the a pawn, the last without the h pawn. The match ended in a 4-4 tie. Curiously two games won by Rybka were games where it started without the d and e pawns.
The other match was a computer assisted match between GM's Daniel Stellwagen and Erwin L'Ami. It was 4 game match and the players were required to play the Two Knights Defence. All 4 games were drawn, with the first two games testing the 4.d4 variation and the second 2 testing the 4.Ng5 variation.
In case you were wondering, there were no Traxler games, as the official website stated "We discussed the Traxler on January 5, 2008 and found the line 5. Bxf7† Ke7 6. Bb3 better for White. Thereafter, we had chess pie and saw chess movies"

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