Triumph of man

Of all the traditional board games in the world - chess, checkers (or draughts), go and backgammon - I believe chess represents one of the greatest challenges to computer programmers.

The number of positions and transpositions in a chess game is almost limitless; and the innumerable tactical and strategical nuances at every stage of a game have ensured that chess retains its full intricacy and beauty.

The ideal chess game remains to be played and unlike checkers or backgammon, the mysteries of chess are far from being solved or unraveled. Computers have come a long way in helping man to understand the complexity of chess but as Gary Kasparov had demonstrated in defeating IBM's Deep Blue chess computer last month, the ideal chess-playing computer or programme remains to be built.

It is true that Deep Blue is the strongest chess-playing computer in the world today. Based on its limited six-game performance against Kasparov in Philadelphia, USA, the average rating of Deep Blue is probably around 2650 points - placing it at about the level of the top 50 to 60 best players in the world currently.

But Deep Blue is still a machine; despite its one million transistors and an impressive array of RAM and ROM blocks which enable it to analyse two to three million positions per second, Deep Blue still calculates everything by brute force.

In any given position, Deep Blue still has to analyse and compute all possible moves several plys deep irregardless of whether they are good or bad. It lacks the basic instinct or intuition not to analyse the bad moves.

As a very basic comparison, let us take the starting position of a chess game. The human player will always reject moves like 1. h3 or 1. f3 as his first move, because he knows that these moves are bad and do not help in the development of his pieces.

However, a typical chess-playing computer or software will always include the analysis of all bad moves as well as the time-honoured "good" moves like 1. e4 or 1. d4 everytime it evaluates the position.

Of course, it is very likely that sophisticated machines like Deep Blue and other strong commercially available software would have been pre-programmed to reject such moves at the start of a game.

But when a game has already been played several moves, the choices open to the human mind or the computer brain are almost limitless. Here, the computer has to evaluate every possible move - good or bad - until it arrives at what it perceives to be its strongest continuation, and plays the move.

On the other hand, the human player only has to look at the chess board and he can decide, from applying common chess principles, which are the good and bad positions. He recognises and rejects the obvious bad moves.

Intuition tells him which are the likely moves, then he concentrates on the analysis and plays what he thinks will be the best continuation. Because of this intuitive gift - the ability to separate bad from good - chess players generally do not have to think many moves ahead in a chess position.

Now, during Kasparov's match with Deep Blue, he was asked how many moves ahead did he anticipate. According to Kasparov, it would depend on the position. Normally, he claimed to calculate only three to five moves ahead.

"You don't need more but in a position where there is a forced line (of play), even with our incomplete brains, I can make probably 10, 12 or 14 moves. That is something you can do but you don't do it very often. I would say it is five moves, but I can go much deeper if it is required."

To non-chess players, this answer would generate surprise but chess players would generally be less surprised to learn that Kasparov is not that much different from ordinary folks like you and I, except that he uses his faculties much more efficiently.

See where this ability has led him. By Malaysian standards, Kasparov has added another RM1 million (US$400,000) to his bank account just by beating Deep Blue 4-2. He is already a millionaire several times over.

At the end of the match, American international master Maurice Ashley commented that the main question facing computer chess programmers was how to make the computer think more selectively. What was clear from Kasparov's feat was the human capability to stay ahead of the computer.

After Kasparov's loss in the first game, he learnt to change his attacking play to a more positionally-based squeeze style which seemed very effective.

American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan said Kasparov learned very quickly. From the first game to the next, Kasparov looked stronger and stronger, even in the drawn third and fourth games.

Seirawan agreed that Kasparov overcame the difficult task of changing his style of play, like asking a baseball pitcher to pitch left-handed when he is a righty.

"He loves tactics. He relishes a good tactical slugfest, he goes on the offensive at the drop of a hat, he loves attacking his opponent's king, and he had to put all these away and play a much different kind of chess. He did it extraordinarily well; it was not an easy thing to do at all."

The Deep Blue team, managed by Chung-Jen Tan and consisting of computer scientists Feng-Hsiung Hsu, Murray S. Campbell, A. Joseph Hoane Jr, and Gershon Brody, deserves credit for having developed this computing giant but it is obvious that many more years of work lies ahead of them if they hope to compete with a Kasparov who now understands very well how to exploit the gaping silicon holes.

At the end of the match, Tan admitted that one of the biggest problems with Deep Blue was its inability to learn from its mistakes. The machine has no intelligence of its own. Until Artificial Intelligence research can solve this problem, no algorithm will be able to beat a human chess player in match play.

In the fifth and sixth games, Deep Blue was made to look very bad by Kasparov. Seirawan even ventured to say that Kasparov had solved the riddle of the computer. Kasparov said that in those two games, he created positions where the machine had very little chance to utilise its strengths. He agreed that the fact that he could learn quickly contributed mostly to his success.

The Deep Blue team is based at the IBM Research Division's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. The Deep Blue-Kasparov match at the Philadelphia Convention Center was organised by the Association of Computing Machinery in conjunction with the association's 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

MALAYSIA-INDIA SHOWDOWN

The Malaysian Chess Federation are staging a 12-round Scheveningen-style match featuring three top local players against three Indian international masters.

The match at the Hotel Sucasa in Kuala Lumpur started yesterday and will continue until next Friday.

Representing Malaysia are FM Mas Hafizulhelmi, Ooi Chern Ee and Mok Tze Meng, while the foreign visitors are IM Lanka Ravi, IM PS Mithrakanth and IM K Murugan.

Two rounds beginning 8.30am and 4.30pm will be played on most days, but there is only be an afternoon game today while Monday will be a rest day. The match is sponsored by MCF honorary life president Dato' Tan Chin Nam. Spectators are welcome.

USM TRONOH OPEN

The Tronoh campus of the Universiti Sains Malaysia will hold the second USM open individual tournament tomorrow at its multipurpose hall.

This will be a six-round event starting at 9.30am. Participants are required to register with the organisers at 8am.

This one-day event is organised in conjunction with the 10th anniversary celebration of the Tronoh campus. Entry fee is RM10 and seven cash prizes will be offered. The top three winners will also receive trophies. For more details, contact Mohd Jamil Yahya.

Meanwhile, teams taking part in the annual USM open team tournament in Penang tomorrow are reminded to be at the playing hall by 2pm. The six-round event will be played over two days.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Deep Blue - Gary Kasparov, Game 5

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8. exd5 cxd5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 c6 11. Qf3 Be7 12. Rae1 Re8 13. Ne2 h6 14. Bf4 Bd6 15. Nd4 Bg4 16. Qg3 Bxf4 17. Qxf4 Qb6 18. c4 Bd7 19. cxd5 cxd5 20. Rxe8+ Rxe8 21. Qd2 Ne4 22. Bxe4 dxe4 23. b3 Rd8 24. Qc3 f5 25. Rd1 Be6 26. Qe3 Bf7 27. Qc3 f4 28. Rd2 Qf6 29. g3 Rd5 30. a3 Kh7 31. Kg2 Qe5 32. f3 e3 33. Rd3 e2 34. gxf4 e1/Q 35. fxe5 Qxc3 36. Rxc3 Rxd4 37. b4 Bc4 38. Kf2 g5 39. Re3 Be6 40. Rc3 Bc4 41. Re3 Rd2+ 42. Ke1 Rd3 43. Kf2 Kg6 44. Rxd3 Bxd3 45. Ke3 Bc2 46. Kd4 Kf5 47. Kd5 h5 0-1

Gary Kasparov - Deep Blue, Game 6

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 c6 3. c4 e6 4. Nbd2 Nf6 5. e3 c5 6. b3 Nc6 7. Bb2 cxd4 8. exd4 Be7 9. Rc1 O-O 10. Bd3 Bd7 11. O-O Nh5 12. Re1 Nf4 13. Bb1 Bd6 14. g3 Ng6 15. Ne5 Rc8 16. Nxd7 Qxd7 17. Nf3 Bb4 18. Re3 Rfd8 19. h4 Nge7 20. a3 Ba5 21. b4 Bc7 22. c5 Rde8 23. Qd3 g6 24. Re2 Nf5 25. Bc3 h5 26. b5 Nce7 27. Bd2 Kg7 28. a4 Ra8 29. a5 a6 30. b6 Bb8 31. Bc2 Nc6 32. Ba4 Re7 33. Bc3 Ne5 34. dxe5 Qxa4 35. Nd4 Nxd4 36. Qxd4 Qd7 37. Bd2 Re8 38. Bg5 Rc8 39. Bf6+ Kh7 40. c6 bxc6 41. Qc5 Kh6 42. Rb2 Qb7 43. Rb4 1-0

Zsuzsa Polgar is the new women's world champion. The remaining games from her match with Xie Jun will be covered next week.