Update 7.12.14

My next tournament is probably going to be the Southern Illinois Summer Open in my hometown on August 16. I, at least, hope to win 2 games out of 3 which should be enough to push into the next rating Class (Class B). Other than that there isn't a whole lot that's new. I'm studying daily on Chess(dot)com. I use it's tactics trainer and it's a really good tool for keeping my game sharp. I go over about 20 - 30 puzzles every day. I also watch a few instructive chess videos on YouTube and I try to play about 2-3 games/week online (I use the Free Internet Chess server available at http://www.freechess.org). And I really have no idea when my next BIG tournament is going to be - maybe in St. Louis. Maybe not. Who knows. I've actually been fairly busy the past few weeks. Stay posted for more updates.

Kasparov and Computer Chess

No, this blog is not about the match between Kasparov and Deep Blue back in the 90's. Rather, my interest for this blog post was to see just quite how good computers are nowadays (almost 20 years after the Deep Blue matches). So, I had my Chess Program (Fritz 12) on my desktop PC analyze what is widely considered the greatest game of chess ever played. Now, I do not have the multi-processor version of Fritz, but I thought the commercial version would be good enough (and it is). The game I'm about to go through was played at the Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Super GM Tournament in 1999. Garry Kasparov played white. The move I set my computer to do a deep positional analysis of was 24. Rxd4. Kasparov offers a rook for a pawn. This sacrifice is SOOOOOO deep. Black regretfully accepted and Kasparov got a winning position almost 20 moves later. Experts use to believe that computers will never be able to match the power of the human mind as far as chess is considered. But now the question is not can a computer win a match against the best human player, rather the question is can a human win just one game against a computer. I believe the answer is "no", or will soon be "no" if not already.

What was interesting to see was what my computer had to say about the game. And, YES, it saw the move 24. Rxd4 !! I was very surprised. In fact, it even decided not to make the rook sacrifice because black is better off refusing to take the rook and playing 24 ...Kb6 instead. So, my computer suggests instead of the rook sacrifice to continue 24.Nc6+. And another question, if 24.Nc6+ was technically a better move then is this really the best game of chess ever played? I'll leave that for you to decide.

[Event "Hoogovens A Tournament"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"] [Date "1999.01.20"] [EventDate "?"] [Round "4"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Garry Kasparov"] [Black "Veselin Topalov"] [ECO "B06"] [WhiteElo "2812"] [BlackElo "2700"] [PlyCount "87"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Bh6 Bxh6 9. Qxh6 Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14. Nb3 exd4 15. Rxd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4 Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbxd5 23. exd5 Qd6 24. Rxd4 cxd4 25. Re7 Kb6 26. Qxd4 Kxa5 27. b4 Ka4 28. Qc3 Qxd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rxb7 Qc4 31. Qxf6 Kxa3 32. Qxa6 Kxb4 33. c3 Kxc3 34. Qa1 Kd2 35. Qb2 Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7 Rxd7 38. Bxc4 bxc4 39. Qxh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4 Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1 Rd2 44. Qa7 1-0'/>