The final game of the Kramnik – Deep Fritz match will take place tomorrow. Fritz will have White in game 6. Will it be 1.d4 or 1.e4? Will Kramnik go all out for it? Does Kramnik have a chance to tie up the match or will he be happy collecting his $500,000 fees and get out of town with minimal damage?
Excellent pictures from game five by Andreas Schwartmann can be seen here.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Topalov is the best player, Rybka is the best computer…
And what are kramnik and fritz doing on the stage? They should go home play and have fun draws. so boring
I do not see Kramnik winning against DF10. Notwithstanding the one move blunder, Kramnik has clearly demonstrated that he can draw pretty much at will with DF.
That is a significant accomplishment. I think the final game will also be a draw. Kramnik is not foolhardy and will not play recklessly against the computer.
Rybka will loose against F10 in next WCC.
I don’t think Kramnik will push for a win. Attempting to not lose is difficult enough. I’m sure he’s happy with $500,000 and several draws against Fritz. Anyway, who else could do this? Not many.
Regarding the previous post…it’s absurd to think that Fritz 10 will beat Rybka. We’ll see…
Kramnik has made a fortune from playing chess. Of course, he is the world champion. Just out of curiosity, how many GM’s can actually make a living playing chess?
Just wanted to see what others thought.
i’m quite sure Vladimir Kramnik will go for a draw
– fritz10! will open d4 and nothing spectacular will happen
– even though we will have a e4 e5 ruy lopez. to be honest – i suppose the fritz10 guys will play the 4… d3 line – to avoid “berlin” …
so – maybe another knight vs. bishop – (oh how i wish, Kramnik would have found this e3 / kf3 line in the first game!) – draw – and – a win for deep fritz – the most prominent chessbase product and the most cheap and the most valuable …
tonight i had a dream: Kramnik signed a score sheet and fritz signed a score sheet – it was the same piece of paper … Kramnik signed a loss – fritz signed a loss – why? fritz is winning, isn’t he?
Rybka is a UCI – nothing more, nothing less (there are still no data available for DEEP fritz vs. rybka on a statistical validated basis! so – please calm down! and deep fritz vs. kramnik is another thing, than deep fritz vs. rybka!)
Topalov is a great OTB chess player, but i suggest that he would have great difficulties in holding only ONE game aginst “the machine”. his chess might be “stylish” but completely short in a man vs. machine match …
my two pence
I think Kramnik is exhausted by this point and will be too tired to fight for a win. He will do well if he can draw the last game with the machine.
Typically Grand Masters (GMs) make about 1/2 a million usd a year. However, if you are on the Super GM level it can be much much more as with Kramnik, Kasparov and Topalov. That is why it is important to start chess early in life and study hard. Playing chess for a living is a great life with tons of financial rewards. In addition to all the Prize Money there are chess products, private lessons, books, DVDs, and celebrity endorsements from big corporations. It has been this way since Booby Fischer won the World Championship – I think before then it might have beeen less money.
lot’s of blissfully ignorant anonymouses around, aren’t they?
Wait a moment…just because one is a GM doesn’t at all mean that you can earn $500,000 per year. I think I read in one of the recent “Chess Life” magazines that many GM’s can’t even afford health insurance.
This is sad but a reality. I would guess that only the top 10-15 player in the world can really earn a 6-figure salary from chess.
Of course, a world champion will be quite wealthy. Unless you’re in the top 10 you’d better supplement your income with a career. For example, even GM Kamsky went to law school.
“Typically Grand Masters (GMs) make about 1/2 a million usd a year.”
Not sure about that…
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/misha37.pdf
MS: You mention the possible decline of results, but not the decline of
chess as a sport. Are you aware that chess is in a crisis?
AR: Yes, chess is in crisis, but it is not that bad. The main problem is the
huge financial gap between the elite and the rest of the field. Grandmasters
rated below 2650 are struggling financially. They have to mostly play in
Swiss tournaments, investing much effort and money for very little in return,
while scoring 7/9 barely keeps one’s rating intact, and anything less leads to
massive Elo losses.
The elite level is a closed system that is almost impossible to break into.
Perhaps the rating system is flawed. After all, some people only play 10
games and keep their high rating, while others play 100 games. I think one
must always prove their strength, so playing frequently should be rewarded
somehow.
MS: The ACP has applied the tennis rating system for their tour, what do
you think about it?
AR: I like it; I think it is a positive innovation. Unfortunately, I don’t think
any organizer considers the ACP rankings when making tournament
invitations.
MS: Do those in your age group, who work in areas unrelated to chess, earn
a comparable wage?
AR: Yes, they do. A college graduate earns no less than the average
grandmaster in Russia. Moreover, chess earnings are unstable.
MS: When I was in Norway, international arbiter Hans Olav Lahlum told
me that they had just one professional player (Carlsen, of course) and all the
others were strong amateurs.
AR: In Portugal, they told me the same. I think this will eventually become
the rule rather than the exception.
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/misha38.pdf
MS: What would you like to change in the world of chess?
DS: I would try to make chess a more professional sport. Grandmaster
earnings are laughable, considering their effort. I remember after a Dubai
Open, Sergey Fedorchuk and I relaxed on a beach: he shared 1st-3rd, I
finished 4th. We drank some juice, and were both very happy. However, I
could not help but feel that if we were two tennis players in this same
situation, one of them would have earned $1,000,000, and another one
$300,000. That’s more than a hundred times our prizes. Chess is not a
professional sport now. Almost all chess players are only able to make a
living; our earnings are incomparable to those of other sportsmen.
MS: How much money do you need to be happy?
DS: I don’t need money to be happy.
MS: Okay, what do you need?
DS: That is a tough question: peace of mind, an opportunity to express
myself creatively, love. This is not about material things; owning the latest
BMW can make me happy for a short time only, and it has nothing to do
with contentment.
Its interesting that Topalov beat Kramnik more times in 1 match than Kramnik has lost all year. Yet Fritz cannot manage to earn a win (of course it didn’t miss the 1 move blunder tho).
Frank said…
Its interesting that Topalov beat Kramnik more times in 1 match than Kramnik has lost all year. Yet Fritz cannot manage to earn a win (of course it didn’t miss the 1 move blunder tho).
After game 2 (the Big Blunder) I said that “if I were the programmers of Fritz, I would now activate the program line which instructs Fritz to go for draw”. After all, a one point victory in a six game match is plenty. While computers came a long way, beating the world champion is still a major undertaking and achievement. From programming standpoint it must be much easier to have to computer to go for a draw from the beginning.
Maybe that is exactly what the programmers of Fritz did.
Gabor
Its ironic that you say that Gabor because that’s always been kramnik’s strategy. Get a single point ahead and offer draw after draw. Now its happening to him.
I am wondering about the following issue:
Kramnik has the latest DeepFritz 10 at his home (we know ho got it and ofcourse anyone can buy it). Now: he (or his assistents) can play many games at home at different types of opennings Fritz normally plays, and get assistant from other engines too (such as Rybka) and find a sure path for victory/draw with Fritz.
It is known that unless some random factor is added, given the same software version with the same hardware, the machine will end up with the same conclusion each time on each move (since it has no consideration other then pure logic that is hardwired into the software version). So my question is:
What prevents from Kramnik just prepare ‘cooked’ games with Deep Fritz at home and come along and just play them on ???
Is there some randomization factor added into fritz move choice ?
Considering Kramniks passive style I cant see him getting no better than a draw. Even Kasparov in his last computer match played it safe and went for the draw in the final game.
I’m waiting for a win of Kramnik.
He has had the time of playing with the program for long time and to discover its flaws.
Anyway I think that this match is too boring and demonstrates nothing else that there is an agreement between Chessbase and Kramnik for marketing of Fritz10 before Christmas shopping.
I hope in the future to see a real match between human players and computer programs all in a single tournament with real rules.
Vohaul said…
lot’s of blissfully ignorant anonymouses around, aren’t they?
ehh better tat than puting rasial words like you ass!!! in anon names
Kramnik said that before the match he played 60 rapid 10 min games against DF with black, won 2 and made many draws – he didnt say how many games he lost but I think his chances to win are 10 % at most.
Playing for a draw when he is a point down before the last game does not make sense, so one could expect an interesting game, although I doubt he will go out for a tactical win in the middle game – too dangerous against Fritz.
Probably 1.e4, as Fritz did better with this.
Yes, Kramnik will be happy collecting his $500,000 fees and get out of town with minimal damage. Therefore he will play for a draw. Therefore probably another Petroff.
Looks like we were wrong. Kramnik plays the Najdorf. This is going to be an interesting game. Too bad for Topalov that he was beaten by Kramnik in the WC match, else he may be here instead.
“Yes, there’s the hash table size. You can read about it in the match rules. Only the match arbiter and the Fritz team know that parameter, which allows the arbiter to verify that Fritz is making the moves by itself.”
This is complete bullshit. Hash table size has got nothing to do with randomization in chess. just check the following article :
http://www.fierz.ch/strategy2.htm#hashtable