AEGON "97" Reports by WFM Yvette Nagel (Rds 1&2)

[Lonnie]

ROUND REPORTS
WFM Yvette Nagel

ROUND 1
Wednesday April 16

The twelfth AEGON Computer Chess Tournament opened with a special event: two of the
world’s top grandmasters, Jan Timman and Viswanathand Aanand played a clock simul
against six of the strongest microcomputers of today. If Timman had the white pieces
against a computer Anand had black and vice versa. It took the grandmaster from
Madras only 2.5 hours to secure a 4-2 victory (3 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss). The final
outcome could have been more impressive had he not mixed up his moves against Genius
which resulted in loss of material and a hopeless position. Jan Timman had a
difficult experience against the computers. "I should have a good score, but I made
too many mistakes" he said dissatisfied afterwards, scoring just one win and two
draws. Both GMs lost to Genius and both GMs defeated the current World Champion
Fritz.
In his speech prior to the start of the main event Professor Jaap van den Herik
repeated the predictions he made last year: "For 1998, I expect that computers will
sweep the floor with Masters, Grandmasters and World top players. And for 1999, that
AEGON would change the formula after a full-scale Management Meeting on how to
proceed." Van den Herik is not only convinced that the computers will equal their
successful performance of last year but will even improve. He therefore predicted a
170-130 victory for the machines as the final outcome for this year’s event. Although
the speed of computers has increased and the general knowledge has improved it
remains to be seen if the prediction of the Professor in Artificial Intelligence will
come true. The tournament is stronger than ever with 12 International Grandmasters
and 11 International Masters.
Most participating grandmasters have gained experience by playing in previous AEGON
tournaments. This however is not true for Lembit Oll, the highest ranked GM present
in The Hague. The Estonian GM had no problem "crushing" Schach 3.0 after its lack of
understanding of the Sicilian Defense. Also the winners of 1995 and 1996, John van
der Wiel and Yasser Seirawan, had no difficulties. Both GMs sacrificed a pawn. Van
der Wiel gained so much compensation and attacking chances that Ant wasn’t able to
solve its problems without losing material. Seirawan got a nice Kingside attack and
Cheiron happily walked into mate. Less fortunate were Jonathan Speelman and Larry
Christiansen. Speelman who both played to a draw. Larry was annoyed with his own play
in a winning Bishop’s of opposite colored ending while Jonathan had a promising
looking position but had to rest his case because of move repetition.
The first round was a clear victory for the Humans: 26.5 - 23.5

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ROUND 2
Thursday April 17

It was remarkably quiet after the bell had rang to start the second round. Both
grandmasters and amateurs sat behind the board fully concentrated. The computer
operators on the other hand were more relaxed sometimes with a beer in hand enjoying
the difficulties the programs were creating for their opponent. Indeed, the computers
were more successful winning the second round by the score 27.5-22.5. For the top
players in the Aegon event however, the score is quite different. The twelve
participating grandmasters scored 10.5 points in the first round and added nine more
victories to their total in the second.
Lembit Oll played a superb game against Isichess. This German program opted for a
variation of the Sicilian Defense which the Estonian GM had worked on extensively in
his study at home. Oll sacrificed a pawn for excellent positional play. The weakened
white squares gave him ample opportunity to infiltrate the enemy camp after which
Isichess' fate was quickly decided. Yasser Seirawan obtained a big advantage out of
the opening against his US opponent. Zarkov played too passively and allowed the
American Grandmaster to break through in the center. "After I played …e5 it was bad
news for the computer." Loss of material and an attack were enough to stop the clock.
"I haven't had much opposition yet" said John van der Wiel after his victory over
Comet. "Once it was out of its book, nothing good happened". Still the Grandmaster
from Leiden lost most of his advantage due to an inaccuracy but managed to complete
his job in the endgame.
Chinese GM Ye Rongguang had a tough pipe to smoke against Kallisto. This strong Dutch
program grabbed a big spatial advantage which it used to set up a promising attack.
Pressured by his clock, the debuting Grandmaster wasn't able to solve all of his
difficulties. GM Roberto Cifuentes also went down in a blaze of glory. According to
Roberto, Virtual Chess "intuitively" sacrificed a piece for two pawns. Roberto had
calculated a variation only to discover a huge hole at the end of his plan. By then
it was too late to change his strategy. Virtual Chess won enough material through
active play and secured an intriguing victory. It is an interesting point to
speculate how much the computer had calculated before it stopped and considered the
piece sacrifice to be favorable. Would you have done it?
The three grandmasters Speelman, Christiansen and Ree, who had dropped a half point
in the first round, needed very little time to revenge themselves at the expense of
Goldbar, Nightmare and Mephisto Genius.
After two rounds there are 15 participants, including six computers, who have a
hundred percent score. The humans have lost their overall lead and have slipped in
their performance from last year's event. A year ago the score was level after two
rounds.

Humans - Computers second round: 22.5 - 27.5
Total Standings Humans - Computers: 49 - 51

°°°°°°
Lonnie

"...master chess grips its exponent...so that the inner freedom
and independence of even the strongest character cannot remain un-
affected." -Einstein