Levy - DT match (1).
Peter Jansen
I thought some of you would be interested in a slightly more detailed
account of the DT-Levy match. So here, in five instalments, are
some eye-witness impressions, as well as the complete official game
scores.
Together with David Levy and Robert Wade (who was the arbiter for
the match, as I learned right before the first game....) I was sitting
up in a fifth-floor room of the old Victorian (?) house the British
Computer Society used for their offices. Everybody else was downstairs
in two adjacent rooms on the second floor, watching the moves as they
appeared on two demonstration boards which were linked via a PC to the
intelligent sensor board we were playing on. The display also included
approximate clock times. Commentary was provided by David Norwood
(at 21 the second youngest IGM today) and Jonathan Speelman.
Relaying the moves to DT was quite a bit more cumbersome, and the
total delays ranged from about 15 to more than 40 seconds per move.
Fortunately (for the sponsor Infolink) we did not have to switch
to voice communications.... Setting things up and agreeing about the
exact course of action to take in case of problems turned out to be
quite a headache, and among other things I missed the opening ceremony
because of it (not as if they wanted me there, of course :-)).
As to the match, it is clear that David Levy is no longer the player
he was ten years ago. He consistently used too much time in the beginning
of the first three games, and made rather embarrassing tactical mistakes.
That he had to go all out after the first two games didn't help.
Levy still believes he could have beaten DT ten years ago (ie. before he
quit tournament play), and perhaps he is right. In any case, "doing nothing"
seems to have become considerably more difficult...
As a side note, several people were betting on the outcome of the
match, as well as on the outcome of each individual game (with professional
bookmakers and everything!). Odds before the match were strongly in favor
of the "Man". Another indication of the way this match was hyped up are
newspaper headlines such as "Dangerous moves in a brutal game", "Man
fights machine in chess war", "Computer's win marks new stage in chess"
and the like.
David Levy - Deep Thought (Game 1: London, 12/11/89)
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In the analysis room, the moves that got the most criticism were 8. f3
and 11. Bf2. Nobody made comments about 12. Qb3 or 14. cxd4, which DT
thought were the worst moves in the first half of the game (it was expecting
12. f4 [for which it was preparing the exciting 12. .... Nxf4!?] and 14. exd5
respectively).
Levy said he was taken by surprise when DT played 11. ... e5! which he
thought was impossible, and that he hadn't seen that 15. ... Na5! was so
strong.
Perhaps he could have defended himself even after that, but the tactical
complexities were just too much for a rusty IM under time pressure.
White's moves 27 and 28 were equivalent to suicide...
1. d4 f5
2. Bg5 h6
3. Bh4 g5
4. e3 Nf6
5. Bg3 d6
6. c3 (14.5) Bg7 (4.5)
7. Nd2 (17) O-O (6)
8. f3(?) (31) Nc6(?)(11)
9. Bc4+ (39) d5 (15.5)
10. Bd3 (40) Nh5 (20)
11. Bf2(?)(40) e5(!) (24)
12. Qb3? (57) f4 (30)
13. e4 (64) exd4 (34)
14. cxd4? (66) Bxd4 (38)
15. exd5 (68) Na5! (39)
16. Qc2 (76) Bxf2+ (42.5)
17. Kxf2 (76) Qxd5 (45.5)
18. Ne2 (82) Bf5 (45.5)
19. Ne4 (85) Qc6 (50)
20. N2c3 (87.5) Qb6+ (53)
21. Kf1 (88.5) Rad8 (55.5)
22. Rd1 (93) Rfe8 (57)
23. Be2 (94) Rxd1+ (60)
24. Qxd1 (94.5) Bxe4 (63)
25. Nxe4 (96) Nf6 (65)
26. Qa4 (100) Re5! (68.5)
27. Qd1? (104) Nd5 (72)
28. Qa4? (105.5) Qxb2 (75.5)
29. Qd7 (107) Qc1+ (79)
30. Kf2 (107) Qxh1 (82.5)
31. Qd8+ (107.5) Kg7 (85.5)
32. Qd7+ (108.5) Ne7 (87.5)
33. Qxc7 (111) Nac6 (88)
34. Nd6 (112) Rxe2+ (91.5)
35. Kxe2 (112) Qxg2+ (95)
36. Ke1 (112.5) Qh1+ (97)
White resigns
(To be continued)
-- Peter
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