The Chess Mind

For fans of computer chess matches, here's an email from Martin Thoresen:

I'm currently hosting a high-level, long time control computer match between the newest incarnation of Rybka and one of its closest rivals, Stockfish.

All information about hardware etc. can be seen on the website:

The broadcast is updated each 3 minutes and the engines are playing from 24 fixed positions with the most normal GM openings. They play each position as black and white, so a total of 48 games.

I was the one hosting the tournament where GM Kavalek annotated the game between Stockfish 1.7.1 and Rybka 4 as seen here:

Unfortunately I was unsuccessful of contacting him to say thanks.

Best Regards,

Martin Thoresen

But not the same event, of course. The brand-new Rybka 4 won a very strong computer tournament in Leiden (not that location matters a whit when we're talking about chess engines) with 8/9. Deep Sjeng took second with 7 points and was the only program to score against Rybka, defeating it in round 6. (Allegedly a bug was at least partially to blame; if that's true, I hope the Rybka team will send a free software patch to its customers, if the bug is in the particular sub-version they have.) More info here.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., Loek van Wely came in clear first in the Chicago Open with 7.5/9. He entered the round tied with IM Sam Shankland and GM Varuzhan Akobian, half a point ahead of a group that included no less a player than Mickey Adams. Shankland had enjoyed a spectacular tournament up to that point, but even so the last round pairings were a dream for van Wely: he had White against Shankland, while Akobian had Black against Adams. Both games were won pretty easily by White, leaving van Wely half a point ahead of Adams, Najer, Mikhalevski and Stocek  and $10200 richer (pre-tax and expenses). More here, including an interview with van Wely.

There's a big computer chess event starting today in Leiden, including Rybka, Hiarcs, Deep Junior, Deep Shredder and Deep Sjeng among others. None of the controversial programs allegedly based on (stolen) Rybka code are playing, nor is the (as far as I know) uncontroversial but very strong Stockfish program participating. Still, it will be interesting to see what happens, and it's probably worth keeping an eye out for the opening novelties, too.

The tournament will be covered here, I think - check the entries as they come in. (The last two as of this writing offer further info.)

Here.