Last Wednesday in Bonn, the match between the absolute world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the latest version of the Fritz computer program ended - it ended very sadly for the whole of chess mankind. And the point is not that the “protein chess player” lost in the final match, bringing the final gap from the “silicone monster” to an impressive two points, which is much more offensive to the very nature of the struggle, which culminated in the triumph of the computer in the sixth game.
The fact is that on the tenth move, the Machine that had white pieces played about the same way as bulky and inefficient computers operated half a century ago, or at all times inexperienced amateur chess players played in simultaneous games. In other words, from the point of view of any chess specialist, a whole series of computer moves seemed frankly unprofessional in this game.
In such cases, a person who is clearly superior in class to an opponent usually only needs elementary accuracy, which is far from always possible for showers. But in a one-on-one duel with a obviously strong opponent, it seemed not so difficult to completely avoid the costs of a frivolous attitude to an opponent’s capabilities. Alas, Vladimir Kramnik failed to do this. He lost to the Computer, having missed the veiled, but still not too complicated tactics, apparently, in strict accordance with the standard scenario of all human failures in fights with “pieces of iron”.
However, the sixth game made us - the people who play chess - a truly complicated riddle. The fact is that the situation that arose after the strange Fritz game at the beginning of the game was evaluated by all grandmasters as the clear benefit of Vladimir Kramnik, while all computer programs were in favor of his electronic colleague. I strengthened what was said, emphasizing that from the point of view of any chess player, Computer played frankly weakly in the opening.
Such an assessment, in particular, means that for almost the first time in the history of our historical confrontation, Machines forced us to raise the fundamental question of the consistency of the intuitive criteria common to all people on which our ideas about chess are based. After all, this time people will not succeed in proving their case by simply moving the pieces on the board, since “all this has already been done before us,” and it is precisely on the basis of calculating numerous options that the computers delivered their own verdict, which is so amazing for “protein” chess players!
And yet, despite the dramatic nature of the situation, the feeling that “we” are still better than “them” in fundamental chess issues does not leave me, and the position in which Vladimir Kramnik made a mistake was, of course, in his favor.
Sergey Makarychev, international grandmaster, NTV Plus observer