The million dollar Brains in Bahrain match between Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz takes place 2nd-22nd October 2002 (Opening Ceremony 2nd October. Playing days 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 & 19 October, 2002).

Report Twelve: Game 8 Report
by Ebrahim Al Mannai

Dirty Draw!

Nobody wanted to see it, but most who were ‘in the know’were expecting it. The final game of the Kramnik-Deep Fritz match resulted in an eventless 21-move draw, which leaves the final score tied at 4-4.

There have been some uninformed claims of a "rigged" match. I think that an approximate measurement of the amount of sweat excreted from Kramnik’s forehead during each game in that arctically air-conditioned room would very much dismiss these claims. People have a uncanny ability to explain undesirable events to suit their fancy.

Kramnik Team (l-r): Kramnik's physical therapist Valery Krylov, Kramnik's second GM Christopher Lutz, Kramnik, his agent Carsten Hensel, his bodyguard Arfo Aziz, and second IM Tigran Nalbandian.

People wanted to see the "human race" win. What most don’t know is that any money won by Deep Fritz completely goes to a European trust fund to provide more chess to children, not a penny to the programmers or the company. For all I know, Kramnik is saving up for his own Airbus. In which outcome does the human race end up truly winning?

In any case, I honestly wasn’t rooting for either side. I just wanted to see a well-fought final game, but that’s shows my naivete. There’s always Hyderabad…

After the final game, in which he played White, Kramnik confessed that he had not been prepared for the specific variation of the orthodox Queen’s Gambit Declined chosen by Fritz. He also said that the move order used had tricked him somewhat.

Unlike most top-level GM encounters, where a match forms the battleground for theoretical debate, each game of this Man vs. Machine encounter started out with a different opening.

Shortly before the end of the match.

Kramnik, Vladimir - Deep Fritz [D68]
Brains in Bahrain (8), 19.10.2002

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 Entering the Slav Defence, only to be transposed into something else in a few moves. 5.Bg5 Be7 Black avoids the nebulous strategic realms of the Slav, in which Kramnik happens to be a leading expert. Instead the Fritzer transposes back into the Queen's Gambit Declined. 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd3 Nbd7 8.0-0 dxc4 The immortal Jose Raul Capablanca studied the position for a long time before finding this move in the QGD Orthodox variation. The idea is, due to his cramped (but sound) position, Black forces a series of exchanges that virtually neutralizes White's spacial domination. 9.Bxc4 Nd5 The dark-squared bishops must be exchanged. 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Rc1 Nxc3 12.Rxc3 Recapturing with the rook saves a tempo. The alternative recapture 12.bxc3 isolates the a-pawn, and the d4-pawn would still be vulnerable to the counter-thrusts ...e5 and ...c5. 12...e5 With this, White must either exchange his pawn on d4 or isolate it. 13.Bb3 exd4 14.exd4 Nf6 15.Re1 Qd6 16.h3 prevents ..,Bg4, obviously. 16...Bf5

The active rooks yield White some more activity, but his isolated d4-pawn could prove to be a burden later on. In return for slightly less active pieces, Black has no inherent weakness in his position. With a beautifully sound pawn structure, it would be hard for Kramnik to find a way to win out of this final game of the match. 17.Rce3 Rae8 The doubled rooks must not be allowed entry. 18.Re5 Bg6 19.a3 Probably with no purpose other than to provoke the computer into aggressively advancing, and thereby weakening, its queenside pawns. 19...Qd8 20.Rxe8 Nxe8 21.Qd2

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