Kramnik says he can beat super-computer

Mike Collett-White

World chess king Vladimir Kramnik and super-computer Deep Fritz weighed in on Tuesday ahead of their heavyweight man-versus-machine clash in Bahrain in October.

The long-awaited contest comes four years after the then world master Garry Kasparov lost sensationally to Deep Blue computer in a huge blow for human intelligence.

Kramnik, who toppled Kasparov in a dazzling display in London last year, was quietly confident of gaining revenge over automation in the $1 million showdown.

"I know I have to prepare and play to my maximum ability and I hope that it will be enough for victory," the soft-spoken 26-year-old said at the match launch in London on Tuesday.

Kramnik concedes that his opponent, the world's most powerful chess computer programme stored on a single disk, has the edge in one respect.

"Unlike Fritz, I cannot do (process) five million moves per second," the Russian said in an interview. "I would be very happy with one move per second.

"But humans have an advantage over the computer mostly on strategical points of the game and therefore we can make long-term strategies much better than computers."

ONE MILLION DOLLAR JACKPOT

Kramnik stands to make $1 million if he wins "The Brains of Bahrain" bout billed by its promoters as the "last chance for human intelligence to assert superiority over machine".

He gets $800,000 if he wins eight games in succession in the series and $600,000 if he loses.

At the press briefing, one of Kramnik's opponent's creators said the programme is not suffering any pre-match nerves.

"We are not nervous," said Frans Morsch. "We cannot change anything now. It will be much more difficult for my human opponent." He added that the computer even had the ability to learn from its mistakes over time.

Chess expert Raymond Keene predicted a narrow Kramnik win. He also said the "colossal" advantages Deep Blue enjoyed over Kasparov in 1997 would be eliminated in Bahrain, including allowing Kramnik to rest in between games and see prior matches played by Fritz.

Whether man can continue to compete with machine on the chessboard indefinitely is under question following the technological advances made between Deep Blue and Fritz.

"Probably one day computers will become stronger than the best human player, but I still believe that we have time, 10 to 15 years, in which to compete with computers," Kramnik said.

But Deep Fritz's team said computer dominance would not spell the end of the ancient game.

"It wouldn't be the end of the world if a computer became the best player in the world," said Frederic Friedel, co-founder of the Deep Fritz team. "If one did, you would just exclude computers from competing in tournaments. The humans play on."