Computers run rings around top players

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Young chess players GM Susanto Megaranto and FM Taufik Halay managed to hold their computer opponents to draws in the third round of the man vs machine matchup here on Tuesday.

For fellow team members GM Utut Adianto and FM Tirta Chandra Purnama, it was another day of defeat.

The computers prevailed 7-1 on the second day of the contest. Still, it was a slightly better performance by their human adversaries, who had lost 7.5-0.5 on Monday.

In the third round of matches, halted for a 15-minute delay due to a power outage, Susanto, 17, forced a draw against Shredder in 43 moves.

Taufik, 17, drew with Junior8 in only 29 moves.

Susanto had looked under pressure when his queen's side was dangerously exposed, but then the stoppage occurred. Once power was restored, Susanto, who gained his GM title at the Chess Olympiad last year, launched a counter attack at the king's side which forced the draw.

But in the fourth round played later, the four players, who are being groomed for the 2006 Asian Games, were demolished. Utut lost to Shredder, Susanto to Chessmaster9000, Tirta to Junior8 and Taufik to Fritz8.

Kristianus Liem, a chess columnist and official of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi), said the allotted thinking time of 60 minutes was too short for human players to challenge the computers.

"It was a rapid game and that benefited the computers, because computers can calculate thousands of probable moves in a second."

Kristianus added that the players would have to study the game type of each computer to perform better.

"As for Utut, he might have been distracted by his nonplaying matters," Kristianus said of the interim chairman of Percasi.