Chess: Fritz makes short work of Nigel

FRITZ 3, the Pentium-enhanced, custom-built, computer speed-chess specialist, was vanquished by Garry Kasparov in the final of the Intel Express Challenge in Munich, but only after it had made several of the world's best players feel very foolish.

Vladimir Kramnik, like a rabbit hypnotised in the glare of the computer screen, blundered away a piece in 11 moves with White: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 e6 4. g3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Qc7 6. Bg2 Qxc4 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. Nb3 d5 9. Nc3 Bb4 10. Bg5? Bxc3 11. Rc1?? Qg4] and White is a knight down for nothing. Boris Gelfand disdained a draw by perpetual check in an endgame, and lost six moves later.

When Kasparov first met Fritz in the tournament itself, he was tempted into a sacrificial attack. Calmly beating off all the threats, the machine simplified to a winning endgame. When it came to the play-off for first place, the human kept his speculative instincts under control and won comfortably with three victories and two draws from five games. For a beginner, however, Fritz did not do badly. This was, after all, its first tournament.

Fritz's game against Short was its best of the event. Accepting pawn weaknesses with 15 . . . Re7] and making a positional sacrifice of the exchange with 23 . . . Rxc3] its hardware must have been tingling with pride, although Fritz was helped by Short's attempts to win a level endgame. Exchanging rooks at move 38 should give White a comfortable draw. The final mistake was 42. Rd7, after which the black pawns quickly become too strong.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Short ----------------------------------------------------------------- Black: Fritz ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 e4 c5 26 Re1 Rc6 2 Nf3 Nc6 27 Qe3 Qxe3 3 d4 cxd4 28 Rxe3 Rc1+ 4 Nxd4 Nf6 29 Kh2 Bxa4 5 Nc3 e6 30 Re7 a6 6 Ndb5 Bb4 31 Kg3 Kg7 7 a3 Bxc3+ 32 Kf4 Rb1 8 Nxc3 d5 33 h4 h6 9 exd5 exd5 34 g4 Bb5 10 Bd3 0-0 35 Rb7 Rb4+ 11 0-0 Bg4 36 Kg3 Rd4 12 f3 Be6 37 Rxb6 Rxd3 13 Re1 Re8 38 Rc2 Bc4 14 Bg5 Qb6+ 39 Rcb2 a5 15 Kh1 Re7 40 Rc6 a4 16 Bxf6 gxf6 41 Rb7 Rc3 17 Qd2 Ne5 42 Rd7 a3 18 Qh6 Nxd3 43 Ra7 d4 19 cxd3 Qd4 44 Rd6 d3 20 Rad1 Rc8 45 Kf4 a2 21 Re2 b6 46 g5 Rc1 22 h3 Rec7 47 gxf6+ Kg6 23 Red2 Rxc3 48 h5+ Kxh5 24 bxc3 Rxc3 White resigns 25 a4 Bd7 -----------------------------------------------------------------