Champion takes on £35 PC chess game

If the world chess authorities were to be believed, the fate of the human race yesterday lay in the hands of a mild-mannered Russian called Vladimir and a £35 computer game called Deep Fritz 7.

To the improbable accompaniment of thumping music, dry ice and two six-foot blondes, they were unveiled at a west London hotel as the titans in the latest contest to pit man against machine at chess.

Four years after the Garry Kasparov, the world champion at the time, was dispatched by IBM's £15m, 1.4 tonne super-computer Deep Blue, the "revenge match" will be for a $1m (£770,000) purse in October.

Vladimir Kramnik, the conqueror of Kasparov and the globe's current flesh-and-blood chess supremo, will take on Deep Fritz 7, a computer programme created by two Dutch and German chess fanatics.

Organisers of the eight-match competition, to be held in Bahrain, billed it as "the last chance for human intelligence". Little surprise, therefore, that the grand unveiling in a corporate suite overlooking the pitch of Chelsea Football Club came complete with spotlights, giant chess pieces and minders for each side.

Mr Kramnik, who will win $600,000 (£460,000) of the prize money put up by the Emir of Bahrain even if he loses, said: "I would like to prove humans are still worth something."

Deep Fritz 7 calculates six million moves a second.