"Deep Fritz" evens up chess challenge

Deep Fritz, the German-developed chess computer, played a nearly flawless game to outwit world champion Vladimir Kramnik in just 34 moves Tuesday and pull even in the $1 million eight-match series.

The second win in a row for Deep Fritz brought the eight-match series to 3-3.

"I'm not depressed. When you play such a wonderful game, you can't be. It could have gone either way. Fritz played such great defense. I think I can still win the match," Kramnik said.

The computer, which can evaluate 3.5 million moves in a second, made a Queen's Indian defense, giving the opponent a clear advantage but keeping its pieces--and especially its queen--on the board.

On move 19, the world champion could not resist a piece sacrifice that could have made this game "the most beautiful of my career," Kramnik said. But Fritz found a brilliant defense and took the point.

The contest--postponed last year following the Sept. 11 attacks--is a sequel to Gary Kasparov's 1997 defeat by IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue in New York.

Kramnik will get $1 million if he wins, $800,000 if the match is drawn and $600,000 if he loses.

Source: Reuters