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Chessville
Advertise to Single insert:
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Battle in New York: Senior vs. Junior by Max Panfilov (exclusively
for Chessville.com)
After such an extended report on Game 1, you have every right to ask what was so different with Game 4 that another report is needed to cover it. Simple answer to you would be: "Everything was different!" Game was different, setup was different, food was different, etc. And since everything was different, the format of this report is now different as well to bring you more pictures to give you more of a visual sense of the event.
This is the smaller room (picture on right) on the 9th floor that had food buffet, media section at the back, big screen showing Garry Kasparov live in extreme 3D (if you wear those black glasses). Boy, was that crowded or what this time. Not only were people standing, sitting, and lying around the 3D screens to watch the game and commentaries, but also roaming around to get the fresh scoop on the news around. Guess the biggest disappointment of the day! Huh, in the middle of the event, food supply was finished and audience was left hungry for more. About half an hour later, they brought another batch of food but that lasted for another hour and was gone as well. There was no more food after that. Reason? First of all, there were many more people attending this Game 4 than Game 1. Second, the game lasted almost twice the time Game 1 did.
There was some extra space available in the hall area and there was side-chess (picture on left) going on. No 1 million dollar prize fund for that game though.
Garry Kasparov (picture on left) was very happy with the draw in Game 4. First of all, Garry played the black pieces. Second, he was playing after the devastating loss in Game 3, trying to regroup after such an intense fight. He was once again (like after Game 1) very energetic giving quick analysis to the audience once the game was over.
Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky (programmers of Deep Junior) were not really happy about the outcome of the Game 4 and sounded a bit depressed. They were still optimistic about the next two very important games left though.
* * *
*** Game 4 Comp Deep Junior - Kasparov,G (2847) [B44] Man vs. Machine Match New York (4), 02.02.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Nd7 9.Nc2 Be7 10.Be2 b6 11.0–0 Bb7 12.h3 0–0 13.Be3 Rc8 14.Qd2 Nce5 15.b3 Nf6 16.f3 Qc7 17.Rac1 Rfe8 18.a3 Ned7 19.Rfd1 Qb8 20.Bf2 Rcd8 21.b4 Ba8 22.a4 Rc8 23.Rb1 Qc7 24.a5 bxa5 25.b5 Bb7 26.b6 Qb8 27.Ne3 Nc5 28.Qa2 Nfd7 29.Na4 Ne5 30.Nc2 Ncd7 31.Nd4 Red8 32.Kh1 Nc6 33.Nxc6 Rxc6 34.Kg1 h6 35.Qa3 Rdc8 36.Bg3 Bf8 37.Qc3 Ne5 38.c5 Nd7 39.Qxa5 Nxc5 40.Nxc5 Rxc5 41.Qa4 R5c6 42.Bf2 d5 43.Bxa6 Bc5 44.Bxc5 Rxc5 45.Bxb7 Qxb7 46.exd5 exd5 47.Qa7 R5c7 48.Qxb7 Rxb7 49.Rxd5 Rc6 50.Rdb5 h5 51.Kf2 Re6 52.f4 g6 53.Kg3 Kg7 54.Kh4 Kh6 55.R1b4 Rd6 56.g3 f6 57.g4 hxg4 58.hxg4 Kg7 59.Rb3 Rc6 60.g5 f5 61.Rb1 ½–½ * * *
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This time I've decided to take the train instead of driving to Manhattan. Same
money, same time, just less pain driving a car to the city, not to mention
driving in the city. I got on the train in New Jersey and in about one
hour I was right in the heart of Manhattan. Then a 25 minute short (on second
thought, it was not that short) walk to the South of Central Park and I was
right in front of New York Athletic Club where the event is taking place.
Here
(picture on right) is the entrance to the Club from the other side of the
building. Regular entrance but when you get inside, everything is a bit
sophisticated. Remember, jacket is required! The number of people attending the
event this Sunday at least doubled that from the first game. At about 3:45 pm, the rooms upstairs on
9th floor were so full that they had to close the entrance and put a rope in
front of the huge crowd, not letting them in anymore. Only after some people left,
would they allowe an equal number of people to get in. Yes, this time you had to be
on time or even earlier to make sure you are in. It's suspected the final game 6
will draw so many people that the entrance might be closed to the public way before
the game starts at 3:30pm.
Media
was allowed to take pictures right in the playing room during the first 2
minutes of the game and after that everyone was ordered out. Even though there
were many journalists, there was a deep silence in the room and only stud sounds
of the moves were pounding the air around. There was something special in the
air and the whole scene seemed surreal. The room itself was not that big and
it's basically what you can see on this picture on the left except there are
several cameras and small hall in front. It feels very cozy in there and I would
not mind staying there for the whole event. In fact, there was a question from
the audience later during the day to commentators Ashley and Seirawan whether
the current setup of players being removed from the audience (audience on 9th
floor and playing room on 12th room) is what is going to be for all other events
in the future and if it's good or bad for players. Seirawan responded by
saying that it works both ways for the players. On one hand, it's very nice to
have a live audience in the room to feel the excitement. On the other hand, it
might be very distracting and confusing because the audience becomes very noisy from
time to time even getting to the point of suggesting the moves to the players out loud.
This
picture on the right shows a couple of TVs set up in the room on the 9th floor where
all the audience is. There were several such TV pairs around the floor. Left TV
shows real live status of the game and TV on the right shows all the live
variations and commentaries by Ashley and Seirawan. On this Sunday, they changed
the room setup on the 9th floor. The major room became minor and minor one
became major room. That was done in order to accommodate the larger audience. The
bigger room was the major one where Ashley and Seirawan did once again their
outstanding job of commenting and analyzing the game live before the audience.
Here
Seirawan is trying to take a vote from the audience on the outcome of the game
and the match. Game 4 was so complicated that even Ashley and Seirawan were
puzzled. They asked the audience to raise a hand who thought that Kasparov would
win in this position (middle of the game). Very few hands were up. Then they
asked who thought Junior would win. Again, very few hands. They finally asked
about a draw and once again very few hands were up. And that is out of the
audience of hundreds of people closely following the game in those cool 3D
glasses. Seirawan looked up and down and then asked: "Ok, who understands
what the heck is going on at all in this game." You can imagine the
reaction he got. Audience were laughing out loud because they indeed were all
puzzled.
Media
had a separate section this time on the 9th floor where regular public was not
allowed. You can see media at work on this picture on the right. They were doing
live commentaries on Internet in chess servers, preparing reports for their
companies, and all the rest to satisfy the chess hunger of people worldwide watching the
famous ultimate battle between Man and Machine.
Picture
on left shows behind-the-scenes action performed by the X3D crew making it possible
for every one to watch the game and Kasparov in 3D. Well, this time they had no
difficulties with technology and everything appeared to be perfect. Just wear
those special glasses and you are all set. It's a little bit annoying to take
them on and off repeatedly during the day but some people were wearing them
whole day without taking it off even in the... restrooms.
As
you can see in the picture on the right, all the seats were taken during the
game. That one appearing to be vacant is in fact not. So, don't rush to take it.
The person just took off for a bit. This is the bigger room where Ashley and
Seirawan were performing.
Aha, take a guess who that is trying to hide himself with
his hand from my crazy
camera flash. It's GM Boris Alterman. He is the opening trainer for Deep Junior.
It's a tough job for him right now as Kasparov was able to find some holes in
the opening preparation of Junior in earlier games.
Here (picture on right) is Garry Kasparov on the huge 3D screen that is set up
next to the stage. That 3D technology is quite amazing and you have to see it to
truly appreciate it. Garry was literally popping out off the screen with chess
pieces floating way off the screen in front of you.
Well, it was a very long but enjoyable day. Game 4 was the longest so far and
ended at about 9pm local time. I was quite happy to stroll through the Times
Square (picture on left) to get to the Penn Station to take my train back. Happiness
quickly transformed into devastation after I realized I was running late for my
train departure. Dashing several New York style blocks toward the station did
not help and I finally got the boarding tracks out-of-breath about one minute
late and kissed my train good-bye! The next one is in an hour! Well, another
hour in the Penn Station and then one more on the train and I am finally home at
about 12:30 am. Ding! Dinner time :) And then off to write this report for you
before morning is upon us.
