WCCC 03: Junior leads, Fritz loses

by ChessBase
7/7/2004 – The Israeli program Junior, apparently feeling quite at home in Gonda Brain Research Center in Ramat-Gan, Israel, played a nice attacking game in round three to defeat the Dutch program Diep and take the lead in the 12th World Computer Chess Championship. Fritz lost a winning position on time, Shredder drew against Jonny. More...

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This Computer World Championship is full of surprises. Instead of going into the lead with perfect scores against their amateur opponents the favourites Shredder, Junior and Fritz all started off with embarrassing draws. In the second round Junior and Shredder won their games, but in the third Shredder once again drew, while Fritz actually lost on time (in a winning position). It's been a while since we saw a computer do that.

Only Junior started to show its normal form, winning a delightful attacking game against the Dutch program Diep, which was in the sole lead after two rounds. Here's the game:

Diep – Deep Junior [D20]
114'/60+25' HP, 06.07.2004
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bxc4 Nb6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Be3 Nb4 8.Be4 f5 9.exf6 exf6 10.a3 f5 11.axb4 fxe4 12.Nc3 Be6 13.Nh3 Qd7 14.Nf4 Be7 15.Nxe6 Qxe6 16.d5 Qg6 17.0-0 0-0 18.Bc5.

Here Junior played one of those devil-may-care moves for which the program is famous: 18...Rae8. The program is willing to give up its queenside pawns, but for exactly what? Watch: 19.Rxa7 Nc4 20.Qe2 Bxc5 21.bxc5 Ne5 22.Rxb7.

Junior has given up two pawns to move its knight into position for the attack. This comes in decisive fashion: 22...Nf3+ 23.Kh1 Re5 24.Ra1. The knight still cannot be taken: 24.gxf3 exf3 threatens mate on g2 and forks the queen.

24...Rh5 25.h3. The knight is still untouchable, since 25.gxf3 Qh6 leads to a forced mate.

25...Qg4 26.Qf1 Ng5 27.Rxc7 Nxh3 0-1.

Results

Round one – Sunday, July 04
Crafty
1/2
Shredder
Fritz
1/2
Deep Sjeng
Jonny
1/2
Junior
Diep
1-0
Crazy Bishop
Woodpusher
1/2
IsiChess
ParSOS
1-0
Movei
FIBChess
0-1
Falcon
Round two – Monday, July 05
Falcon
0-1
Diep
Shredder
1-0
ParSOS
IsiChess
1/2
Fritz
Junior
1-0
Woodpusher
Deep Sjeng
1/2
Crafty
Crazy Bishop
0-1
Jonny
Movei
1-0
FIBChess
Round three – Tuesday, July 06
Diep
0-1
Junior
Jonny
1/2
Shredder
Fritz
0-1
Falcon
Crafty
1-0
IsiChess
ParSOS
1/2
Deep Sjeng
Woodpusher
1/2
Movei
FIBChess
0-1
Crazy Bishop
Round four – Wed., July 07
Junior
  Crafty
Shredder
  Diep
Falcon
  Jonny
Deep Sjeng
  Movei
IsiChess
  ParSOS
Crazy Bishop
  Fritz
FIBChess
  Woodpusher

Standings:
1 Junior 2.5
2-6 Shredder, Diep, Falcon, Crafty, Jonny
7-9 ParSOS, Deep Sjeng, Movei 1.5
10-13 Fritz, IsiChess, Crazy Bishop, Woodpusher 1.0
14 FIBChess 0.0

The games from the second and third rounds are still incomplete. We will add them as soon as they become available. Until then you can check at the official site and download the games that are available there.

Live coverage

The games are being transmitted live on the Playchess.com server, with audio and visual commentary by GM Boris Alterman.

Picture Gallery


The Gonda Brain Research Center, where the event is being held


Prof. Yeshurun, Rector of Bar-Ilan University, opening the second round by playing Falcon's 1.e4 vs Diep.


Shay Bushinsky of the Junior team explaining the thought process of his brainchild to Prof. Yeshurun


Prof. Yeshurun with the full Junior team: Boris Alterman, Shay Bushinsky, Amir Ban


Schedule

 
Date Time Activity
Saturday July 3   Arrival
  21:30 Opening Ceremony
Sunday July 4 09:00 Testing
  12:00 Players meeting
  15:00-20:00 Round 1 WCCC
  10:00-20:00 Computer Olympiad
Monday July 5 08:20 Opening CG 2004
  08:30-13:00 CG 2004 Conference
  15:00-20:00 Round 2 WCCC
  13:30-20:00 Computer Olympiad
  21:00 Social Evening
Tuesday July 6 08:30-12:45 CG 2004 Conference
  09:00-12:30 City Tour
  13:30-18:30 Round 3 WCCC
  19:00-21:30 Speed Chess
  13:30-21:00 Computer Olympiad
Wednesday July 7 08:30-13:00 CG 2004 Conference
  13:00-14:30 Lunch CG 2004 participants
  13:30-18:30 Round 4 WCCC
  14:30-21:00 Computer Olympiad
  19:00-21:30 Speed Chess
Thursday July 8 09:00-14:00 Round 5 WCCC
  15:00-20:00 Round  6 WCCC
  10:00-20:00 Computer Olympiad
Friday July 9 9:00-14:00 Round 7 WCCC
Saturday July 10   Sabbath
Sunday July 11 9:00-14:00 Round 8 WCCC
  15:00-20:00 Round 9 WCCC
Monday July 12 8:00-13:00 Round 10 WCCC
  13:30-18:30 Round 11 WCCC
    Play-off WCCC
    Closing ceremony

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