Fritz versus Junior in June

[Scott Tortorice]

The Daily Dirt is reporting that...

Chessbase is touting a six-game, FIDE-sanctioned, match between the world champion program Junior and the program that beat Kramnik last year, Fritz....It will be staged and sponsored by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with a prize fund of $100,000 and take place in Elista alongside the final phase of the candidates matches (June 5-12).

As the DD points out, this is an unusually large fund for a computer vs computer match.

This must be the biggest prize fund ever for a machine-machine competition and I'm more than a little surprised by it – unless it's largely funded by ChessBase, which would make sense as a promotion since they publish both programs. With Fritz beating Kramnik and not losing a game last year, perhaps they think human-machine is losing its allure and/or doesn't provide enough bang for the euro. Fair enough, although it's more than a little strange when you consider you can have such a match on your own PC for a hundred bucks.

Good points. Well, at a minimum, it may be fun to watch.

 

[Lurker]

It seems Rybka2 wasn't out at that time which is probably why Junior is mentioned as champ. Rybka 2.2 has been dominating the scene and is rated quite higher than both. I'd like to see a match between the winner of Junior-Fritz vs Rybka.