IT IS a titanic struggle between man and machine. One has been described as playing with audacious speed, obliterating its opponent. The other has defended staunchly, without emotion. Which, let鈥檚 face it, isn鈥檛 hard if you are a computer program.
This week, battle is being done on a chessboard, with world number one Garry Kasparov, considered to be one of the greatest ever exponents of the game, playing X3D Fritz, considered to be 鈥� well, a powerful piece of software. But while Fritz can analyse 3 million moves per second, and look up to 19 moves ahead, Kasparov is making the running.
Having drawn the first game, and lost the second last week, Kasparov destroyed his opponent in 45 moves on Sunday, in what observers called a 鈥渢actical masterpiece鈥�. The fourth and final game, took place on Tuesday, as New 杏吧原创 went to press. To find out the result, go to www.newscientist.com.
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