The Match Bareev vs. Hiarcs X
Centre Céramique Maastricht, The Netherlands
January 28 - 31, 2003
J. van Reek and J.W.H.M. Uiterwijk
General information
A match of four games was played between International Grandmaster Evgeni Baarev (number eight in the world) and HIARCSX (a predecessor of the forthcoming version nine). The time control was forty moves in two hours, followed by twenty moves in one hour, and after move sixty thirty seconds per move plus ten minutes. Bareev had consulted Kramnik and Van Wely during the Corus tournament. The day before the match, Van Reek informed him about HIARCS’ positional strength. Then Bareev played two training games. During the match, Mark Uniacke carried out the moves on a 2400+ MHz Athlon with 1 Gb internal memory. The match was organised by Chess Events Maastricht. The final score became 2-2 after four draws. Below we present the four games with comments.
Game 1 (January 28, 2003)
Dick Klokgieters from sponsor Duwell opened the match at 1 PM CET. Solid play is expected from both sides.
Game 2 (January 29, 2003)
Game 3 (January 30, 2003)
Game 4 (January 31, 2003)
A comparison of three matches
Comparing the three matches Bareev - HIARCSX, Kramnik - DEEP FRITZ, and Kasparov - DEEP JUNIOR, the participation seems to make no difference for the result; all three events ended in a tie. However, the way the result was achieved differed strongly. Bareev had decided to prepare briefly, to play in his own style, and to avoid great risks. He reached small advantages, but could not break through the excellent defence. Kramnik and Kasparov had prepared for months, met little resistance at first, and were punished for a lack of concentration later. So only the Bareev - HIARCSX match gives a clear impression of the difference in playing strength. Our conclusion is that a top-ten grandmaster plays stronger than a chess program, but the difference is hard to express in points. Therefore the rating of HIARCSX can safely be regarded as higher than 2700, an outstanding achievement.