General Information
The Match
A match of four games was played between International Grandmaster Loek van Wely and Rebel Century 4.0. The final score became 2-2 with four wins exciting for White. The match was organised by Chess Events Maastricht, and supported by Geurt Gijssen as international arbiter. The match was sponsored by Rebel, Duwell Financial Services, Regitel IT, Paradigit Computers and the Centre Ceramique.
The Games
The first two games were plagued by anti-computer and anti-grandmaster notions. Rebel scored a sensational victory in the third game. A strong grandmaster was beaten by a straightforward attack for the first time in classical chess. Van Wely levelled the match in the fourth game, when Rebel failed to apply the prophylactic strategy of consolidation. The match showed that a knowledge-rich program cannot be crushed. Rebel Century 4.0 appeared to play at a level higher than 2600 is a conservative estimation.
The Machine
The time control was forty moves in two hours, followed by twenty moves in one hour and thirty seconds per move after move sixty. Ed Schröder carried out the moves on a 1600 MHz AthlonXP 1900+ with 512 Mb internal memory. Rebel played without endgame CD's.