World chess champ loses to Deep Fritz

Vladimir Kramnik got just two games out of six from the machine

8 December 2006 15:56 GMT / By Amber Maitland

It is a sad day when computer beats man, but that's just what happened in a defining game of chess.

Vladimir Kramnik, reigning world chess champion, lost a six game series against the computer Deep Fritz with a score of 4-2.

This isn't the first time the two have battled it out. Kramnik drew even with the computer in 2002.

This may have far-reaching effects for the world of computer development, however, as Monty Newborn, a professor of computer science at McGill University told the New York Times newspaper that “The science is done”, referring to chess computer development.

Apparently, the two hot new games for computer programmers are poker and go. “That is where the action is”, Newborn said.

According the same Times article, Kramnik was paid $500,000 for losing; he would have doubled that had he won.

This isn't the first time a world champion has lost to a computer; Deep Blue, IBM's chess computer, beat Garry Kasparov in 1997.

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