The Playing Field Tilts Ever More

Played in the days when people still had a chance in a chess game against machines, this incident offers several reasons why man - machine matches aren't on a level playing field.

Fritz vs. GM Tiviakov (3:40) • 'A game from the 2000 Chess Dutch Championship.'

The clip's description explains,

This game was exciting, complicated and very gruelling. The Russian star who lives in Holland embarked on a long positional battle which swayed back and forth for a while. But slowly Tiviakov outplayed the machine, won a pawn, and worked up the final attack. It should have been a great victory, except that all the manoeuvering had wasted too much time.

In the final time control Tiviakov had only minutes on the clock and was in danger of actually losing. Frans Morsch offered him a draw, which Sergei declined. A few moves later, with the seconds ticking away from his clock, he offered Fritz a draw, which Frans immediatly accepted.

For the rest of the description see part 1 (which has voice in Dutch).

• 'The moral winner of the game'

For more, see parts 2, 3, and 4 (voices in English).

• 'Not enough respect'
  
• 'To crack under the pressure'
  
• 'To win on time'

It makes as much sense allowing computers in human chess competitions as it does allowing bicycles in foot races.