Chess

Beginning of article

ON TUESDAY I described the victory of the German programmer, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, and his creation Shredder in the Ninth World Computer Championship in Paderborn. This finished last Saturday, and after the prize-giving on Sunday morning the top five were pitted against five human grandmasters.

Games between computers and humans are quite different from those between the monsters themselves for at least two reasons. The first, which only affects the humans, is the disconcerting psychological problem of facing a totally impassive opponent rather than the people with extremely strong emotions (however well masked) that we grew up against. But we're all pretty used to …