q&a
with garry kasparov
Nov.
7, 2003 – After the opening ceremony Garry Kasparov took
questions from reporters.
A full transcript follows.
Q:
Do you prefer to play humans or computers?
That's
the most common question I hear. You have to split the two things into
separate competitions, you can't mix them. To play a machine is more
challenging. It takes much more energy and resilience to face a machine.
Q:
You are up against perfection or near-perfection. Can you use this match
to raise your own level of play?
A:
Yes, I think this kind of game requires a level of perfection that is
not required in the normal chess competition. That's why in playing
these matches I'm improving my skills and I think that man versus
machine contests in general keep me very much alive at age 40 when I'm
often playing opponents half my age. It helps me keep my chess abilities
intact.
Q:
Does playing on a computerized board give X3D Fritz a home-field
advantage?
A:
I'm not here to complain about the disadvantages of the situation
I'm in, but it's a huge advantage. Well, not an advantage for the
machine but a disadvantage for the human player. It's very difficult to
communicate this message to the outside world. For example, if I ask for
30 minutes extra time on my clock, which could be probably fair
compensation, then it's obvious. “Oh, the human player has more time,
it's a handicap.” But this is also a tremendous handicap.
No
one knows how the human mind will react after three, four, or five hours
if it's a long game. I'm practicing now but I don't spend more than an
hour moving the pieces. After three or four hours my mind could be
rebelling against this unusual situation with the board. Over the years,
even decades, the 25 years of my professional chess career, I am used to
moving the pieces, writing the moves on a scoresheet.
So
it's all an environment, the framework of the game that my mind is used
to working with. Suddenly it's totally different. I hope that I will
adjust myself and be able to work with the voice-activated system, the
screen, the different angles, the joystick, all these elements. There
are too many elements of non-mind games going on while I'm still
struggling with the most dominant chess program in the world.
Q:
What lessons did you learn from the Deep Junior match?
A:
That match was entertaining but it was a great learning exercise as well.
It was the first time I could actually prepare for the match with the same
seriousness and the same depth I normally have for human players. Unlike
in the match against IBM's Deep Blue, which was an enigma, a mystery with
no information and everything was guarded, with Deep Junior there was a
history.
In
preparing for the match I could track down all the games going back to the
origin. I could analyze not only the recent performance of the computer
but also go back what I call the genetic trail of the computer. Each
program has its past, its decision-making past, and they are all quite
different. Each has certain characteristics that do not change. By
analyzing these games I could try to predict the machine's reaction in
certain situation. I have to tell you that I was quite successful in doing
this in the Deep Junior match. It was due to a very bad blunder in game
three that I was not able to win the match. If you look at the games I had
a strategic initiative, I had it against the ropes if I can use that
expression.
I
hope that I can use that same experience in preparing for X3D Fritz. I
have access to hundreds and hundreds of games played by Fritz, older
versions, against humans and other computers. It gives me enough
information to create a picture, an image of my opponent. I have to tell
you that a machine's chess style is more precise, more persistent in its
habits than a human's. Every human player is flexible, trying to shift
from one type of position to another. A machine's set of priorities is
fixed. That's why if you understand this, its decision-making pattern, you
can try to come up with a good prediction of what the machine will do in a
new situation.
Q:
How much of an effect will the virtual reality environment have on your
play?
A:
That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question! I don't know! I've
been playing with a regular chess set all my life. I don't know how
important it is to my mind. I hope the answer won't be a negative one. I
think it's very important to be in the same environment as always, so this
change is part of the competition. It doesn't affect our thinking process
directly, but I have a suspicion that there is a certain psychological
connection, and we'll find out. After four games, or even after one game,
I can tell you how much negative pressure this new environment has on my
performance.
Q:
What relevance, interest do you have in using this X3D system in a match?
A:
I think from the very beginning it was important to show that chess is
on the cutting edge of new technologies. It's a natural development. We
played with computers and now we are moving further. As much as I would
like to see chess as the battlefield between silicon and humans, I'd like
to see chess on the cutting edge again and building the bridge from the
normal world to virtual reality.
It
also carries enormous promotional value and I'm grateful to ESPN that all
the games will be carried live on television. It will be a truly historic
event for chess. I hope that these four shows on ESPN, especially on the
one on Sunday, will mark a shift from “public oblivion” to the
mainstream of public interest.
I
believe chess has tremendous values and can be built into a great show,
but we've never had a chance to prove it. But thanks to this X3D
technology we have the opportunity to attract the leading sports
television channel in the world and to start building this bridge to the
millions of people who are playing chess but never had a chance to
visualize it on the big screen.
Q:
How many games are you going to win?
A:
Well, in 1997 I wasn't successful and earlier this year it was a draw,
so I hope it's ascendant, that this time I should do better!
This interview was originally found at the
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