Game for a combat with Deep Blue: Vishy

World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand declared that he would not mind playing against IBM's Deep Blue or its advanced versions though that was not on the cards right now.

"Playing against Deep Blue would be a challenging and funny experience, a totally different kind of game where the normal parameters would not apply - no psychological warfare, no outlasting your opponent. It would have to be a very specific game against an opponent who is very strong on tactics where I would have to come up with moves and closed positions that
fall beyond Deep Blue's horizons," said Anand. 

But the only catch was that Deep Blue has retired, and IBM was now focusing on developing similar advanced computer systems to make weather forecasts. 

Commenting upon the man versus machine match that happened in 1997 between Grand Master Garry Kasparov and the IBM RS/6000SP supercomputer, Deep Blue, Vishwanathan said that the defeat of Kasparov at the hands of Deep Blue did not establish the superiority of computers over human beings. "I don't want to close the human chapter based on that incident alone. We can't conclude that Deep Blue was superior to a human being after just six games. Such a combat would have to be exhaustive and conducted over a period of say, 10-15 years. I think Kasparov was stronger than the machine then, but he collapsed under the pressure. He resorted to a funny strategy that the programmers had put in the computer, and Deep Blue called his bluff," said
Anand. 

Deep Blue, which defeated Kasparov by 3 points against 2.5, had a total of 256 processors working in tandem and skillful programming to support which was able to calculate 200,000,000 chess board positions per second where as Kasparov can only think about three moves per second. 

Anand uses his computer extensively for practicing elementary tactical situations with the chess computer program, ChessBase, which is a database of games, and Fritz, the engine that plays against him. 

The world champ said he was impressed by the increasing interest in the game in Chennai. "These days there are so many younger players that I feel very old among them," said the 32-year-old 'King of Kings' in Chess. During his interaction with the students of NIIT, he had played chess with many of them. He found the level of their games incredible. "Many start with very sharp openings. Suddenly I am forced to concentrate and take care that things don't go wrong in these games," he observed.

Anand, who is also the Brand Ambassador for NIIT, was felicitated for his recent win over Vladimir Kramnik at Mainz Chess Classic in Germany by NIIT. He also handed over gold medals to NIITians who has successfully completed their course and grabbed positions in IT companies.

Accompanied by wife Aruna, parents and in-laws, Anand shared with the audience the things that have taken him to the top. Even in the mind game, physical training was important to maintain stamina to sit and concentrate for 6-7 hours daily for 8 to 10 days. "Most sporting events are decided in few moments of weakness, that is when you don't do the right thing at that point. The other key was to continuously keep on sharpening one's skills through practice."