Karjakin Strikes Again

     10/11/2004 -
   
    Man versus machine match ups are increasingly becoming Man vs. near perfection match ups. Garry Kasparov said:" that even one victory by man will show his superiority over the machine." Well Sergey Karjakin showed his superiority over Deep Junior at the Men vs. Machines match  in Spain last week. This tournament was held from October 6, thru to October 9, 2004.
   
     The Men's team consisted of number 5 rated Veselin Topalov, the former FIDE KO Champion Ruslan Ponomariov, and it was top off by a possible future World Champion Sergey Karjakin. The Silicon Monsters were represented by Hydra,  Fritz, and Deep Junior, the current computer world champion.  The Men did a good job, scoring 3.5 out of 12. 

    However they did draw blood from the Silicon Beasts, if that's even possible.  It was Karjakin who stared into the eyes of the Dragon Deep Junior, the current Silicon Beast World Champion. This time the Dragon blinked. In another David vs. Goliath story, Karjakin, with white, out maneuvered Deep Junior in a Silicon Sicilian Defense. It was Karjakin whose near perfection took home the only full point for the men's team.

    It took Garry Kasparov, the world's number one player, 4 games to win a game against Deep Junior in New York City in February of  2003. Sergey Karjakin was able to win in his only encounter against Deep Junior. Sergey scored 1 point of 4 against the silicon beasts. But lets not forget  Kasparov's words, "that even one victory by man will show his superiority over the machine."

     For Sergey this David and Goliath story is getting old. In Dortmund 2004, Sergey became the youngest player in the world to defeat a sitting world champion in a blitz game. Sergey took on and defeated Vladimir Kramnik at blitz. In the same tournament Sergey also gave the World Champion a serious run for his money in a classical game. Had it not been for Kramnik incredible deep understanding of chess, he would not have been able to draw that encounter.

    In the mid 1960's Baseball great Ted Williams, upon seeing  a young Johnny Bench play, signed an autograph for Bench stating " To Johnny Bench, A Hall of Famer for sure. Regards Ted Williams".  Bench went on to become one of Baseball's greatest catchers. He was a two time NL MVP. He won two World Series, and he was the series MVP in 1976.  Bench retired in 1983 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989.  Should Hangin ever get the honor to sign an autograph for Sergey,  Hangin will write "To Sergey Karjakin, a future World Champion and Hall of Famer for sure. Regards Hangin". 

 
The games from the Men vs. Machine match in Bilbao Spain see game 4 Karjakin vs. Deep Junior.
Karjakin vs. Kramnik story.  
Sergey Karjakin wins the 2003 International White Knights Queening Award 

Chessbase coverage of the MEN vs. Machine match.
Johnny Bench 
Ted Williams