Michael Adams takes on "Hydra" making its worldwide debut in London. Photo © http://www.rainierpr.co.uk
The press conference to preview the forthcoming six game match between Britain’s Number One Michael Adams and the worlds most powerful chess computer was held on Tuesday the 24th May at the prestigious Langham Hotel in Central London.
Present were the Hydra team, Chrilly Donninger, Mickey Adams and of course, Hydra itself.
Michael Adams takes on "Hydra" making its worldwide debut in London. Photo © http://www.rainierpr.co.uk
As it is not commercially available, the name Hydra may be unfamiliar to some of those with only a passing interest in chess software, but to those in the field, it needs no introduction. A massive mainframe machine based in Abu Dhabi, and a combination of specialised hardware and software that has cost millions of dollars to produce, the program has never been beaten by a human opponent. As someone quite familiar with the different software programs, I was quite pleased to have the opportunity to watch the older version of the program whilst playing the Abu Dhabi Open in August last year and I was very impressed. After crushing former World Computer Champion Shredder in an exhibition match, it then passed the time by annihilating the strong GM Vladimirov 3.5-0.5 on the rest day.
During the press conference both sides seemed upbeat about their chances, though the computer team more so – Chief programmer Donninger predicting a silicon victory with two wins and four draws. Mickey on the other hand was content to dismiss one suggestion that he might lose all six games as “overly pessimistic”.
Michael Adams takes on "Hydra" making its worldwide debut in London. Photo © http://www.rainierpr.co.uk
Donninger then acknowledged that Mickey’s solid strategic style was ideally suited to combat the massive calculating ability of his protégé, cheekily adding that maybe “he should have challenged someone easier, like Garry Kasparov.”
The match will take place over seven days, beginning on the 21st June at the Wembley Centre in London, with potential seven hour playing sessions and a free day after the third game.
After the press conference, the journalists were given the opportunity to take on the machine. I had originally planned to play, however, upon seeing that it was only the old version with just sixteen parallel processors and calculating a mere 100 million moves per second, I decided to allow someone else the opportunity.
So join us online at the London Chess Centre from the 21st of June when we will be bringing you live coverage of the match.