** Nebraska Internet Chess **

** Internet Chess Club (ICC) - Nebraska Happenings **

   One Saturday evening this February, a Nebraska chess master
played a blitz game against one of the strongest computers in the
Internet Chess Club, SiliconGM (est. Blitz rating 2920!).
The man came away victorious in a big way.  Beginning around the 21st
move , when the machine had an opportunity to open things up by exchanging
it's binding queen pawn, it opted for a more defensive posture.  Then
on the very next move gave the queen pawn away free without damaging
whites pawn structure, and on the 25th and 27th move proceeded to give
away a Bishop and Queen to stop the kingside attack.  Mike Dreiger is a
very accomplished speed chess player (and 1990, Nebraska Chess Champion),
who may have "messed up" the SiliconGM's algorithms in time pressure.
The computer's 2920 rating was well established with thousands of rated 
games; so it was strange to see it give away all this material. It's also
consoling to know that you can still spot a 2900 rated computer a pawn,
and get a great win.  Nice game Mike!

[Event "ICC 5 0 u"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "1999.02.13"] [Result "1-0"]
[White "mdreiger"]
[Black "SiliconGM, (2920)"]
[Opening "KGA: Cunningham Def"] [ECO "C35"] [NIC "KG.02"]

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.Kf1 Nh6 6.d4 Ng4 7.Qe2 Nc6
8.c3 O-O 9.Bxf4 d6 10.g3 Be7 11.Kg2 Re8 12.h3 Nf6 13.Nbd2 Bd7 
14.Qd3 Nh5 15.Rag1 Nxf4+ 16.gxf4 g6 17.h4 Bf6 18.Kf2 Qe7 19.h5 Kf8
20.hxg6 hxg6 21.e5 Bg7 22.Ng5 d5? 23.Bxd5 Nd8 24.Nh7+ Kg8 25.Rxg6 Bf5?
26.Qxf5 Ne6 27.Nf6+ Qxf6 28.exf6 fxg6 29.Bxe6+ Rxe6 30.Qxe6+ Kf8
31.fxg7+ Kxg7 32.Qe7+ Kg8 33.Rh7 g5 34.Qg7#

    The ICC is a great place to try out your favorite openings on some
of the worlds best players.  Last year at this time I got to play
an IM from Argentina, and held my own in a tough blitz game. I think I
had 37 secs left when he agreed to a draw.

[Event "ICC u 2 5"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "1998.01.12"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "GlavinaIM, (2464)"]
[Black "jjirous, (1740)"]
[Opening "Philidor Def"] [ECO "C41"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 h6 4.O-O Nd7 5.d3 Ngf6 
6.c3 Be7 7.a4 c6 8.Re1 a6 9.h3 Qc7 10.Qb3 O-O 
11.a5 Rb8 12.Be3 b5 13.axb6 Nxb6 14.Bxa6 Be6 15.Qc2 d5 
16.Nbd2 dxe4 17.dxe4 Rfd8 18.b4 Ra8 19.Nxe5 Qxe5 20.Bxb6 Rd6 
21.Bc7 Rxd2 22.Bxe5 Rxc2 23.Bd3 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 Ra2 25.Rd1 Nd7 
26.Bg3 Ra3 27.Rc1 Bxb4 28.cxb4 Rxd3 29.Rxc6 Rd1+ 30.Kh2 Nf6 
31.e5 Nd5 32.b5 Rb1 33.Rc5 Ne7 34.Bf4 g5 35.Be3 Nd5 
36.Bd4 Kg7 37.Kg3 Kg6 38.f3 Rb4 39.Bf2 Kf5 40.Be1 Rb1 
41.Bd2 1/2-1/2

   Check out the Internet Chess Club at  http://www.chessclub.com .
There's always a game going on there (use the Java player), and
they usually have live coverage of the big matches and tournaments.

Some Nebraska players there are: mdreiger    = Mike Dreiger 
      huskerpower = Gary Colvin  ccrider     = Al Lawrence
      wormy       = Kent Nelson  jdrexel     = John Drexel
      voltair     = Jon Cohn     jjirous     = Jim Jirousek.