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Kasparov Wins Crucial Victory Vrs. X3D Fritz (with Photo)

Kasparov Wins Crucial Victory Vrs. X3D Fritz

NEW YORK (AP) -- World chess champion Garry Kasparov claimed a crucial victory Sunday in the third of a four-game match with his computerized rival X3D Fritz, tying the first virtual-reality showdown at 1.5 points each.

The match pitted Kasparov against the 12-year-old program that has recently been developed into a virtual-reality game by X3D Technologies, a sponsor of the match.

"It was just a dominating performance by Kasparov," said John Fernandez, X3D's chess consultant. "He disarmed the computer's biggest weapon, which is its calculating ability."

Kasparov, 40, tied the computer last week in the first game and lost the second one. Players get 1 point for a win, 0.5 point for a tie and no points for a loss.

Following the match, a confident Kasparov said that he was "in a very good mood now."

The International Computer Games Association and the U.S. Chess Federation have sanctioned the match as the first official world chess championship in virtual reality.

In the match, the chessboard is suspended in the air on a screen in front of Kasparov, who wears 3D glasses, voice-activates the chess pieces and uses a joystick to rotate the virtual board.

Even if he loses, Kasparov will earn $150,000 for the match. If he wins, his reward is $200,000, and a draw earns him $175,000.
In 1996 in Philadelphia, Kasparov won against the "Deep Blue" IBM computer, but an upgrade of the machine defeated him the next year in New York. And earlier this year, also in New York, he managed a draw against the "Deep Junior" Israeli chess program.

(AP) Chess champion Gary Kasparov attends a press conference in New York, Friday, Nov. 7, 2003, where it...

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The final game is scheduled for Tuesday.

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PHOTO: Champion chess player Garry Kasparov, wearing 3D glasses, seen on the large screen ponders his next chess move against the X3D Fritz computer. (AP Photo/Scout Tufankjian

Mon Nov 17