Not one but two events recently took place in Italy which involved computer chess. In both occasions there was a conference on the matter and afterwards a challenge match Human-Machine. Adolivio Capece reports.

As part of the Festival della Scienza Futuro, a conference on computer chess was organized in the central "Biblioteca Berio" in Genoa (Genova) on November 1st. After the conference, the chess program "Equinox" (which took part in the Computer World Championship in Pamplona some months ago) challenged GM Igor Efimov and WGM Elena Sedina.

The spectators in Genova

Both matches consisted of two games; the rate of play was one hour for all moves. Efimov lost both games while Sedina magaged to draw one. The event attracted about 100 spectators and was covered well by newspapers and RadioRai. Genova has expressed its interest in organizing the Computer World Championship next year.

All people involved in Genova, with Efimov and Sedina in the middle

The “Italian Computer Week” ended in Carugate (November 6-7-8), a nice neigbour village of Milan with about 14,000 inhabitants, well known for its “giant” markets.

The Human - Machine match was part of a 3-day chess event named Giocando con i Re (playing with the Kings), which was organized for the 2nd time. It included several other tournaments: one for computers, one for children and a simul by GM Lexy Ortega against 40 opponents. On the first day there was also a conference on chess and computers.

H.G. Muller from Holland, the lord mayor of Carugate Umberto Gravina, playing the fist move, and Sonia, one of the ‘movers’

The Human - Machine match saw WGM Olga Zimina from Modena and GM Stefan Djuric from Montecatini (both are now Italian citizens) play against “Leila”, written by Carmelo Calzerano, and “Chiron”, written by Ubaldo Andrea Farina. Despite the rate of play (60 minutes for the humans, just 20 minutes for the computers) the silicon based entities won all games.

The computer tournament saw 16 machines playing; the rate of play was one hour for all moves. The first part (3 rounds) was played inside the giant-marked “Carosello”, so that in the about 7 hours of play at least 10,000 people were able to watch the “players”.

Mr Barrera, President of chess region of Lombardia; Rose-Mary; Mr Giuseppe Sgrò, the main organizer; assessor Mr Bocale; Sonia; lord mayor Umberto Gravina; Mr Selleri of 'Le Due Torri'

Not all the programmers were present at the tournament to enter the moves. Almost all the Italians were present and from abroad only H.G. Muller from Holland. But of course there were plenty of beautiful girls at hand, who listened to the names of Sonia, Valentina, Antonella, Eleonora, Silvia and Rose-Mary, to play as “movers” and this played a significant role in catching the attention of the public.

The ‘movers’ Antonella and Eleonora

Many people thought that the girls were playing and they would not believe that it was the computers in fact playing! Dana Sah (Spain) and Amyan (Chile) both finished undefeated with 5 out of 6 - full final standings here.

Report thanks to Adolivio Capece