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IBM Supercomputer Blue Gene/P pulverizes Chess students in Bulgaria

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The first ever chess match in history between supercomputer and students ended with result 2.5-0.5 points for the machine. The match was held on 22.06.2010 at 11.00 am at the office of IBM Bulgaria under the patronage of the Bulgarian super Grand Master Veselin Topalov, who arrived from Spain especially for the event.

The student's team that plucked up courage to challenge the processing power of one of the fastest computers in the world Blue Gene/P of IBM (with 8192 processors!) was: Stephanie Kovacheva, Todor Kossev and Kalin Zlatanski - students in the first Bulgarian college for English secondary education - Darbi College. For comparison, the supercomputer of IBM - Deep Blue (a predecessor of Blue Gene / P), against which played the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov years ago, is four (4) times slower than Blue Gene/P.

Тhe young students played three games rapid chess (5 minutes per game for each color) with white pieces against Blue Gene/P. They lost the first and the third game. During the second game, the best Bulgarian chess player of all times Veselin Topalov decided to give practical lessons to the young players and with his help, they reached a threefold repetition of moves and a draw.

The chess match is the final part of the initiative "Smart planet", conducted by IBM Bulgaria and Veselin Topalov which main goal is to raise the interest among young people in high technologies and artificial intelligence. "I personally consider today's event as a logical continuation of the successful cooperation, which arose during the match for the World Chess Championship, held recently in Sofia, between two true giants in their fields- the Bulgarian super grandmaster Veselin Topalov and IBM", said before the game Mr. Alexander Rakov, General Manager of IBM Bulgaria.

"The chess game and the high technologies go hand in hand and the future of the ancient game is necessarily related to them", said Mr. Silvio Danailov, who besides being one of the most successful chess managers in the world is also a candidate for Presidency of the European Chess Union.

Special congratulations addressed to the students were made by Mr. Alexander Rakov, General Manager of IBM Bulgaria, grandmaster Veselin Topalov and his manager Silvio Danailov. Special guests of the event were the President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, Dr. Stefan Sergiev and its Executive Director Mr. Nikolay Velchev.