Chess champ Kramnik trounces Deep Fritz computer

World champion Vladimir Kramnik outwitted the world's most powerful chess computer Deep Fritz on Tuesday, to win the third game in a match dubbed the 'Brains in Bahrain' contest.

The 27-year-old Russian, playing with black pieces, beat German-developed Fritz in 51 moves to lead the eight-game series 2.5-05. The first game was drawn.

Fritz is capable of evaluating 3.5 million moves per second and the man-versus-machine contest is a sequel to Gary Kasparov's 1997 battle with super-computer Deep Blue in New York. The computer won that contest.

Kramnik, who was crowned world champion in 2000 when he beat compatriot Kasparov in London, will get $1 million if he wins, $800,000 if the match is drawn, and $600,000 if he loses.

Fritz won the opening skirmish even though he began with the aggressive Scotch Opening, precisely the kind of tactical manoeuvre experts say computers do not understand well.

As he had done in the previous two games, Kramnik confused Fritz with an early gambit of queens and then slowly outplayed the computer in a brilliant display of chess.

The queenless middle game had a rigid pawn structure which Kramnik could pick apart at leisure.

Kramnik said he knew he was winning as early as move 19.a3, when Fritz weakened its pawns on the king's side.

Under the new rules, Kramnik was given the computer two weeks before the contest to practise against the new software and assess its style.

Game four takes place on Thursday with Kramnik playing with white pieces.

Also read: Chess champ Kramnik beats 'Deep Fritz' computer