Jul-26-10
 | | Phony Benoni: <GrahamClayton: 42.Rg8+?? & 43.Qg4+?? - Did White have a brain explosion?>
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Actually, I think you may have rediscovered the first example of computer-aided cheating in chess history. Fahrni, at the time, was working on an early prototype of Fritz -12.0, the Flintstone Edition. Seeing no way out of his predicament, he excused himself, went outside, and climbed inside his computer which had been cunningly disguised as a 1910 Stearns-Knight Runabout. (Considering the car would not be constructed until five years later, it was a partcularly cunning disguise.) After a lot of cranking and clanking, the machine came out with 42.Rg8+! followed by 43.Qxg4+!, delaying mate for three whole moves. Trustingly, Fahrni returned to the board and followed instructions. Of course, today superheroes like Rybka and Her Friends point out that 42.Rg8+! should have been followe up 42.Qg3!!, which holds out for an additional move. But it was still pretty good computer analysis for 1905. By the way, Fahrni's official name for his device was the Electro-Mechanical Computer 2.0, so he had painted <EMC2> on the side of the vehicle. Some patent clerk from Zurich, visiting the tournament, happened to spy the vehicle and thought, "Hmmm, that's interesting!" But that's another story. |
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