A look at one computer outwitting another in tournament play

While most of the world's tournament chessplayers are concerned with the current matches leading to the World Championship, other events have just been held which may have a greater effect on the closet chessplayers of the world. The triennial World Computer Chess Championship ended recently in New York with a surprise victory for ''Cray Blitz,'' which scored 41/2-1/2 to triumph over 22 entrants representing eight countries.

Running in the extremely fast Cray-1 computer, the program (which scored 5-0 in the Mississippi State Championship in which mere human beings participated) outscored the 1977 champion, ''Nuchess,'' and the 1980 winner and pretournament favorite, Belle.

About the same time, the third World Microcomputer Chess Championship, in Budapest, ended in a clear-cut victory for Fidelity's Elite A/S. This is of particular interest, since the Elite A/S, which scored 6-1, is a model currently available on the market. Most of the other microcomputerswere experimental, souped-up models, except for Fidelity's other entry, the Prestige, which has a fancier board and a much fancier selling price.

Today's featured game between the University of Copenhagen's Logichess 2.2 and the Elite A/S is taken from the Microcomputer Championships. Especially noteworthy are the fiendishly clever tactics employed by Black, which outthinks its opponent all the way. Even when the game is easily won, Black employs tactics rather than routine attrition to score the victory.

Queen's Gambit Accepted Logichess 2.2 Elite A/S 1. P-Q4 P-Q4 2. P-QB4 PxP 3. N-KB3 N-KB3 4. P-K3 P-K3 5. BxP P-B4 6. O-O P-QR3 7. N-B3 P-QN4 8. B-Q3 B-N2 9. B-B2 (a) QN-Q2 10. N-KN5 B-Q3 11. P-B4 O-O 12. PxP BxQBP 13. B-K4 Q-B2 14. BxB QxB 15. Q-Q3 P-N5 16. N(B)-K4 P-R3 17. NxN ch NxN 18. N-B3 KR-Q1 19. Q-B4 Q-N3 (b) 20. R-K1 N-N5 21. Q-N3 Q-B2 (c) 22. P-KR3 P-QR4 (d) 23. PxN P-R5 (e) 24. Q-Q1 RxQ 25. RxR QxP 26. K-B2 QxP 27. R-Q7 Q-QB5 28. N-K5 Q-N4 (f) 29. R-Q1 BxP ch 30. BxB QxN 31. R-Q4 R-QB1 32. QR-Q1 R-B7 ch 33. R(1)-Q2 QxR (g) 34. RxR Q-Q4 35. B-B4 Q-KB4 36. R-B4 P-K4 37. P-KN3 P-N4 38. RxP KPxB 39. K-N2 Q-Q4 ch 40. Resigns (h)

A. Play has been exemplary for both sides to this point. White, perhaps out of his ''book,'' begins to vacillate, and this and his next several moves are ill-conceived attacking maneuvers which worsen his position.

B. Black zeroes in on the weak King Pawn.

C. Threatening to capture the pinned Bishop Pawn.

D. Has Black blundered?

E. Trapping the White Queen, which cannot retreat to B4 or B2 because of 25. . . . BxP ch.

F. Winning another pawn and daring White to play 29. RxP, which would lose a piece to 29. . . . B-Q3.

G. This witty retort is sharper than 33. . . .RxR ch and wins at least another pawn.

H. I will leave it to the reader to determine why the White Rook will be lost by force.

Those especially interested in computers will want to read an excellent new paperback on the subject called ''Computer Chess,'' by David Welsh (William C. Brown, publisher), which covers the history, programming techniques, style, and rules for novice and expert and includes 89 annotated games from the major 1982 computer chess events.

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