You're reading: First official advanced chess match in Ukraine ends in thrilling draw

Kyiv’s Radisson Blu hotel hosted the nation’s first officially sanctioned advanced, or computer-assisted, chess match on April 2 between reigning women’s chess champion Anna Ushenina and women’s international master Olena Boytsun.

The match ended in a 40-move draw
after Boytsun, playing white, held the initiative for most of the game that put
Ushenina uncomfortably on the defensive in a sharp position that originated in
the Slavic Defense.

Both players “teamed up” with computer chess
programs to play a high-quality game, virtually blunder-free. No player could
look at their opponent’s computers, however. The idea is to use a chess program
to help evaluate candidate moves during the course of the game, but the human
player ultimately decides which move to make and is always in control.

“Advanced chess is the synthesis of
creative chess play and latest computer technology,” said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
via video link, president of FIDE, the world’s chess governing body.

Advanced chess was first introduced after
then world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost a chess match in 1997 to IMB’s
Deep Blue computer program.

In 1998, he played the world’s first
advanced chess match against Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov in Spain.
Both used the ChessBase information search program combined with the Fritz-5
chess program, that ended in a 3-3 draw.

Rated 2477, Ushenina became Ukraine’s first
women’s chess champion after winning
the title in December 2012 in Russia
. She overcame Bulgarian Antoaneta
Stefanova in a tie-breaker.

She also was an integral part of Ukraine’s
gold medal-winning national chess team, which took top honors in March at
the World Women’s Chess Olympiad held in Kazakhstan.

Boytsun is rated 2264, and is a recognized
economist and founder of the Chess for Children charity in Dnipropetrovsk.

Kyiv Post
editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].