Hydra has the last laugh against Adams

Hydra, the Abu Dhabi-based supercomputer chess programme, achieved another big success in the "Man v Machine" competition beating GM Michael Adams 5.5-0.5 last month.

Hydra proved that it is in a class of its own after beating Adams, the world's number 7 and Britain's top-ranked GM, in the match held at the Wembley Conference Centre between June 21-27.

Hussain Khory, the vice-chairman of the UAE Chess Federation, said that the UAE Chess Federation is very pleased with the interest that Hydra is generating for the UAE bearing in mind the fact that millions have followed the match on TV, newspapers or the internet.

"We are confident that Hydra will help improve the standards of the game in the UAE in the near future," Khory stated at a press conference yesterday.

Mohammad Hajji Khory, the secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Chess and Culture Club, said they were proud to be a partner with the supercomputer.

"It's overwhelming victory over GM Adams explains the power of this programme which has become one of the most successful means of promoting the UAE's sport world wide," he said.

Basar expressed his delight with the big victory that proved Hydra to be the most powerful programme in the world. "We are open to any challenge from either human or machine." Basar confirmed.

Dr Chrilly Donninger, the programmer of Hydra, said: "It is clear that the big victory proved that no Grandmaster will have a chance of winning against Hydra. It might need a combination of human and machine to beat Hydra in the future."

GM Adams commented: "I did not play badly throughout the event. But it is just so difficult to make an impact. It is not like playing against humans. For starters, against humans, you may actually win a point."

Hydra was introduced by the PAl Group a UAE national company in Abu Dhabi.

Last year, Hydra beat a team of three of the best GMs in the world Ruslan Pnomarion and Sergey Karjakin from Ukraine and Veslin Topalov from Bulgaria.