Around the turn of the century, there was worldwide interest regarding chess confrontations between humans and computers. One of the last top-notch events featuring such a battle was seen in 2005, when three strong grandmasters played a match against three of the best engines in the world. In the end, Hydra, Junior and Fritz defeated Alexander Khalifman, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov by an 8-4 score. The match took place in Bilbao, and saw Ponomariov beating Fritz in a memorable encounter.
20 years ago, on 4 October 2002, a very special duel began in Manama, in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played against a PC chess programme - Deep Fritz. Dagobert Kohlmeyer followed the match in Bahrain and shares memories of this remarkable event.