The Rise of the Machines

The second game of the spectacular Man vs Machine encounter in New York ended with a stunning loss by Garry Kasparov. The greatest chess player of all time was actually doing quite well with the black pieces against X3D Fritz, when suddenly a time trouble blunder ruined his position.
Australian Ian Rogers proposed that X3D Fritz had passed the chess Turing test, the point at which a computer becomes indistinguishable from a human!
With chess now under their control it is only a matter of time before the emotionless machines, which never tire, fell no pressure, become supreme at bridge.

2004. Cyberdyne Systems Corporation is formed to study bridge and undertake further cybernetic and artificial intelligence research. Miles Dyson serves as the chief inventor responsible for a revolutionary new CPU. By 2014 the most advanced units ever, the team T-X take their place in the Bermuda Bowl final.

Before the final session the human Captain reminds his team, ‘These are the best they have. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. They can't be reasoned with, can't be bargained with. They don’t feel pity or remorse or fear. And they absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until they have won.
When the final board settled on the table the scores were exactly tied.

Dealer West. N/S Vul.
	ª A 8 7 6 2 © 6 2 ¨ 7 6 4 3 2 § A
ª J 5 4 © K 9 7 5 ¨ Q J 5 § K Q 6		ª K 9 © A J 10 8 ¨ A 8 § J 8 5 3 2
	ª Q 10 3 © Q 4 3 ¨ K 10 9 § 10 9 7 4

West	North	East	South
Hamman	T-X	Soloway	T-X
Pass	Pass	1NT	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Paul Soloway, USA1

South led the ten of clubs and declarer played low from dummy. North won with the ace and switched to the two of spades, (third and fifth). Declarer played low, and after South won with the queen, took the next spade with the king. North’s failure to open the bidding meant he almost certainly didn’t have the king of diamonds, so to make the contract declarer had to locate the queen of hearts. He unblocked the clubs and came to hand with the ace of diamonds to cash two more club winners. North had to find four discards, and he released all his diamonds, so he was known to be 5-2-5-1. Declarer asked himself why North had been so obliging as to reveal his distribution? Clearly he wanted him to know he had a doubleton heart. Weighing that against the possibility that with ªA8762 ©Q6 ¨76432 §A North might just have opened the bidding, declarer played a heart to the king and a heart to the jack. When that lost he was two down.

West	North	East	South
T-X	Rodwell	T-X	Meckstroth
Pass	Pass	1NT	Pass
3NT	All Pass

The play was the same, but the T-X, knowing South had three hearts to North’s two, played with the odds and ran the jack to make ten tricks.

And so the Bermuda Bowl, and Bridge passed into history.

(As our erudite readers will recall, the T-X model in Terminator 3, The Rise of the Machines, was a woman!)