New York, Nov 08: The world's top-ranked chess player is facing a high-tech challenge: playing a game invented more than a millennium ago, against a computer, with voice-activated moves posted on a virtual board. "A machine has an advantage. It doesn't even know if it's winning or losing," Garry Kasparov said yesterday. "A human being is influenced by many things - by personal emotions, by the weather. In a few years, it will be virtually impossible for a human being to match a computer."

The chess player from Moscow is ready to compete against a computer programme called the X3d Fritz. The four-game match is scheduled for November 11, 13, 16 and 18 in New York. The games can be followed on the web site of the sponsor, Manhattan-based X3d Technologies Corp. In the "man vs machine" match, the chessboard will be suspended in the air on a screen in front of Kasparov, who will have to wear 3d glasses, voice-activate the chess pieces and use a joystick to rotate the virtual board.

At 40, Kasparov is considered a mature champion by chess standards. But he says playing a computer helps keep his chess brain in shape. "To play a machine takes much more energy and resilience - it requires a perfection that is not required playing a human being," he said during a news conference.

"In three or four hours, my mind could be rebelling against this situation."

John Fernandez, X3d's chess consultant, described chess as "a mental sport".

Bureau Report