LONDON, June 22: British chess grand master Michael Adams fell at the first hurdle on Tuesday in his bid to beat the world’s most powerful chess computer. Adams, 33, who is ranked number one in Britain, lost his match against Hydra after only 33 moves, in the first in a six match tournament at Wembley conference centre in London.

“I’m a little disappointed with the result,” said Adams after the match, which lasted for three hours and six minutes.

“I’d put myself in a strong position early on, but when you’re playing a machine with the immense power of Hydra you really have to play the perfect game,” he said.

“I’m confident that I will come back over the next few days.”

Hydra project manager Muhammad Nasir Ali said: “This was a typically powerful display from Hydra. After only 14 moves I knew he would win.”

Adams, who became a grand master at 17, is ranked seventh in the world.

Hydra, housed in a secure server room in Abu Dhabi, is a cluster of 64 computers acting as one. It is able to process 200 million chess moves a second and can calculate up to 40 moves ahead.

It has yet to be beaten by a human chess player.

Man and machine will be battling it out until next Monday with (120,000 euros, US$146,000) in prize money at stake. On Friday, the public will have a chance to defeat the machine and compete for US9,000.—AFP