IP: Karpov vs the world (well the internet chess world

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

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See http://www.tele.fi/karpov/homepage.htm for more info




 Anatoli Karpov, the 12. World Chess Champion, will visit Finland from


August 26 to


 August 29, 1996. Karpov will play several exhibition games as well as an


open game


 on the Internet on August 26 at 14.00 hours Finnish time (= 11.00 hours


GMT). 




    




  Lehtikuva Oy / A.F.P. Photo 




   




 Your chance to challenge Karpov 




 "Karpov against the World" will be the first open Internet chess game.


The champion will


 confront a beforehand undetermined group of opponents, i.e. players


connected to this


 site will form his opponent, "the World". Internet users will see


Karpov's moves almost


 as they happen and will have the chance to mail in suggestions for the


next move for


 about 10 minutes after each move. Telecom Finland's Internet server


receiving the mail


 will sort out the most popular move and carry it out. 




   




 Intelligent front-end, real-time commenting 




 Internet users will have two front-ends to the game. One is an


intelligent graphical user


 interface built with Macromedia's Shockwave. Users will need Netscape


2.0, Microsoft


 Internet Explorer 3 beta 2 or a more recent browser and the Shockwave


plug-in, an


 easy-to-install multimedia add-on that is highly recommended. For users


without the


 possibility to use Shockwave, there will be a text-based alternative. 




 During the game these pages will also have real-time expert commenting


and links to a


 newsgroup intended for players. 




 In addition to the open game we will also present netcasting from a


simultaneous clock


 game "Karpov versus Team Finland", which will take place on August 29,


1996. In that


 game Karpov will play against six Finnish top players. 




   




 More information 




 Before the game this site will offer background information concerning,


among other


 things, chess and Anatoli Karpov. Also, follow these pages to receive


additional


 information on how to take part in the exciting Internet chess event. 




 The server-side technology for "Karpov against the World", including the


voting


 mechanism, will be managed by Finland's biggest provider of Internet


services, Telecom


 Finland. The design and management of the Shockwave front-end and this


 WWW-service will be carried out by Finland's leading developer of


multimedia services,


 Terra Nova Visuals. The event is also supported by PT Finland. World


Champion


 Anatoli Karpov will be playing the game at Hotel Intercontinental


Helsinki in Finland.


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