"Without a sponsor for '97, championship's future in doubt"

"... the decision by Intel to end its chess sponsorship leaves a deep
appreciation for what has been accomplished as well as a regretful
sense of loss.

"That decision became public last month when the newspaper El Pais
published a report by Spanish chess journalist Leontxo Garcia. The
report included excerpts from an interview with Professional Chess
Association World Champion Garry Kasparov.

"'Kasparov confirmed,' said Garcia, 'that the PCA's USD 7 million
contract with Intel is not being renewed.'

"A commitment to play a high-profile match with IBM's computer Deep
Blue --the series was held last week in Philadelphia--had played a
major part in Intel's decision, claimed Kasparov. 'Intel demands that
I not play this match.'

"A spokeswoman for Intel, however, described the decision as part of
the company's normal annual revamping. 'We were very successful
[through chess] in increasing awareness of Intel,' she said, 'but we
are now looking for projects that address a broader audience.'

END QUOTES

And perhaps which do not help IBM achieve greater mindshare...

Is Andy taking pettiness lessons from his ol' buddy Bill?

Everyone should be aware that before Kasparov played Deep Blue, Kasparov also
played the #2 chess computer in the world, which is the one made by Intel,
and beat it with the speed format.  (The play with Deep Blue is the Classical
format, which has no time restrictions, and the player is allowed as much
time to think his moves freely.)

(Deep Blue is a cluster of IBM SP2 POWERParallel computers, and they use the
POWER2 RISC chipsets.)

Rgds,

Chris

* * *           Sailor Moon Joins Team OS/2             * * *
Holding Warp CD ROM up, she shouts, "Warp 32 bit Power, Transform!"
Serena turns into Sailor Moon.  The Sailor Team OS/2 gals crashes the
Red Moon Palace.  Sailor Moon threatens the evil Queen Beryl Gates.
"In the Name of I-B-Moon, I shall right FUD and that means you!"