![]() ![]() There are many prominent supporters of the royal game in Bahrain. But now the whole world will be watching the 'man versus machine' duel." The diplomat referred to the island country's chess federation, which regularly participates in Olympiads. ![]() Horse racing has a long tradition in Bahrain. After that come volleyball, basketball, hockey and tennis. He said: "The most popular sport discipline here is football. Its charm lies in the fact that it is not as ostentatious and artificial as Dubai or Qatar.īefore leaving, I visited Bahrain's then ambassador to Germany, Adel Sater, to get first-hand information about the country and its people. This is certainly due to the magical flair of the small country. My memories of the trip, which seemed like a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights, are still vivid even after two decades. "Brains in Bahrain" became the sporting event it promised to be in the electronic and print media. Many other chess providers had set up links on their homepages where the fan community could click in. Here in Germany, ChessBase, the "Spiegel" and the "Thüringer Allgemeine" offered this service. There were many hours of broadcasts by the organiser Einstein TV, and the rest of the network was also full of live broadcasts. As a dpa correspondent, I was also able to contribute to the press coverage with daily reports from the venue. TV stations such as CNN, the BBC, ARD or ZDF reflected the match. From the "New York Times", the "Washington Post", the London "Times", the "Spiegel", "El Pais" in Spain to the gazettes in Asia, the worldwide palette ranged. The media echo was global and similar to that of Kasparov against Deep Blue in 1997. It was not only in the Kingdom that people were eagerly awaiting the duel the international chess scene was watching spellbound. In October 2002, Kramnik's match against the chess programme became reality. So much for the political background of the event. ![]() There are also friendly ties with Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. The relationship with the powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia, with which Bahrain is connected by a dam, is particularly close. The ruling house rules with a hard hand, no real opposition is tolerated. Monarch and hereditary prince are omnipresent in the image of the capital Manama. However, the Sunnis, headed by the king, hold the power in the country. (The war then began under a pretext on 20 March 2003.) A delicate situation for the small Gulf state of Bahrain, whose majority population consists of strictly religious Shiites. ![]() Also lurking in Kuwait were tens of thousands of American soldiers ready to strike out against Iraq. In the east of the island lies the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet, next door in Qatar a large airbase. The Bahrainis have their obligations to the United States. It was postponed twice after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Without a million US dollars in prize money from Bahrain's king, nothing would have come of the duel between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer.įor a long time the "Brains in Bahrain" match hung by a thread. The Arabs were the first to study it systematically and then bring it to Europe. I would like to tell you again why this tiny island in the Gulf, with an area smaller than Berlin, was the venue.Ĭhess has a tradition in the Arab world, and in the heyday of Islamic culture, the game enjoyed great popularity. There, starting on 4 October 2002 in the Gulf state of Bahrain, the match between the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the chess programme "Deep Fritz" took place.
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