An inappropriate comparison?

Garry Kasparov vs. Veselin Topalov

Wijk aan Zee 1999

White to move

Kasparov played 22.Sc3-d5!! and won in spectacular fashion.

"Kasparov's Immortal"

Lee Sedol vs. AlphaGo

Google Deep Mind Challenge 2016 (game 4)

Lee Sedol just has placed his stone at L11 (see red marker) and won in spectacular fashion.

"Hand of God"


PS, 16 March 2016: While I searched for the game, I used the term "Pearl of Wijk" which was used in the German literature - or possibly I confused that. It holds another interesting game as result.

Court finds painfully ill defendant not guilty of illegal drug possession for almost 95g THC (887g marihuana) on base of emergency clause

In Germany, the defense lawyer Sebastian Glathe has done what was thought to be impossible. His client had possessed 887g marihuana, containing almost 95g THC. The state prosecution indicted Glathe's client of a violation against the Betäubungsmittelgesetz (drug law), as the possession of THC is forbidden. Exceptions have been made for scientific purposes and some private people recently, and the defendent possibly also had such one, but it was still believed widely to be criminal to cultivate the plants himself.

Glathe's client has chronic pain and the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Glathe argumentet that an emergency situation above the law (übergesetzlicher Notstand, §34 StGB) took place here, so his client's right to his health and suppression of pain would weigh higher than society's interest in banning THC. The court followed the argumentation.

Since the judgment will become legally binding, it creates de jure a situation in Germany where medical use of THC is legal under certain circumstances, even without an exception being given by the Verwaltungsgericht.

EDIT, 10 March 2016: Another source claims the defendant has been infected with HIV, and had an exception to use THC for medical purposes, but did not give a reliable source for either statement.

EDIT, 10 March 2016: On our inquest, Sebastian Glathe confirmed he will publish the ruling on his website when it is available to him in written form.

Two matches - different, yet similarly writing history

We would like to draw attention to two top-class matches where history is about to be written.

1. The Women World Chess Championship match might see Hou Yifan, who is currently leading 4:2 against Maria (Mariya) Muzychuk, regaining her title again, thus breaking the record of Elsiabeth (Elisabeta / Jelisaweta) Bykowa, who regained her title once after losing it. However, in total years of holding the title, Hou Yifan is far behind the record holders.

2. The Go match of Google's AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol saw the spectacular loss of Sedol in the first game. With up to four more games to go, this could be anoher success for computer game science after Deep Blue beat Kasparov in chess (1997) and Watson beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at Jeopardy (2011).

EDIT, 10 March 2016: Both Hou Yifan and AlphaGo won again, making the matches now a 4:2 score (Hou Yifan vs. Muzychuk) and a 2:0 score (AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol).

EDIT, 15 March 2016: Hou Yifan eventually won with 3 victories at 6:3 against Muzychuk. Congratulations! AlphaGo preliminary won 3:0 against Lee Sedol, but as the games went on there regardless, Lee Sedol defended humanity's honor with a spectacular win in the fourth round. I still will welcome our machine overlords. ;-)
(You can see Lee Sedol's "hand of god" move here: https://youtu.be/yCALyQRN3hw?t=3h10m20s)
The machine won the last game, so the final result is 4:1, but Lee Sedol's one win will go down into history.