Kasparov Wins, Clinches Tie With Computer
World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue on Friday, giving himself an unbeatable lead going into the last game of their man-versus-machine contest.
The victory gives Kasparov a 3-2 lead in the Philadelphia competition. The 32-year-old world chess champion has two wins and the computer has one. There have been two draws.
Kasparov needs only a draw in the final game today to win the match and pocket the winner’s share of $400,000 provided by the sponsor, the Assn. of Computing Machinery. If Deep Blue wins today, Kasparov and Deep Blue’s programming team would each receive $250,000.
Friday’s victory left the champion in a jovial mood. “Today was a good day. I proved this machine isn’t invincible,” he said.
His spirits had lifted considerably from his previous encounter with the machine Wednesday, when he complained of fatigue and said he was relieved to save a draw.
Chung-Jen Tan, the manager of IBM’s programming team, congratulated Kasparov on his latest victory. “Garry is the best and we are the second-best right now, though we don’t know yet for sure,” he said.
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Deep Blue’s first loss, on Sunday, could be attributed mainly to one horrible decision in a 73-move struggle. However, Friday’s performance revealed problems in its handling of the middlegame, in which computers usually excel.
Deep Blue obtained equality from the opening, an old-fashioned Scotch Game, and played adequately until move 23, when Kasparov offered a draw.
The programmers declined the offer, provoking Kasparov’s post-game joke, “I have got to praise the scientists who decided to continue with the experiment.” The IBM team said they rejected the draw offer to test how the machine would react.
In the next 10 moves, Deep Blue shifted its pieces back and forth while Kasparov steadily improved his position. Soon he reached an easily winning endgame with an extra bishop.
The game lasted four hours, 15 minutes.
Since his shocking loss in the first game, Kasparov has played very cautiously, trying to minimize the danger of being out-calculated by a machine that can examine 50 billion positions in three minutes.
Observers expect him to strive for a draw when playing White today, rather than gamble on a win.
Here are the moves of Friday’s game:
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4 Bb4 6 Nxc6 bxc6 7 Bd3 d5 8 exd5 cxd5 9 0-0 0-0 10 Bg5 c6 11 Qf3 Be7 12 Rae1 Re8 13 Ne2 h6 14 Bf4 Bd6 15 Nd4 Bg4 16 Qg3 Bxf4 17 Qxf4 Qb6 18 c4 Bd7 19 cxd5 cxd5 20 Rxe8+ Rxe8 21 Qd2 Ne4 22 Bxe4 dxe4 23 b3 Rd8 24 Qc3 f5 25 Rd1 Be6 26 Qe3 Bf7 27 Qc3 f4 28 Rd2 Qf6 29 g3 Rd5 30 a3 Kh7 31 Kg2 Qe5 32 f3 e3 33 Rd3 e2 34 gxf4 e1Q 35 fxe5 Qxc3 36 Rxc3 Rxd4 37 b4 Bc4 38 Kf2 g5 39 Re3 Be6 40 Rc3 Bc4 41 Re3 Rd2+ 42 Ke1 Rd3 43 Kf2 Kg6 44 Rxd3 Bxd3 45 Ke3 Bc2 46 Kd4 Kf5 47 Kd5 h5, White Resigns.
