Deep Blue Turns Tables on Kasparov, Evens Match

The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov on Sunday, evening the score at 1-1 in their $1.1-million match. In a battle that lasted three hours, 42 minutes, the machine convincingly outplayed the 34-year-old Russian grandmaster.

Deep Blue’s win marked the second time that a machine has defeated a world champion in a game played at the standard rate of two hours per player for 40 moves. The first such win was achieved by an earlier, slower version of Deep Blue against Kasparov in February 1996.

In Sunday’s game, Kasparov defended the black side of the Ruy Lopez, an opening he often employs as white. The players completed the first 17 moves in only 20 minutes, reaching a position with a tiny advantage for white. Kasparov, who had vowed to play cautiously, may have gone too far in that direction. He made no threats, instead trusting his solid position to repel white’s more-active pieces. Kasparov had called the match “a different kind of chess,” and he certainly departed from his usual hyper-aggressive style.

Deep Blue displayed an excellent sense of timing in its attempts to crack black’s fortress. Its 19th and 22nd moves prepared to infiltrate on the queenside, and then 26 f4 created new threats in the center. After move 29, black’s hopes rested on his ideally placed knight. White removed this obstacle with his 33rd and 35th moves, after which black could not withstand the invasion by white pieces.

The way Deep Blue used its rooks was reminiscent of the first game of former champion Bobby Fischer’s 1992 comeback. That game gave an inflated impression of Fischer’s strength, and the same may be true of Deep Blue’s victory Sunday, which looked almost too easy. Nevertheless, the IBM programming team must be credited with another advance. Deep Blue’s moves fit together in a manner that simulated long-term strategy, until now the computer’s Achilles’ heel.

Programmer Murray Campbell said: “I don’t really know what Kasparov’s final mistake was . . . but he was suffering no matter what he did. It just sort of slowly went down the drain.”

Grandmaster Joel Benjamin, who has worked with the Deep Blue team since last year, said, “I feel great. . . . This was a game that any human grandmaster would have been proud to play. This was not computer chess. This was real chess.”

The third game of the six-game series in New York City is scheduled for Tuesday. The remaining games will be played Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Here are the moves of Sunday’s game:

Deep Blue--Kasparov: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 h6 10 d4 Re8 11 Nbd2 Bf8 12 Nf1 Bd7 13 Ng3 Na5 14 Bc2 c5 15 b3 Nc6 16 d5 Ne7 17 Be3 Ng6 18 Qd2 Nh7 19 a4 Nh4 20 Nxh4 Qxh4 21 Qe2 Qd8 22 b4 Qc7 23 Rec1 c4 24 Ra3 Rec8 25 Rca1 Qd8 26 f4 Nf6 27 fxe5 dxe5 28 Qf1 Ne8 29 Qf2 Nd6 30 Bb6 Qe8 31 R3a2 Be7 32 Bc5 Bf8 33 Nf5 Bxf5 34 exf5 f6 35 Bxd6 Bxd6 36 axb5 axb5 37 Be4 Rxa2 38 Qxa2 Qd7 39 Qa7 Rc7 40 Qb6 Rb7 41 Ra8+ Kf7 42 Qa6 Qc7 43 Qc6 Qb6+ 44 Kf1 Rb8 45 Ra6, Black Resigns.

* CURIOUS CROWD: Tournament draws mix of chess and computer fans. D1