Evans On Chess. February 23, 1996. Copyright Chesstours. All rights
reserved>

                             DEEP BLUE DEEP SIXED

               "A man ain't nothin' but a man. But
               before I let that steam drill put
               me down, I'll die with my hammer in
               my hand. Dear God, I'll die with my
               hammer in my hand." -- Ballad of John Henry

World champion Gary Kasparov, 33, played six games against a different
kind of opponent in February. He called it The Monster.

The code name of his invisible foe was Deep Blue, IBM's secret 1400 pound
supercomputer capable of 200 million calculations per second. It relayed
moves to Philadelphia where their historic showdown took a week under
official tournament rules with a limit of seven hours a game. At stake
was $400,000 to the winner, $100,000 to the loser and, some said, the
honor of the human race.

Chess made headlines as millions of players worldwide swamped the
Internet to watch each move. IBM programmers were ecstatic when their
creation bloodied Kasparov in the first game, though most fans felt sad
as the glowering human left the board without a word. No matter what
happened in the next five games, everyone sensed a milestone had been
reached. Was there now any doubt that a chess machine would vanquish man
by the turn of the century?

If the human had won the first game, would it have made page one?
"Where's the Unabomber when you need him?" lamented an onlooker. But
Kasparov is fiercely competitive and clearly relished his role as savior
of humanity. He ground out a win in the second game and posted two draws
to even the score at 2-2.

Game 5 was the turning point. At move 24 Deep Blue spurned Kasparov's
offer of a draw despite evaluating its own position as slightly worse.
The IBM team, alas, took the advice of grandmaster Joel Benjamin and
continued play "in the interest of science." But wasn't the machine
supposed to make these decisions without human intervention?

Kasparov wryly thanked those IBM "scientists" for deep sixing their own
Deep Blue. He mauled the monster in the last game to win the series 4-2.
"Thank God!" said the moderator of the McLaughlin Group as he heaved a
sigh of relief on television.

Game 5 showed the monster's real weakness. Despite high speed and
fantastic ability to see ahead, its positional sense was deficient. It
didn't know what to do when there was nothing to do and went haywire
after walking into a dangerous pin along the d-file.

White DEEP BLUE Black: GARY KASPAROV #5 Scotch Game 1996

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 O-O O-O 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
e1/Q 35 fxe5 Qxc3 36 Rxc3 Rxd4 37 b4 Bc4 38 Kf2 g5 39 Re3 Rd2 40 Ke1 Rd3
41 Kf2 Kg6 42 Rxd3 Bxd3 43 Ke3 Bc2 44 Kd4 Kf5 45 Kd5 h5 White Resigns
