The showdown took place on the 35th floor of mid-town Manhattan’s Equitable Building where IBM held its stock analyst meetings. The purse was $1.1 million, or $700K for the winner and $400,000 for the runner-up. Grandmasters arrived from around the world to witness the epic rematch and act as experts for the media and the public. Like a boxer who improved his regimen and punching technique, Deep Blue was back in the ring. With 256 processors in place, the electronic system was now capable of analyzing 200 million moves per second. The Deep Blue team took their contender back to the lab, redesigned some of the hardware, doubled its calculating power, and invited other Grandmasters to spar with it, teach it new tricks, and fine-tune the program. Both sides agreed to a rematch the following year. This time around, man still prevailed but nobody was left under the illusion that computer dominance wasn’t a thing of the future. But the Russian came back and the tournament ended in his favor at 4-2 (3 wins, 1 loss, 2 draws). Game 1 of the 6-game tournament saw Deep Blue defeat Kasparov in the first ever victory of machine over a world champion. Kasparov once again stepped up to the challenge representing 1,000 years of humanity’s knowledge and experience in the game, while Deep Blue leveraged its only advantage in chess, that of speed and search. Seven years in development since Deep Thought, Deep Blue emerged out of IBM’s lab to take on the world’s best in the sport. It was the biggest news coverage that a chess competition had ever received and even scalpers were hawking $25 tickets for hundreds of dollars more. Fifteen months earlier, the Soviet-born chess prodigy took on his non-human counterpart in Philadelphia in a highly publicized event that was uncharacteristic of a chess match. It wasn’t the first time that Kasparov and Deep Blue went head-to-head, or brain to circuit. It was also educated with the moves that Kasparov had used in previous matches, not too different from the way teams prepare for game day by studying their opponents’ strategies on film. It was the offspring of a group of programmers who pumped it with sophisticated codes and algorithms. But Deep Blue was made of chips and software, not flesh and blood. They fight for the lead in points and for the all-important psychological edge. Players face each other across the table with the same competitive spirit and determination that ordinary athletes unleash in the field or on the court.
In 1988, Deep Thought was the first computer to beat a Grandmaster when it defeated Denmark’s Bent Larsen, but it was later routed by Kasparov.Ĭarrying all but the physical attributes of a grueling sport fought between two opponents, chess is not just a battle of skills but a game of nerves, a test of wills, and a clash of egos. Deep Blue evolved from Deep Thought, which had its origins at Carnegie Mellon University and was the brainchild of Feng siung-Hsu. Kasparov’s opponent on that unforgettable Spring day in New York City was Deep Blue, an IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer developed by a team of scientists at the company.
He reached the Grandmaster title, the sport’s highest designation, at the age of 17 and five years later became the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion when he unseated Anatoly Karpov. 1 in the world for 225 out of 228 months between 19. Regarded by some as the greatest chess player of all time, Kasparov was ranked No.
#Man vs deep blue chess series#
A watershed moment in the history of chess and the technological evolution of mankind, it was the first time that a computer defeated a world champion in a series of games that were held under official tournament regulations. It wasn’t so much that the world’s reigning chess champion lost his first match, but more that he was toppled by a cold and lifeless machine. On May 11, 1997, thirty-four year old Gary Kasparov stormed out of a chess tournament, squirming in fury and shaking in disbelief.
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