Karpov Outwits Machine to Score Chess Victory

Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union proved that man can still outwit machine when he beat supercomputer Deep Thought late Friday in a hard-fought match that went down to the wire.

With only 90 seconds left to Deep Thought’s 12 minutes, Karpov forced the computer to resign in the face of inevitable defeat.

Karpov, the world chess champion from 1975 to 1985 and now the world’s No. 2-ranked player, made a decisive penetration into Deep Thought’s territory with his king after the computer, which can calculate 800,000 moves in a second, made a strategic error.

The match, which lasted nearly two hours, was held in Harvard’s Memorial Hall. One member of Deep Thought’s crew, Sen-Hsiung Hsu, moved the pieces based on the computer’s commands.

Chris Chabris, an alumni adviser to the Harvard Chess Club, said that Karpov was “very relieved” to have finished the game with his world-class reputation intact.

“He knew he was in a lot of trouble,” Chabris said. Karpov left immediately after the match instead of speaking, as scheduled.

“Everyone was very impressed with the way Deep Thought was performing today. We look forward to watching Deep Thought’s progress in the future,” said the Harvard Chess Club’s president, Danny Edelman.

Just before the match, Karpov was given the key to the city and warmly welcomed by Edelman, who said that Deep Thought was ready for revenge after being beaten twice by World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov of the Soviet Union last October.

However, by sacrificing a pawn, Karpov was able to isolate Deep Thought’s pawns in a move that Edelman termed “brilliant.” After the pawns were isolated, it was an easy victory for Karpov, Chabris said.