Man and Machine Agree to a Draw in Chess Match
The third game of the match between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and the supercomputer Deep Blue was drawn Tuesday in Philadelphia. Each player has won once, and the score is tied at 1 1/2 to 1 1/2.
The Assn. of Computing and Machinery is conducting the six-game match as part of the festivities surrounding the 50th anniversary of the creation of ENIAC, the first computer. ACM has offered $400,000 to the winner.
Kasparov, and most chess fans, probably assumed that the money would go to him. After all, he has dominated international chess for more than a decade, and he stands head and shoulders above most of the world’s 400 grandmasters. Until last weekend, the best computer programs were regarded as not quite as skillful as an average grandmaster.
Deep Blue’s surprising victory Saturday showed that IBM’s programmers had taken another stride forward by using parallel processing to speed up calculation. Deep Blue is about 1,000 times as fast as the next-best chess computers.
Kasparov managed to outwit the computer Sunday with long-range planning, and he tried the same strategy Tuesday. After 18 moves, Kasparov, playing Black, had saddled his opponent with vulnerable pawns. Adhering to the chess dictum “restrict, blockade, destroy,” Kasparov attempted to create a blockade on the c4 square. But Deep Blue frustrated him with an excellent sequence (moves 20 to 25) that produced a balanced position. Kasparov offered a draw after 39 moves.
“In simple practical terms, the computer played today at a level of some of the best players in the world,” Kasparov said.
The remaining games begin at noon today, Friday and Saturday. IBM has set up an Internet address (https://www.ibm.park.org/chess.html) for live coverage. IBM received more than 7,000 calls per minute during the first game.
Here are Tuesday’s moves:
Deep Blue - Kasparov #3: 1 e4 c5 2 c3 d5 3 exd5 Qxd5 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nf3 Bg4 6 Be2 e6 7 0-0 Nc6 8 Be3 cxd4 9 cxd4 Bb4 10 a3 Ba5 11 Nc3 Qd6 12 Ne5 Bxe2 13 Qxe2 Bxc3 14 bxc3 Nxe5 15 Bf4 Nf3+ 16 Qxf3 Qd5 17 Qd3 Rc8 18 Rfc1 Qc4 19 Qxc4 Rxc4 20 Rcb1 b6 21 Bb8 Ra4 22 Rb4 Ra5 23 Rc4 0-0 24 Bd6 Ra8 25 Rc6 b5 26 Kf1 Ra4 27 Rb1 a6 28 Ke2 h5 29 Kd3 Rd8 30 Be7 Rd7 31 Bxf6 gxf6 32 Rb3 Kg7 33 Ke3 e5 34 g3 exd4+ 35 cxd4 Re7+ 36 Kf3 Rd7 37 Rd3 Raxd4 38 Rxd4 Rxd4 39 Rxa6 b4, Drawn.