CNN - Kasparov 'very relieved' to even score with computer

CNN - Kasparov 'very relieved' to even score with computer - Feb.12, 1996 CNN Technology

February 13, 1996
Web posted at: 12:50 a.m. EST

From Correspondent Brian Jenkins

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- It's a classic battle pitting brute strength against intuition, cold calculating power against experience, speed against finesse.

The David in this battle is world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Goliath is the world's fastest chess-playing computer.

By Sunday, the six-game series match was even, with one win each for man and machine. But it's looking like a tense week ahead for man.

From the start, Kasparov knew he could become the world's most memorable chess victim -- a world champion losing to a computer in a match conducted under regulation time limits. He was, says a longtime friend, determined to uphold the honor of his species.

"In fact, he objected to the flags," said Frederick Friedel, Kasparov's adviser. "He said 'Why is there an American flag and a Russian flag? This is not Russia against America ... It's man versus machine. I represent humanity here.'"

Sitting across from Kasparov is a computer operator who represents a team of IBM scientists who have developed Kasparov's opponent "Deep Blue". The computer program is capable of assessing up to 200 million possible moves in a single second, or 20 billion in three minutes, the average time taken before a move in standard match play.

Kasparov's moves are sent by telephone wire from Philadelphia to a massive super-computer at IBM's research center in New York, which sends back a countermove.

"The first day was very nervous, and when we actually saw the system work and beat Kasparov, it was really very exciting," said C.J. Tan a researcher for IBM.

Attacking in his usual flamboyant fashion in game one, Kasparov left his king exposed and conceded the game after his 36th move.

"Garry learned in the most painful way that it was stronger than we expected," said Friedel. "Garry has no experience with losing games. He hates it, and he was in a bad state. He was very, very disappointed. On the other hand, he's someone who learns from these things and you see how he bounced back."

In the second game played Sunday, Kasparov showed restraint, playing positions he knew he could protect. In six hours he backed Deep Blue into a corner from which it could not escape.

"He said 'Wow, we did it and this is the way to go.' He was just very, very relieved," Friedel said.

"He has found that the computer believes certain positions to be equal, when in reality they turned out to be an advantage to the human," said International Grand Master Dan Edelman.

So many chess aficionados wanted to watch the game played out live on the Internet, the Web site was jammed. The team from IBM is now tweaking Deep Blue for game three scheduled for Tuesday.

Friedel doesn't believe the scientists can soup it up enough to beat his friend, but says someday, a computer will prevail.

"There is a theoretical possibility we will find some natural boundary for brute force, that you can calculate as deeply as you want, as many billions of positions as you want and you'll never be able to match human intuition. Personally, I don't believe that," said Friedel.

In 1989, Kasparov trounced Deep Blue's predecessor, Deep Thought, in two exhibition games. But Deep Blue computes a thousand times faster and could still give Kasparov a run for the $400,000 first-prize check.

Fierce competitor that Kasparov is, if he should lose the match here this week, he will likely feel deeply disappointed, even embarrassed. But the IBM programmers say if Deep Blue goes down to defeat, they won't be hanging their heads.

"We set our goal to develop this system to reach a level where we can play against Kasparov, and I think we have already accomplished that," said Tan.

The computing knowledge gained can also be applied to other fields, so no matter who takes more games, the programmers say, humankind will win.