27th January, 2003

"NO computer will ever be able to beat a 10-year-old boy at chess",
foolishly predicted the scientist Herbert Dreyfus in the mid 1960s.
Garry Kasparov lost like a child in New York against IBM's Deep Blue in
1997 and it was hailed to be the twilight of the grandmasters.

Deep Blue not only beat Kasparov in a defining moment for the march of
the machines; it also wounded the world No.1 psychologically, provoking
him into uncharacteristic blunders and reduced him to tantrums with
claims of "human interference" during critical stages of the match.

Six years on, and still smarting from that historic debacle, Kasparov
again puts his reputation on the line in New York with yet another
computer challenge, as he attempts to prove that "human players are not
hopeless." Kasparov takes on the Israeli-built program Deep Junior in a
$1 million Man vs Machine match at the New York Athletic Club, running
26 January to 7 February.

For the first time the match will be sanctioned by world chess
federation FIDE, who have endorsed the six-game showdown as the first
Man vs Machine World Championship match. While Kasparov is regarded as
the greatest player in history who has held the No.1 spot for 18 years,
Deep Junior -- which hasn't lost to a human in two years and still has
been tweaked along the way -- is the reigning World Computer Chess
champion.

Meanwhile, the human vs human encounter at the Corus Tournament on the
Dutch coast of Wijk aan Zee is turning into a battle of the sexes as
Vishy Anand holds onto a slender half point lead at the top from the
lone female player in the event, Judit Polgar, with one remaining round
to be played.

A Shirov - V Anand
Corus 'A', (10)
Caro-Kann Advanced
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 Nge2 c5 7 Be3 Nc6 8 dxc5
Nxe5 9 Nf4 Ne7 10 Qe2 N7c6 11 0-0-0 Be7 12 Nfxd5 exd5 13 f4 d4 14 h4
Nd3+ 15 cxd3 h5 16 f5 Bh7 17 Bd2 dxc3 18 Bxc3 0-0 19 d4 a5 20 a3 Re8 21
Qc4 Bxh4 22 Bd3 hxg4 23 Kb1 Qg5 24 Ka1 Rad8 25 Bb1 Ne7 26 Bxa5 Bxf5 27
Bxd8 Rxd8 28 Rhf1 g6 29 Qb3 Be6 30 Qxb7 Qd5 31 Qxd5 Nxd5 32 Rh1 Bf2 33
c6 Rc8 34 Rc1 g3 35 Be4 Nf6 36 Bg2 Bd5 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON, Press Officer