10th February, 2003

MANKIND lives to fight another day in the battle of wits with the
machines, as world number one Garry Kasparov and three-time world
computer chess champion Deep Junior ended their $1m six-game Man v
Machine FIDE World Championship match held at the New York Athletic Club
with a draw, to tie the series at 3-3.

For the first time in the match Kasparov bravely decided to opt for his
trademark Sicilian Najdorf, and equalized with ease as Deep Junior
somewhat surprisingly eschewed all the wild complications of the main
line that would normally favour the unlimited analytical capabilities of
a computer. After nearly four hours of intense play, Kasparov made a
breakthrough with a thematic exchange sacrifice, only to surprisingly
follow this up with a draw offer. Deep Junior turned it down but five
moves later returned the offer, and Kasparov readily accepted -- to boos
from the capacity crowd who thought he had the better of the position.
Still smarting from his defeat six years ago to IBM's Deep Blue, also in
New York, Kasparov opted for safety rather than valour. "I had one item
on my agenda today: not to lose," Kasparov said after Friday's finale.
"And a draw was a good result." He said the strain of the series' five
other games and "dangerous reminiscences" of his fatal encounter with
Deep Blue, seen by some as a watershed moment in technological
advancement, weighed heavily on his mind.

This was the second Man v Machine contest in the last four months,
Kasparov's nemesis Vladimir Kramnik battled the program Deep Fritz to a
4-4 draw in Bahrain last October and also found the pressures of playing
a silicon opponent that plays some elements of the game perfectly and
some abjectly, a considerable strain.

Both the programmers Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky took home half the
price fund of $250,000, with Kasparov received the same amount plus his
'sweetener' of $500,000 for his appearance fee. The Israeli's claimed
their program, which runs on a simple PC are better than Deep Blue which
was backed up by hundreds of parallel processors and needed its own
room. We will never know because after Deep Blue's historic victory, its
creators mothballed it and it will likely never play again. Recently
IBM donated one of the 1.4 ton towers that were specially designed to
take on Kasparov to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

The match also created enormous media interest in New York and was held
under the patronage of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hosted by X3D a new
technology company who create three dimensional media and games
products, and produced on behalf of FIDE by the redoubtable Serge
Grimaux. The match also made a major breakthrough for the game in the
USA, as the worldwide interest generated by Kasparov's high-profile
tussle with Deep Junior led to one of the main US television sports
networks, ESPN2, to carry the sixth and final game live -- no doubt
adding further pressure to Kasparov, as they hoped for a repeat of the
Deep Blue debacle.

The last time such in-depth live coverage of chess was seen in the US
was the infamous Fischer-Spassky cold war of the mind encounter of 1972
that gripped the nation. Lasting three and half-hours, the program was
broadcast direct from the match venue - hosted by a leading ESPN anchor,
and ably assisted by the upbeat commentary team of Yasser Seirawan and
Maurice Ashley - and was aired between the more mainstream sports of PGA
golf and NBA basketball.

DEEP JUNIOR - G Kasparov
FIDE Man-Machine, (6)
Sicilian Najdorf
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e5 7 Nb3 Be7 8 0-0
0-0 9 Kh1 Bd7 10 Be3 Bc6 11 Bf3 Nbd7 12 a4 b6 13 Qd3 Bb7 14 h3 Rc8 15
Rad1 h6 16 Rfe1 Qc7 17 g3 Rfd8 18 Kh2 Re8 19 Re2 Qc4 20 Qxc4 Rxc4 21 Nd2
Rc7 22 Bg2 Rec8 23 Nb3 Rxc3 24 bxc3 Bxe4 25 Bc1 Bxg2 26 Kxg2 Rxc3 27 Ba3
Ne8 28 f4 draw

JOHN B HENDERSON