Deep Blue beats Kasparov at chess
In the first game of a six-game match an IBM computer dubbed Deep Blue becomes the first machine to beat a reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov.Despite this initial upset victory man ultimately triumphed over machine as Kasparov goes went on to win the match 4-2.Garry Kasparov considered one of the greatest players in the history of chess was born April 13 1963 in the Russian republic of Azerbaijan.At 13 he was the Russian junior chess champ and in 1985 at 22 he became the youngest world champion in history when he defeated Anatoly Karpov.Deep Blues origins date back to 1985 when Carnegie Mellon University doctoral student Feng Hsiung Hsu began developing a chess-playing computer called ChipTest.
Hsu was joined on the project by Thomas Anantharaman and Murray Campbell and the computer later came to be known as Deep Thought after a machine in the science-fiction novel The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.The men were later hired by IBM where they continued to work on the chess-playing computer.In 1989 Gary Kasparov easily trounced Deep Thought when they met for a 2-game match.
Developers continued to refine the supercomputer which in 1993 was renamed Deep Blue a combination of Deep Thought and Big Blue IBMs nickname.The 6-game match between Kasparov and Deep Blue began on February 10 1996 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.Although Deep Blue was capable of evaluating 100 million different chess positions per second the IBM team wasnt sure how the computer would perform in competition and Kasparov was favored to win.Instead much to his frustration the world chess champ lost the first game to Deep Blue.
However the tenacious brilliant Kasparov quickly staged a comeback by winning the second game.The third and fourth games ended in a draw while Kasparov took the fifth and sixth games for a score of 4-2.A heavily publicized second 6-game match between man and machine began on May 3 1997.For this match an upgraded Deep Blue was able to examine 200 million different chess positions per second.
Kasparov took the first game while Deep Blue won the second.The third fourth and fifth games ended in a draw.On May 11 Deep Blue won the sixth as well as the match 3.5 to 2.5.
The victory was a huge publicity boost for IBM.A disgruntled Kasparov suggested Deep Blue had been aided by some sort of human assistance during the games charges that IBM denied.Kasparov demanded a rematch but instead IBM retired Deep Blue.Kasparov retained his world chess champion title until 2000.
In March 2005 he announced his retirement from professional chess.
