World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses one game to a computer

After three hours of play, Garry Kasparov, the world champion in chess, loses the first of six games against Deep Blue. This IBM Computer can evaluate 200 million moves per second, but Kasparov defeated Deep Blue with three wins and two ties and won the $400,000 prize. The action was followed online by an estimated 6 million people.

Kasparov had defeated Deep Thought in a previous match. However, he and other grandmasters of chess have lost to computers at times in games lasting less than an hour. In February 1996, the contest was historic in that it marked the first time that a human and computer had fought it out in a six-game regulation match. Each player had two hours for 40 moves, two hours for the next 20 moves, and another 60 minutes to end the game.

Kasparov was born in Baku in Azerbaijan, in 1963. He became the Soviet Union’s junior champion in chess at the age of 13. In 1985, he became the youngest-ever world champ when he defeated Anatoly Karpov, a Soviet legend. Kasparov is widely considered to be the greatest chess player in history. His swashbuckling style and ability to change tactics mid-game made him a favorite.

A rematch was held between Kasparov (and an enhanced Deep Blue) in 1997. Kasparov won the opening game and the computer the second. The next three games were a draw. Deep Blue won the sixth game and the match prize of $700,000.

In 2003, Kasparov faced Deep Junior, a computer program. The match ended in a tie. In 2005, Kasparov quit professional chess.


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