The basis for this strange sounding request apparently was the suspicion that there might be some form of human intervention in the chess games. Although the computer is as strong if not stronger than any human chess player in the world, the possibility exists that a bug in the program might arise and the grandmasters sitting in the Deep Blue "War Room", namely Joel Benjamin of the USA and Miquel Illescas of Spain, might jump in and save the computer from a catastrophic loss.

The computer printout of the game not only contains the moves to the game but also contains lines of analysis showing the computer's reasoning of why it played the moves it did.

The printouts would show whether human intervention had taken place and whether the computer had been told to play another move or at least to think longer.

Because of the complaint and protest from Kasparov, Arbiter Carol Jarecki was called, along with Frederick Friedel, Kasparov's Computer Chess Adviser, and Ken Thompson, Deep Blue's technical adviser.

The ruling from Carol Jarecki was that, since the seizure of the computer printouts was not part of the contract between IBM and Kasparov, this claim would be disallowed.

However, after Kasparov had lodged this protest, the Deep Blue team announced that it had decided to give Kasparov the printouts anyway.

It turned out that this was a repeat of a claim which had been made by the Kasparov team privately before yesterday's game. Frederick Friedel said that the reason for this protest would not be commented upon at this time. That would be revealed after the match was over, Friedel said.

After the game, Kasparov said that he had seen the draw by perpetual check coming as early as move 40, but that it was forced and there was nothing he could do to stop it. None of the other grandmasters in attendance had seen the draw coming until almost the very end.

In an interview after the conclusion of the game, Kasparov said that he knows chess openings better than any other player in the world and also that he can out calculate "easily" any other chess player in the world, but nevertheless he is afraid of the computer and is not afraid to say that he is afraid.

In a separate interview, Grandmaster Joel Benjamin said that in this match, Kasparov had changed his openings and also had changed his style of play. As a result, none of the "advantage" which Kasparov had complained about, that Deep Blue has in its database every game that Kasparov has ever played whereas Kasparov had never previously seen even one game played by the current version of Deep Blue, has any significance.

For more about the fifth round game and the controversy at the conclusion of the game, see:

Deep Blue Battles Kasparov to a Draw .

Sam Sloan

Susan Polgar and the Kasparov - Deep Blue Chess Match.

Polgar Book Just Out .

Zsuzsa Polgar, the Woman's World Chess Champion, was required to pay an admission fee of $25 to get in to watch the Kasparov - Deep Blue, Man vs. Computer, Chess Match. See: Polgar Must Pay . For Zsuzsa Polgar's comments on the match, as quoted in The New York Times, see: Computer Defeats Kasparov, Stunning the Chess Experts .