IBM's chip shot beats Garry
By ANDY SOLTIS
Deep Blue made history yesterday as it became the first computer to defeat a world chess champion in a serious match -- crushing Garry Kasparov in a stunning 19 moves.
A scowling Kasparov bolted away from the board after he resigned -- and later charged that the IBM-backed machine had an unfair advantage.
"It was nothing to do about science ... It was zeal to beat Garry Kasparov," he said.
"When a big corporation with unlimited resources would like to do so, there are many ways to achieve the result. And the result was achieved."
The hourlong loss -- the shortest in Kasparov's 20-year career -- gave Deep Blue two wins, three draws and only one loss in the six-game match.
The machine's research fund received the $700,000 winner's share from IBM, while Kasparov received $400,000.
But that was no consolation to the 34-year-old Russian who said he was "ashamed" at his own play -- and hinted that Deep Blue was receiving illegal help from humans.
"I ask you and everyone else to study the printouts," he said at a post-game press conference.
Asked if the machine was cheating, Deep Blue team manager C.J. Tan shot back: "The answer is no, N-O."
Kasparov said he "cracked under the pressure ... because I'm a human being."
He said he had "major, major problems" in concentrating after it was revealed a week ago that he had resigned the second game in the match in a drawable position -- an unprecedented blunder.
But he said "in a real match, in competitive chess, the machine would be badly, badly beaten."
Kasparov repeatedly said the match was not "competitive chess" but didn't explain why.
The match was played under the normal international time limit, in which each side had two hours to play 40 moves.
He said he was forced to play inferior opening lines -- "crap" -- because the machine would be too well prepared for his best weapons.
In the final game Kasparov adopted the solid Caro-Kann Defense but went wrong by the seventh move, allowing a strong and well-known sacrifice of a knight for a pawn.
By the 17th move Kasparov's pieces were in a mess and he decided to give up his queen the next move -- and the game a move after that.
The match was not just man vs. machine but the United States vs. Russia because two of the top American grandmasters, John Fedorowicz and Nick deFirmian, had been secretly preparing Deep Blue in the weeks before play began May 3.
Kasparov, who has never lost a serious match, had defeated Deep Blue by a 4-2 score last year and predicted he would win the rematch easily.
Organizers said a third match would be discussed over the next few months.
Kasparov said he wouldn't play again under IBM's sponsorship.
"Competitive chess has no room for friendly relations," he said.
In contrast to Kasparov, Deep Blue's programmers took the result calmly.
"We on the IBM Deep Blue team are indeed very proud that we've played a role in this historic event," Tan said.
Copyright ©1997, N.Y.P. Holdings Inc.