chess

When the chips were down, writes William Hartston, the chips had their chips. After four games between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, scores were level and the dawn of machine dominance seemed upon us. In the last two games, however, Kasparov brutally exposed some of the deficiencies of machine thought.

Game 5: DB-Kasparov

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4 Bb4 6 Nxc6 bxc6 7 Bd3 d5 8 exd5 cxd5 9 0-0 0-0 10 Bg5 c6 11 Qf3 Be7 12 Rae1 Re8 13 Ne2 h6 14 Bf4 Bd6 15 Nd4 Bg4 16 Qg3 Bxf4 17 Qxf4 Qb6 18 c4 Bd7 19 cxd5 cxd5 20 Rxe8+ Rxe8 21 Qd2 Ne4 22 Bxe4 dxe4 23 b3 Rd8 24 Qc3 f5 25 Rd1 Be6 26 Qe3 Bf7 27 Qc3 f4 28 Rd2 Qf6 29 g3 Rd5 30 a3 Kh7 31 Kg2 Qe5 32 f3 e3 33 Rd3 e2 34 gxf4 e1=Q 35 fxe5 Qxc3 36 Rxc3 Rxd4 37 b4 Bc4 38 Kf2 g5 39 Re3 Rd2+ 40 Ke1 Rd3 41 Kf2 Kg6 42 Rxd3 Bxd3 43 Ke3 Bc2 44 Kd4 Kf5 45 Kd5 h5 White resigned.

The final game (full moves were given in yesterday's news pages) was even worse for the machine. In a passive position, it dithered to and fro while Kasparov strangled it to death.

Moral One: even at a billion computations a second, a machine may not have the faintest idea what's going on.

Moral Two: even without having the faintest idea what's going on, a machine may defeat the world champion.