GM Garry Kasparov vs. Deep Blue 
 The First Match, (1996) 

 (I have like 6 books and pamphlets ... and dozens of newspaper and magazine articles that I had saved. I thought it would be cool to use all this stuff, and cover these games.) 

***

I wrote about these matches (K. vs. DB) extensively for several different state magazines.
(FL, AL, GA, MS, LA TX, KN, NC, SC, VA, etc.)

Not all of the stuff I wrote was printed, some was even printed in city newsletters, etc.
(Many people wanted my opinion. At the time, I was a very active Master, and I had
 a reputation as a "computer-buster" in tournaments. {Back then many machines were
  allowed to play in USCF-rated events, and I routinely beat them.}  I had also worked in
 the computer field. So when it got out that I was writing about the "human-vs. computer"
 matches, I was literally inundated with requests. While most of this stuff never went any
 higher than the <State Magazine Level> (if that far), I am still proud of this work. Many
 have told me the analysis was better than what was published in national magazines.)

What I will try to do now is go back and see how much of this stuff I can find.
I will endeavor to clean it up, check it, and reproduce it here. - A.J. Goldsby I. 

 (Click on the link(s) below, to be taken to the page for that game.) 

  Game # 1      Game # 2      Game # 3      
  Game # 4      Game # 5      Game # 6      

   The FIRST big ACM Match   

   The first big ACM Match was held in London in 1992. It was NOT a chess match, but    
   a checkers match. There the reigning World Champion, Dr. Marion Tinsley, took on a     
   program called,  "Chinnook."  I have no idea of what the outcome of this event was.    

(If you know of any of the details for this match, PLEASE! .......  send them to me.) 

   GM G. Kasparov versus (IBM's) Deep Blue, The First Match (#1) 

by A.J. Goldsby I  (First drafted in October, 2002.) 

*************************************************************************************

Does anyone remember 1996?  (I do. Today's teen-ager on the average Internet-Chess-Server does not!)  The amount of excitement and anticipation over the scheduled match between Kasparov and Deep Blue was simply enormous. Could a  machine  beat the REIGNING (chess)  World Champion?  
Well ... maybe, and maybe not ................................................
we would all just have to wait and see. 

Garry certainly had a lot of motivation for this match. The 'Honor of Mankind,' for one thing. His prestige as Chess WORLD CHAMPION, for another. (Plus his large ego.) 
Not to mention ... a HUGE ... $ 500,000.00 (HALF A MILLION dollars) prize fund!!! 

The time control was like 40 moves in 2.5 hours, then 20 moves per hour after that. Literally DOZENS of organizations had jumped on the band-wagon, and wanted to be a part of this event. ACM = The Association of Computing Machinery, The  ICCA, (The International Computer Chess Association); et cetera, et cetera, etc; ad infinitum, ad nauseum. 

Deep Blue was a creation of the research team at  IBM.  (IBM = International Business Machines, or commonly called  "BIG BLUE."  A 'blue-chip' stock, they are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.)  They had taken a very promising young programmer, (Dr. Feng-Hsuing Hsu); and his creation, (DEEP Thought); and sponsored him. They basically gave him an unlimited amount of funds, and access to all the raw computing power he could get his hands on. There was no limit ... IBM super-computers and whole banks of mainframes were at his beck and call. Additionally, Hsu had designed  ... ... ...  
HIS OWN CHIP ... THAT DID   NOTHING   BUT PLAY CHESS!!!!  
That's right, a chip that is massively integrated and parallel,   (256 of them!!!);   and it is installed into a sub-unit; that is plugged into THREE IBM super-computers! (IBM claims that only 1 super-computer was used for this match. But I had a friend who worked for IBM in their research department at the time this game was played. He told  me - quite plainly - that there were  THREE  super-computers connected {via phone lines and cables} to the event, and that they ran ... AROUND THE CLOCK.)  A simply monstrous amount of computing power - certainly by 1996 standards! This is a machine that could do TRILLIONS of calculations PER SECOND ... and evaluate nearly  HALF-A-MILLION chess positions ... every tick of the (chess) clock!!! It would seem that a human being had no chance against such a formidable and extremely expensive array of hardware!! (A 'CAVE' experiment of unusual proportions. This machine might have an impact on future experiments into the field of VIRTUAL REALITY.) 

The media frenzy over this whole affair, it seemed like it would surpass the great Fischer-Spassky Match in 1972. There were daily articles and coverage on TV, Magazines, Newspapers, etc. The national daily newspaper,  "USA TODAY"  even carried the score of the games ... as they do mainly for World Championship encounters. 

**********

I personally predicted that Garry Kasparov would nuke the computer. 
---> But I was sadly wrong. (Well, not that far off  ...  actually.) 

You see, I had a VERY unusual outlook/perspective on this match. First, I was a  chess master.  (MUCH less than one percent - of one percent - of the world's population ever attains this title.) Secondly I had a deep and extensive background working with chess and computers. I had developed something of a reputation as a computer killer in local tournaments. (So much so, that several companies that manufactured chess boxes used to send me their boxes and programs to evaluate.) Additionally, I was also a programmer, and had helped to create one of the VERY FIRST programs in the country, (circa 1973 or 1974);  that could actually play a game of chess. (One of the members of our 'team' worked with another individual - - - whose work {later} often gets credit for this accomplishment.)  I had also read everything I could get my hands on that dealt with the field of computers and chess. So to say I was something of an expert in this field is putting it mildly. 

And ... at that time ... chess programs and machines, on the whole; were very, very, VERY WEAK!!! The average  GM  - in a slow game - would wipe them off the board. (It was not until nearly 5 years later ... with MAJOR advances in both software AND hardware ... that the average PC {program} became capable of beating the general, run-of-the-mill FIDE Grand-Master.)  

So when Garry sat down to play IBM's "Deep Chunk" (as I liked to refer to it);  I completely and totally expected a major wipe-out. (I thought it possible that Garry might win every game!!) 

But I had vastly under-estimated both the machine, (and its capabilities); and the amount of work and preparation that went into the development of  DEEP BLUE I.  (Their team consisted of many good players - and programmers.) They had put practically every game of chess that Garry had ever played into a database that the computer could instantaneously access. Plus they had developed a database of nearly 750,000 modern, master-level games. And the computer's opening repertoire had been also prepared by a team of experts. It was not really unfair to say that Garry was literally facing a "stacked deck!" In retrospect, we should be surprised that Garry managed to do as well as he did!

This was going to be fun to watch! And an epic moment in chess history. 
(And perhaps even a noteworthy moment for science ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 
 and the history of computing machines/artificial intelligence.) 

  Click  HERE  to go to game one (#1) of this match.  

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This page was last updated on 03/26/06 .

  Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby I 

  Copyright (©) A.J. Goldsby,  1997 - 2004 & 2005.  All rights reserved.