Chess legend Garry Kasparov and supercomputer Deep Junior played to a draw on Sunday, leaving their Man vs. Machine series tied 2-2 after four games.
The computer played with white pieces and moved first, putting Kasparov on the defensive. Kasparov repelled the computer’s attacks until neither player could make progress and the draw was called. Kasparov said he intends to capture the six-match series by winning the fifth game, in which the computer will play black, and then at least drawing the sixth.
”Game 1 and Game 3 showed that Deep Junior has significant problems with the black pieces,” Kasparov said.
Kasparov won Game 1, and Game 2 ended in a draw, earning a half-point each. Kasparov said he lost Game 3 when he blundered because of fatigue. The fifth game will be played Wednesday. Sunday’s Game 4, which went to 61 moves, lasted about five hours and was the longest of the series. The other games had been around four hours or less.
Kasparov (39) rose to chess prominence as a Soviet junior champion in 1976, at age 12. He has held the world’s No. 1 point-system ranking since 1984, despite occasional losses to humans, and has achieved legendary status in the chess world.
Deep Junior won the last official world chess championship for computers in July.
The match is sanctioned by the World Chess Federation, which will pay Kasparov $500 000 for playing and another $300 000 if he beats Deep Junior, which has not lost a match against a human in two years.
Kasparov lost to IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997. He claimed the computer may have been given hints by humans, and it was dismantled.
The Deep Junior games can be followed live on sponsor X3D Technologies’ Web site. – Sapa-AP