Deep Blue versus Kasparov (KOR)

Roh Jeong-tae The author is a writer and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research. On May 11, 1997, in New York, Garry Kasparov struggled to conceal his anxiety before a packed audience and live television cameras. The Russian chess grandmaster, regarded as one of the greatest players in history and world champion from 1985 to 2000, was facing an unusually formidable opponent: Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-specialized supercomputer. Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, sits deep in thought ahead of the sixth game of the human-versus-computer chess match held in New York in May 1997. In the foreground, an IBM computer engineer operates the chess supercomputer Deep Blue. [AFP/YONHAP] Kasparov had already defeated Deep Blue the previous year, winning three games with two draws and one loss. It had not been easy, but he remained confident. When the two met again in 1997, however, the machine had evolved. After five tense matches, the score stood at one win, three draws