Author: Amir Ban
Date: 14:11:26 02/09/03
[Event "X3D Man vs. Machine"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2003.02.07"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Deep Junior 8"]
[Black "Garry Kasparov"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B92"]
1. e4
{There was huge excitement everywhere for this final deciding game. ESPN had
done a long interview with us the day before, and were now covering it live, the
first time ever they have covered a chess event. Every game so far had been
exciting, with creativity and good chess shown by both. It was a shame that this
last deciding game was to be different: uneventful and somewhat lacking in
content}
1... c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6
{Najdorf at last}
6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Kh1 Bd7
{A strange move to play here. This match had undercurrents and one of them was
the battle of opening preparations. Kasparov, with his team, is acknowledged as
the world's best in this regard, and after game one we feared that he is going
to kill us with preparation alone. However, as the match progressed, with the
intense effort that Boris Alterman was putting into this, it became clear that
we are getting the upper hand, what with Nfd7 in game 4 and this move. We did
not play the expected Rauzer 6. Bg5 and this move seems designed to avoid
anything Boris had in mind}
10. Be3 Bc6 11. Bf3
{With both bishops misplaced Deep Junior is unable to develop any meaningful
initiative for the rest of the game. We knew that in this sort of position
Junior does not much like the move f4, and we debated whether we want to play
this move out of book. The decision taken was not to do so, and let the engine
make the choice. This move shuts out this possibility}
11... Nbd7 12. a4 b6 13. Qd3 Bb7 14. h3 Rc8 15. Rad1 h6 16. Rfe1 Qc7 17. g3
{An attempt to put the bishop on a more sensible square and get white's game
going, but it's too late since that exchange of queens can no longer be avoided}
17... Rfd8 18. Kh2 Re8
{Who's the computer here, white or black ?}
19. Re2 Qc4 20. Qxc4 Rxc4 21. Nd2 Rc7 22. Bg2 Rec8 23. Nb3 Rxc3 24. bxc3 Bxe4
25. Bc1
{Kasparov overlooked this strong move. It's probably here that he decided it's
time to draw}
25... Bxg2 26. Kxg2 Rxc3
{Draw was offered here by Kasparov. He told the arbiter that since the program
was showing negative score, he can claim a draw. He has no such right in the
rules, and the arbiter quite properly answered "no comment". In fact Deep Junior
was showing +0.40, but Boris said white has no advantage and was inclined to
accept. We initially declined the offer and then a debate started between me and
Boris, with Shay (who was operating) joining us every few minutes. Boris
suggested 27. Ba3 Rc4 and we let DJ analyze on the backup machine. It would
continue 28. a5 and felt quite good about itself.}
27. Ba3 Ne8
{After this move Boris, in his gentle way, became more insistent: 28. f4 f6 and
the black king comes to e6. If white now plays a5, said Boris, then I as black
play b5 and I want to win! We both could see on the analysis machine that Junior
wanted to play a5 in every possible variation. I had to agree that Boris was
making more sense than Deep Junior.}
28. f4 {Draw agreed. Match over!
In the ESPN interview held while still in the playing room, and later in the
press conference Kasparov quite candidly said that he thought he had the better
position but would not risk losing} 1/2-1/2
Amir
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