Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1997, Game 6
Encyclopedia
The Sixth game of the Deep Blue - Kasparov rematch, played in New York City
on May 11, 1997 and starting at 3:00 p.m. EDT
, was the last chess
game in the rematch of 1997 of Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov
. (Deep Blue was further strengthened from the previous year's match with Kasparov and was unofficially nicknamed "Deeper Blue".) It marked the first time that a computer had defeated a World Champion in a match of several games. This, as well as the fact that Kasparov had only lasted 19 moves in this game, attracted much media attention. This final game lasted barely more than an hour.
Before this game the score was tied at 2½-2½. Kasparov had won the first game, lost the second game (after resigning in a drawn
position) and drawn games 3, 4 and 5 after having advantageous positions in all three.
Black: Garry Kasparov
Opening: Caro-Kann Defense
, Steinitz Variation, B17
1.e4 c6
Somewhat atypically, Kasparov plays the solid Caro-Kann Defense. In later matches against computers he opted for 1...e5 or 1...c5, the sharp Sicilian Defence
, Kasparov's usual choice against human opponents.
2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5
This relatively recent innovation breaks one of the classic opening principles ("don't move the same piece twice in the opening"), but puts pressure on the weak f7 square. Kasparov had played this move himself as White at least three times earlier.
5...Ngf6
Not 5...h6? 6.Ne6! fxe6?? 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qxg6#.( 6....Qb6 7.Nxf8 Nxf8 8.c3 Bf5 9.Nge2 Nf6 10.a4 N8d7 11.Ng3 Bg6 12.Bd3 . Deep Rybka 3 gives ( 0.13 ) advantage towards White.)
6.Bd3 e6 7.N1f3 h6?
A strange blunder
by Kasparov, one of the most theoretically knowledgeable players in chess history. Apparently Kasparov got his opening moves mixed up, playing ...h6 a move too early. The normal 7...Bd6 8.Qe2 h6 9.Ne4 Nxe4 10.Qxe4 was played in Kasparov(!)-Kamsky, 1994 and Kasparov-Epishin, 1995, among other games. The upcoming sacrifice
is well known to theory and Kasparov must have known about it (in fact, there are some reports that he even wrote an article supporting 8.Nxe6 as a refutation). Objectively speaking, the move may be OK, although the resulting position is very tough for a human player to defend. Rajlich later indicated that the decisive error may have been on move 11, pointing out that Rybka
was prepared to play this in a 2007 computer match.
8.Nxe6!
The computer is aided by having this knight
sacrifice programmed into the opening book
. This move had been played in a number of previous high-level games, with White achieving a huge plus score. However, had Deep Blue been on its own, it would probably not have played this. The compensation White gets for the material is not obvious enough for the computer to see by itself. As an indication of how far computer chess has progressed in recent years, modern chess programs running on ordinary desktop computers do find Ng5xe6 without their opening books.
8...Qe7
Instead of taking the knight immediately, Kasparov pins
the knight to the king
in order to give his king a square on d8. However, many annotators have criticized this move and said that Kasparov ought to have taken the knight immediately. Although the Black king uses two moves to reach d8 after 8...fxe6 9.Bg6+ Ke7, the Black queen can be placed at the superior c7 square.
9.0-0
White castles
so that 9...Qxe6?? loses to 10.Re1 pinning and winning the black queen
. Black must now take the knight or he will be a pawn down.
9...fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.Bf4
If Black's bishop were on d6 instead of f8, White would not be able to play this. For the sacrificed knight, White's bishops
have a stranglehold on Black's position. Black, having moved his king, can no longer castle, his queen is blocking his own bishop, and he has trouble getting out his pieces and making use of his extra knight.
11...b5?
The first new move of the game and Deep Blue must now start thinking on its own. Kasparov's idea is to get some breathing room on his queenside and prevent White from playing c4. The move has however been marked as a mistake by Schwartzman, Seirawan, and Rajlich as it weakens the queenside pawn structure and invites White to open lines.
12.a4 Bb7 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Bg3 Kc8 15.axb5 cxb5 16.Qd3 Bc6 17.Bf5
White is pounding at Black's e6 pawn and is planning to invade the position with his rooks. Kasparov cannot hold onto all his extra material and desperately decides to surrender his queen for a rook and a bishop.
17...exf5? 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 Black Resigns
Black resigns because the white queen will soon invade through c4 or f5, and once Re1 is played it will be lights out. A sample line would be: 19...bxc4 20.Qxc4 Nb4 (20...Kb7 21.Qa6 mate!) 21.Re1 Kd8 22.Rxe7 Kxe7 23.Qxb4+. It was the shortest loss of Kasparov's career.
After the game Kasparov was in a foul mood and accused the Deep Blue team of cheating (i.e. having a team of human masters to aid the computer). Although Kasparov wanted another rematch, IBM
declined and ended their Deep Blue program.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on May 11, 1997 and starting at 3:00 p.m. EDT
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, was the last chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
game in the rematch of 1997 of Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov
Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov
Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov was a pair of famous six-game human-computer chess matches played between the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue and the World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. The first match was played in February 1996 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kasparov won the match 4–2, losing one...
. (Deep Blue was further strengthened from the previous year's match with Kasparov and was unofficially nicknamed "Deeper Blue".) It marked the first time that a computer had defeated a World Champion in a match of several games. This, as well as the fact that Kasparov had only lasted 19 moves in this game, attracted much media attention. This final game lasted barely more than an hour.
Before this game the score was tied at 2½-2½. Kasparov had won the first game, lost the second game (after resigning in a drawn
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
position) and drawn games 3, 4 and 5 after having advantageous positions in all three.
Game
White: Deep BlueBlack: Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
Opening: Caro-Kann Defense
Caro-Kann Defence
The Caro-Kann Defence is a chess opening —a common defense against the King's Pawn Opening characterised by the moves:The usual continuation isfollowed by 3.Nc3 , 3.Nd2 , 3.exd5 , or 3.e5 . The classical variation has gained much popularity...
, Steinitz Variation, B17
1.e4 c6
Somewhat atypically, Kasparov plays the solid Caro-Kann Defense. In later matches against computers he opted for 1...e5 or 1...c5, the sharp Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
, Kasparov's usual choice against human opponents.
2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5
This relatively recent innovation breaks one of the classic opening principles ("don't move the same piece twice in the opening"), but puts pressure on the weak f7 square. Kasparov had played this move himself as White at least three times earlier.
5...Ngf6
Not 5...h6? 6.Ne6! fxe6?? 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qxg6#.( 6....Qb6 7.Nxf8 Nxf8 8.c3 Bf5 9.Nge2 Nf6 10.a4 N8d7 11.Ng3 Bg6 12.Bd3 . Deep Rybka 3 gives ( 0.13 ) advantage towards White.)
6.Bd3 e6 7.N1f3 h6?
A strange blunder
Blunder (chess)
In chess, a blunder is a very bad move. It is usually caused by some tactical oversight, whether from time trouble, overconfidence or carelessness. While a blunder may seem like a stroke of luck for the opposing player, some chess players give their opponent plenty of opportunities to blunder.What...
by Kasparov, one of the most theoretically knowledgeable players in chess history. Apparently Kasparov got his opening moves mixed up, playing ...h6 a move too early. The normal 7...Bd6 8.Qe2 h6 9.Ne4 Nxe4 10.Qxe4 was played in Kasparov(!)-Kamsky, 1994 and Kasparov-Epishin, 1995, among other games. The upcoming sacrifice
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
is well known to theory and Kasparov must have known about it (in fact, there are some reports that he even wrote an article supporting 8.Nxe6 as a refutation). Objectively speaking, the move may be OK, although the resulting position is very tough for a human player to defend. Rajlich later indicated that the decisive error may have been on move 11, pointing out that Rybka
Rybka
Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. , Rybka is one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and has won many computer chess tournaments...
was prepared to play this in a 2007 computer match.
8.Nxe6!
The computer is aided by having this knight
Knight (chess)
The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
sacrifice programmed into the opening book
Opening book
Chess opening book refers either to a book on chess openings, or to a database of chess openings used by chess programs.-Literature:Opening books, which discuss chess openings, are by far the most common type of literature on Chess play...
. This move had been played in a number of previous high-level games, with White achieving a huge plus score. However, had Deep Blue been on its own, it would probably not have played this. The compensation White gets for the material is not obvious enough for the computer to see by itself. As an indication of how far computer chess has progressed in recent years, modern chess programs running on ordinary desktop computers do find Ng5xe6 without their opening books.
8...Qe7
Instead of taking the knight immediately, Kasparov pins
Pin (chess)
In chess, a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece...
the knight to the king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
in order to give his king a square on d8. However, many annotators have criticized this move and said that Kasparov ought to have taken the knight immediately. Although the Black king uses two moves to reach d8 after 8...fxe6 9.Bg6+ Ke7, the Black queen can be placed at the superior c7 square.
9.0-0
White castles
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
so that 9...Qxe6?? loses to 10.Re1 pinning and winning the black queen
Queen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
. Black must now take the knight or he will be a pawn down.
9...fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.Bf4
If Black's bishop were on d6 instead of f8, White would not be able to play this. For the sacrificed knight, White's bishops
Bishop (chess)
A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
have a stranglehold on Black's position. Black, having moved his king, can no longer castle, his queen is blocking his own bishop, and he has trouble getting out his pieces and making use of his extra knight.
11...b5?
The first new move of the game and Deep Blue must now start thinking on its own. Kasparov's idea is to get some breathing room on his queenside and prevent White from playing c4. The move has however been marked as a mistake by Schwartzman, Seirawan, and Rajlich as it weakens the queenside pawn structure and invites White to open lines.
12.a4 Bb7 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Bg3 Kc8 15.axb5 cxb5 16.Qd3 Bc6 17.Bf5
White is pounding at Black's e6 pawn and is planning to invade the position with his rooks. Kasparov cannot hold onto all his extra material and desperately decides to surrender his queen for a rook and a bishop.
17...exf5? 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 Black Resigns
Black resigns because the white queen will soon invade through c4 or f5, and once Re1 is played it will be lights out. A sample line would be: 19...bxc4 20.Qxc4 Nb4 (20...Kb7 21.Qa6 mate!) 21.Re1 Kd8 22.Rxe7 Kxe7 23.Qxb4+. It was the shortest loss of Kasparov's career.
After the game Kasparov was in a foul mood and accused the Deep Blue team of cheating (i.e. having a team of human masters to aid the computer). Although Kasparov wanted another rematch, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
declined and ended their Deep Blue program.