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STD HD: Internet Info for Real People by Bob Brand

subhead: Deep Blue

The Super Bowl of chess was played a few months ago. The people who follow

chess (and read mainstream media magazines) know that the world chess champ,

Gary Kasparov, was beaten in the six game match by IBM's super-duper chess

computer, Deep Blue. Leading up to the first match on May 3, netsters were

barraged with promotion hype not seen on the Net since the announcement of the

commercial release of Windows 95. IBM had its spin machine running at full

throttle. Over 50 websites were paid to display "clickable" banner ads. (When

you click on the ad, the browser transports the surfer to the IBM site where

they get exposed to the full story.)

All this promotion paid off. It appears that the site received 4 million

visits over the course of the match. There were over 420,000 individual user

visits to the IBM chess site. The Los Angeles Times reported that this

"compared favorably with the viewership of some cable television programs."

IBM threw a party and lots of people showed up.

Chess and Basketball

I don't actively follow chess or college basketball. However, when the NCAA

playoffs are televised, I get caught up in the excitement and watch many of

the games. To an outsider, watching a live chess match is one step above

watching wet cement convert into concrete. However, many casual chess players

find professional matches exciting. I clearly remember watching the Boris

Spaasky-Bobby Fischer tournament televised from Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972.

I was looking forward to the Kasparov-IBM encounter. This was a Net-only event

- no TV. In preparation for the cyber-broadcast, I visited the IBM site prior

to the start of the first game and downloaded the JAVA software needed to view

the live graphics. Installation went smoothly.

As luck would have it, an unscheduled event threw a wrench in my plans. I

arrived at the IBM site 1.5 hours after the first match had started. It was a

disaster. The site was so overrun with visitors that I could not get past the

opening home page. All the play-by-play action unfolded deeper into the site.

I was annoyed, frustrated, and, frankly, ticked off at IBM, which apparently

had not anticipated the volume of activity. My Saturday viewing was a complete

washout.

The First Game

In game 1, Gary Kasparov played the white pieces (giving him a clear

advantage) for the first match. It came as no surprise that he won. The second

game turned out to be a crucial confrontation. Deep Blue played the white

pieces. Keep in mind, IBM had pulled out all the stops in preparation for the

tournament. IBM's engineers had designed special VSLI (very large scale

integration) microchips for Deep Blue. They served no other purpose but to

play better chess by analyzing more positions within the permitted timeframe.

Perhaps IBM should have named their computer Deep Pockets instead of Deep

Blue.

After the letdown from game 1, I was ready for game 2. I arrived at the IBM

website 30 minutes before the game started. The pre-game commentary was

interesting; the experts rehashed game 1.

A Complaint

The graphical representation software of the game rated a B. The action was

"live" and the pieces moved on the screen in real time as new moves came over

the phone line. However, one aspect of the presentation was particularly

annoying. Comments and analysis by the chess experts filled a portion of the

screen and scrolled through the viewing box in a mad rush of text. Reading the

commentary was an act of frustration as new moves were made and presented on

the viewing screen. I hope that IBM receives corrective suggestions so that

this feature is modified for future events. This should be easy to correct.

Games 3, 4, and 5 resulted in draws. Kasparov and Deep Blue performed

flawlessly. I was not able to watch each game in its entirely, but they

provided strong entertainment. Even draws are fun to watch. Everyone agreed.

The IBM computer played interesting chess.

The Final Game

The critical 6th game was a joy. By this time, Kasparov had been rocked by the

splendid, innovative play of the computer. After 19 moves, Kasparov resigned,

losing both the game and the match. Everyone was shocked!

Kasparov stormed out of the room. The comments following the game lasted

longer than the match. It finally happened; the machine beat the human. It was

bound to happen one day. I was fortunate enough to be watching my computer

monitor when it happened. It was a historical event.

The Deep Blue development team received the $700,000 first prize, while

Kasparov pocketed $400,000.

Kasparov will be back. Deep Blue will beat him again. The Web will record the

play. Perhaps there will be sound and better software. I can't wait.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.chess.ibm.com/

(Note: This is the 61st of a series of elementary articles designed for

surfing the Internet. Next, "Homework" is the subject on tap. Stay tuned.

Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet

Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please email

comments and suggestions to: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)