

Kasparov Proves No Match for Computer (1997) - tsudot
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/tech/analysis/kasparov/kasparov.htm

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jasoncrawford
My favorite story from this whole episode is how a _bug_ in the program “was
likely what allowed the computer to beat Kasparov. In the popular recounting
of Kasparov’s match against Deep Blue, it was the second game in which his
problems originated—when he had made the almost unprecedented error of
forfeiting a position that he could probably have drawn. But what had inspired
Kasparov to commit this mistake? His anxiety over Deep Blue’s forty-fourth
move in the first game—the move in which the computer had moved its rook for
no apparent purpose. Kasparov had concluded that the counterintuitive play
must be a sign of superior intelligence. He had never considered that it was
simply a bug.”

From _The Signal and The Noise_ :
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/26/n...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/26/nate-
silvers-the-signal-and-the-noise/)

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Isofarro
Probably the first of only two occurrences where Kasparov's ego-based self-
belief collapsed. That mysterious rook move in a drawn endgame spooked him,
and seeded the doubt.

Doubt is a costly thing in tournament conditions, doubt about the opponent
leads to doubt in your own ability to predict your opponent's moves. So you
start looking at more candidate moves at each branch of analysis, and also you
start rechecking lines again -- all against the candidate move approach. All
this costs time and effort, and tires you down quicker. So weaker patches of
play become more regular, unless you buckle down and keep it under control,
another source of energy leak.

And over a series of games, in trying to hold that back, Kasparov probably
eased off a little in the last game, and committed perhaps the worst blunder
of his career, in a line he knew very very well from the other side of the
board.

The second time Kasparov's self-belief collapsed was the Braingames World
Championship match with Kramnik. But this was less to do with being spooked,
and more with the evidence his opponent was far more prepared - perhaps for
the first time in Kasparov's career.

Kasparov wears his emotions on his sleeve. A lot of his incredible conceptions
are a display of his aggressive creativity and stamina. An emotional battle is
one core part of Kasparov's armoury, along with well-prepared innovations and
surprises, and his capacity to find aggressive moves that keep his opponent
off balance.

I am so impressed for how long Kasparov has kept his game together. Right up
to his last tournament in 2006, 25 years playing chess of such quality and
magnificence. When others junior to him faded and burned out around him -
Shirov, and perhaps recently Morozevic.

And Kasparov, like all chess players, needed to find reasons, external
reasons, to explain the failure. In the Deeper Blue match, the paranoia of not
seeing analysis printouts from the machine prompted the suggestion that the
IBM team were hiding something, like a human grandmaster making that move.
It's necessary in the make-up of a chess player to find an external reason,
because otherwise it is a clear demonstration of fallibility in tense
situations.

(The book "The Inner Game" about Nigel Short's path to challenge Garry
Kasparov in 1993, talks a bit about how chess players need to put disasters
out of their mind, to be able to play the next game in the match. That ability
allowed Short to come out in the next game and sometime produce amazing moves
and pushed Kasparov, despite the heavy losses.)

The interesting part of the Deeper Blue match isn't that the computer won the
last game, but the human factors of that mysterious rook move right at the
start of the match. It set off an emotional reaction in Kasparov, which lead
to the spectacular collapse in the last game.

Interesting too is how Kasparov somehow overcame this collapse. Somehow the
effects of this disaster didn't seem to affect the rest of his playing
strength. He somehow regained complete confidence in himself.

I don't think his match loss to Kramnik was affected by this, Kasparov was
just outthought, outplayed, and out prepared by a better player. Kramnik rose
to a fantastic level to win that match. Kramnik's fitness for one, was
impressive considering his past lifestyle.

