In a dazzling, hourlong game Sunday, the Deep Blue IBM computer demolished world chess champion Garry Kas-parov and won the six-game chess match between man and machine.
The final score was 31/2 points for the computer and 21/2 points for Kasparov. The 34-year-old Russian and the computer split the first two games, then played to draws in Games 3, 4 and 5.Kasparov resigned after the computer's 19th move in Game 6. Visibly upset, he bolted from the table, shrugging his shoulders.
At a news conference later, he lashed out at IBM for programming the computer specifically to beat him.
"It was nothing to do about science. . . . It was one zeal to beat Garry Kasparov," he said. "And when a big corporation with unlimited resources would like to do so, there are many ways to achieve the result. And the result was achieved.
"I feel confident that the machine hasn't proved anything yet," Kasparov added. "It's not yet ready, in my opinion, to win a big contest."
The statement left it hard to imagine what a big contest might be after a week in which worldwide attention focused on the best human chess player and his losing duel with an overgrown PC.
"We on the IBM Deep Blue team are indeed very proud that we've played a role in this historic event," said C.J. Tan, the scientist who headed the Deep Blue effort.
"This is a match that will benefit everyone, from the students who sat in the audience learning from Garry and Deep Blue to many consumers outside of this building who will be deeply affected by this advance in technology,"
But grandmaster Ilya Gurevich said the computer's win could take the challenge out of the game.
"Bobby Fischer once said chess is getting to be solvable," he said. "This computer event could eventually bring the whole thing to a solution. It may eventually mean the end of the game. It's possible."