Best two-out-of-three for Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue? Don't count on it.
The designers of IBM's Deep Blue refused to commit to another face-off against the world chess champion beaten May 11 by the super-computer."There are a lot of great chess players," IBM scientist Joe Hoane said.
In an essay published in this week's Time magazine, Kasparov challenged Deep Blue to a match of 10 games over 20 days. "I think IBM owes me, and all mankind, a rematch," the 34-year-old Russian wrote.
Deep Blue won the six-game series this month by a score of 31/2 points to 21/2 points. Kasparov won their first match in February 1996.
In his essay, Kasparov criticized IBM for not sharing its programming secrets with the chess world. But he hailed the designers for putting together a machine that sometimes seemed to think almost like a human.
The computer's refusal in Game 2 to make a move that had short-term advantages but would have hurt it later on "could earn IBM and the Deep Blue team a Nobel Prize," Kasparov said.
"I found myself unprepared for what turned out to be a totally new kind of intellectual challenge," he wrote.
Kasparov elaborated before 300 chess fans Saturday in Baltimore.
"For the first time in my life, I met a player that was less affected by factors than I am," he said. "It plays, it loses a game, and it doesn't know that it loses it. It doesn't know it won. It just plays."
Kasparov returned to familiar style, defeating seven University of Baltimore opponents and playing one to a draw Saturday.