A match that will never be forgotten

Deep Blue victory still a milestone 10 years later

By JULIE MORAN ALTERIO
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: May 6, 2007)

$137.50. That’s how much it costs today to buy the home version of the Deep Fritz software that beat world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik in a match last year.

What a difference a decade makes.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first time a computer bested a reigning world chess champ. That feat cost Armonk-based IBM Corp. about $5 million.

The face-off between IBM’s Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov in New York City culminated in a victory for machine over man in the final joust of the six-game match May 11, 1997.

The event captured the imagination of the world, catapulting the staid topic of chess to the front pages of newspapers and covers of magazines, into the jokes of late night comedians and onto the radar of people who couldn’t tell a bishop from a pawn.

…Polly Wright, an Eastchester resident and chess teacher, said a lot of players thought the victory would mean the end of chess civilization as they knew it.

But she still plays three times a week at clubs in Westchester and New York, even though the group is shrinking as Internet play siphons members.

“People think computers have ruined chess because they are now better than humans. I don’t see it that way,” she said.

Wright, along with local students, traveled to New York to watch one of the Deep Blue-Kasparov games back in 1997. She still has a lapel pin from the event, which she likened to a “big, exciting sports event.”

“I actually thought it was cool the computer won,” she said.

Here is the full article.