We continue the epic about the battles of Kasparov with chess machines, begun by valemak . Today we will talk about the next match of the great chess player. This time his rival was one of the leaders of small cars - the Deep Junior 8 program.

While the world's leading press rattled to the whole world with its reports about Kasparov's matches with computer chess monster Deep Blue, they quietly grew up and gained strength programs for personal computers. It so happened that the marked improvement in the purely chess qualities of these programs coincided with the explosive growth of the computing power of the PCs themselves. And the result was not long in coming.

The first bell about the readiness of small cars to challenge the very world champion was sounded in 1999, when Deep Fritz 6 won the rapid chess tournament in Frankfurt, in which many leading grandmasters took part. In 2000 - a new success. At the Dortmund supertournament, the Israeli program Deep Junior 6 finishes in the middle of the standings, overtaking many well-known elite players. And this, by the way, is already a classic time control! Thus, the question of clarifying the relationship between the leading chess programs and the world champion among people becomes quite relevant. Even despite the recent defeat of the person, public interest in such events has not subsided. And if there is interest, then there will be sponsors, there will be matches.

And so, in the early 2000s, two loud confrontations will start at once. First, world champion Vladimir Kramnik played with an enhanced version of Deep Fritz 7 - the leader of the authoritative SSDF computer rating list. A little later, Garry Kasparov, who had lost the chess crown by that time, but still leading the FIDE world ranking, “crossed swords” with the world champion among the machines - the Deep Junior program 8.
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For Kasparov, this fight was in a certain sense a double revenge. The fact is that throughout his career, Harry just lost twice in matches. First, he lost Deep Blue, and three years later in London in the championship match, he lost the chess crown to Vladimir Kramnik. So now it was necessary not only to take revenge for the offensive defeat five years ago from the car, but also to try to get around the absentee competitor who had played his match with a computer in a draw.

The match between Kasparov and Junior was postponed for a long time, not just postponing his dates and venue. At first it was planned to play in 2002 in Israel, “in the homeland” of the car. But later, due to a number of external circumstances, the match was moved to New York and moved to the beginning of 2003. The prize fund of the match was 1 million dollars. In the event of victory, Garry Kasparov received 800 thousand, and in the case of a draw or a defeat, he got 750 and 700 thousand, respectively.

The team of the machine in the match was represented by programmers Amir Ban, Shay Bushinsky, and grandmaster Boris Alterman. The “hero of the occasion”, Deep Junior 8, played on a workstation with four Pentium 4 processors with a frequency of 1.9 GHz.

1st party. Kasparov - Deep Junior. 1: 0

Unlike the previous match with Deep Blue, this time Kasparov decides not to be led by the car. No more anti-computer chess! From now on, he will only play his game.

Having white pieces at his disposal, from the very first moves, Kasparov takes right off the bat - first he makes a sharp movement of the pawn “g” two fields forward at once, then applies the novelty to the current opening variant. With all his actions, he shows that he is not going to compromise. And achieves his own. In the course of the game it seems that the computer simply “faltered”. Not quite successfully pushing the pawns along the “b” and “e” verticals, Junior allows Kasparov to set his knight on d6 . The value of such a knight increases so much that in the end, Junior even decides to give up his rook for him (see diagram). But it's too late. After a series of exchanges, Kasparov quickly moves the game to a technically winning position. In such a situation, the Junior operator does not dare to try Kasparov’s patience and simply gives up. Quick win in 27 moves.

2nd party. Deep Junior - Kasparov. ½: ½

In the second game, playing black, Kasparov initially replays the computer again. He offers his opponent a rook for the bishop and achieves a noticeable advantage. As can be seen in the diagram, Junior's pieces are poorly coordinated, and the promotion of the black pawns “e” and “f” faces serious troubles for the white king. But at this moment, Kasparov gives impulsive check with queen on a1 and the computer, after the response victim, manages to escape for a draw.

3rd party. Kasparov - Deep Junior. 0: 1

Again, as in the first game, the Slavic defense is played out. Kasparov white sharply attacks again, and the computer is protected. When you first look at the diagram, it may seem that the computer simply “burns” and in a few moves the case will end in obscenities. But the machine’s advantage is that in any situation it always remains cool. In this case, the position is still approximately equal. The psychological pressure of the machine is indifferent, but a person in such a situation is not difficult to play too. What, ultimately, is happening in this game - at some point, Harry still unnecessarily goes too far.

Meanwhile, exchanging several pieces, Kasparov continues his attack with a second pace. The time trouble is approaching, but it’s still not possible to break the resistance of the machine. Such a close victory gradually begins to slip away. At the end of the game, it was still possible to hold a draw by repeating moves, but the weary Kasparov unwittingly passes the point of no return. After the removal of the rook from the first line with the move 32. Hh1-h5 (see diagram), the game cannot be saved. The choice here is not rich - you have to either go into a hopeless endgame without two pawns, or wait for a rival maneuver K: d4 => Kb3 with the threat of mate. After making a few more moves, the person admits his defeat.

So, the first half of the match passed with a game advantage Kasparov. For the three starting games, it seems that sooner or later, Harry will definitely finish the opponent. But, nevertheless, the overall score of the match unexpectedly remains equal - Junior defended himself skillfully and, as it happened more than once in fights between people and machines, a person gradually begins to tire. The initiative in the match goes to the computer.

4th party. Deep Junior - Kasparov. ½: ½

It was the first and, perhaps, the only case in a match when the computer gained an advantage already at an early stage of the game.

Kasparov starts the game for Black confidently, but after leaving the debut, he faces certain difficulties. With the support of his pieces, Junior pushes the pawns of the left flank and puts Harry in a constrained position. A dangerous passed pawn is formed, vertically "b" . Further, the car repeatedly tries to break through the “rack” built by Kasparov, but that, albeit with great difficulty, still manages to stop its encroachments. After a series of exchanges, in the rook ending, Harry finally finally stopped his opponent's checkpoint. A draw is drained for a person.

5th party. Kasparov - Deep Junior. ½: ½

Harry's last white color. He needs to win.

The party starts relatively calmly. In the opening, Kasparov makes a couple of not very strong moves, perhaps seeking to get a more closed position, but on the whole he acts without serious omissions. The first blow deals Junior. Already on the tenth move the computer decides on the classic elephant sacrifice on the h2 field (see diagram), which is not typical for the machine, at least if it does not see a clear win. The main surprise in the game, and in the whole match! This blow later even got on the box of a new version of Deep Junior.

The victim was not entirely correct, but nevertheless it worked. After just a few moves, losing all confidence in himself, Kasparov abruptly turns off the fight and agrees to a draw. He was embarrassed by the fact that despite the material advantage, the position acquired a very computer-friendly character - with a lot of unpleasant threats for White, with an open king. In such a situation, it is not at all difficult for a person to miscalculate somewhere. Well, as in the match with Deep Blue, the clarification of the relationship between man and machine has to be postponed for the last game.

6th party. Deep Junior - Kasparov. ½: ½

Last chance for Kasparov to win the match. The tournament situation resembles a confrontation with Deep Blue - again Kasparov has black pieces, again, as in that ill-fated match, equal score before the last game.

Sicilian Defense, option Najdorf, played on the board. Familiar territory for Harry, emanated them far and wide. Following the well-known opening trails, Kasparov gives up the rook on c3 for a knight and two pawns, then takes a few more moves and arrives at the position indicated on the diagram.

Despite the lack of material, most commentators rate it to the advantage of Kasparov. What to do next? It would seem - there is visually some advantage. You can try to play to win. But what happens is usually not expected from such a chess player as Garry Kasparov. Having learned from the bitter experience of previous battles with computers, and especially of course with the ending of the match with Deep Blue, Kasparov does not dare to continue the fight and agrees to the draw offered by his rivals. Than automatically fixes a draw in the whole match. 3: 3.

In the post-match comments, Harry elaborates on his decision:

“Of course, such a position should have been played with a person, and it would have been possible with the machine if it were not the sixth game of a tough match. Obviously, Black is still very far from winning, and in no case can one err — the slightest inaccuracy will be punished. The result of the whole match was at stake. If we estimate the winnings of the match at 100 percent, and the loss - at zero, then the draw in the match was estimated by me at a figure greater than 50 percent - closer to 80. Therefore, I accepted the offer of the computer team. ”

In general, the outcome of the match satisfied both sides. Kasparov played better than last time, and in a sense took revenge for the defeat of Deep Blue. In turn, Junior played in the match on an equal footing (at least with respect to the final score), with the possibly best chess player of all time. If we consider this match together with other similar competitions in the general context of the confrontation of people and machines, then we can conclude that in the first half of the 2000s, even the usual chess programs for personal computers rose to the level of the best grandmasters of the planet.

Meanwhile, the games of people with cars continued. In the autumn of the same year, Harry had to go to battle with another silicon monster. This time he had to play in a somewhat unusual setting - using 3D glasses.

To be continued…

Match table

	one	2	3	four	five	6	Result	Glasses
Garry Kasparov	one	½	0	½	½	½	+1, –1, = 4	3
Deep junior	0	½	one	½	½	½	+1, –1, = 4	3