This documentary about Garry Kasparov's match
against the IBM computer begins with a small story from the past. Back in
the 1700's Wolfgang von Kempelen claimed to have built an automated chess
contraption and he toured the world with it beating players everywhere. Two
of them being Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. No one could understand how
it was being done. It was called The Turk. In the film they leave it as an
open ended mystery but in fact years later it was discovered that The Turk
had a player inside of it that was manipulating the pieces. This story and
images of it over hang the entire film - much to its detriment in my opinion.
The filmmakers seem intent on making the match between Kasparov and Deep
Blue all clothed in mystery to the point where they have some off-screen
voice in whispers suggesting something wasn't right. The story in itself
is interesting enough without this distraction. Kasparov gives a lot of time
to the documentary but at times he sounds paranoid, bitter and on the edge
and the film plays on that. He is now one of Putin's major critics. Be careful
what you eat. Test for radiation first.
At the time of the match in 1997 Kasparov was considered the best chess player
in the world and was the world champion. He had defeated the IBM computer
the year before. He fully expected to again. He won the first game easily
and was mystified at how poorly the computer played. Game two was a different
story - at one point he offers the computer a pawn sacrifice - but the computer
sees the trap and makes another move. A brilliant move and it leads to Kasparov
losing the game. This blows his mind. The computer didn't play like a computer.
There had to be human intervention. And this totally messes with his mind
and his handlers. How can a computer play like a human. He draws the next
three games and then collapses in the final game. Match to Deep Blue. This
film was made five years after and Kasparov is still obsessed with this.
He has in the meantime lost his championship. The film seems to suggest that
this was partly due to Deep Blue breaking his confidence. IBM comes off poorly
but to me they were simply doing their job. Kasparov made his feelings public
with no proof and seems angry that IBM got all this free publicity from winning.
That was sort of the point.
