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World Chess Championship Kasparov vs. IBM's Deep Blue

It's undoubtedly a minority opinion, but some informed observers of the international chess scene believe that Kasparov lost his claim to the World Chess Champion title when he lost his second match to IBM's Deep Blue computer.

Mark Crowther, commenting on Kasparov's post match news conference, wrote in 'The Week in Chess 131' (1997-05-12):-

[Kasparov] seemed at one point to be offering a real World Title match to Deep Blue. It hasn't quite sunk in that this WAS the real match. He will be extremely lucky to get another match. He does not deserve another match.

As things turned out, he probably won't get another match! Crowther reported in 'The Week in Chess 151' (1997-09-29):-

IBM have announced that they are scrapping the Deep Blue project and have no plans to revive it. "Our scientists said they really did want to move on to other grand challenges and the company wants to." said company spokeswoman Melinda McMullen in a Reuters report from Tuesday 23rd September.

Alex Yermolinsky, winner of the 1996 United States Championship, wrote in The Yermo Diary:-

Entry #2. Deep Blue is the 14th World Chess Champion!

with a few interesting arguments to support his position.

Kasparov himself wrote in the August 1993 issue of Chess Life:-

Using generally accepted ways of counting the champions, Garry Kasparov is the 13th champion; the only way someone will become the 14th is to defeat the 13th.

He was, of course, writing about the legitimacy of the 1993 Karpov-Timman match as a World Chess Championship event. Perhaps he should have a been a bit less dogmatic!

While we certainly aren't qualified to take sides in this controversy, we record the results of the two matches on this page.

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