Kasparov vs. Deep Blue

This evening I watched a DVD called "Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine." It was a documentary on the famous 1997 chess match in which the IBM "Deep Blue" computer beat Garry Kasparov in a six match tournament. The filmmakers tried very hard to draw a parallel between a chess-playing automaton from Napolean's era (called "The Turk" and, ultimately, discovered to contain a human being inside analyzing moves) and the Deep Blue computer. Kasparov himself, referring to the infamous Game 2, all but accused IBM of having a human player intervene and overrule a move suggested by the computer. The story goes that Kasparov offered a pawn in sacrifice and the computer refused to take it.

I don't know whether there's any truth to the rumor laid out in the film, though I suspect it's the stuff of conspiracy theory. IBM the company doesn't come off well in this film. Near the end of the movie Kasparov compares IBM to Enron, suggesting that before the collapse of Enron "this type of behavior" (meaning Enron's and, by comparison, IBM's during that tournament) used to be tolerated by the public.

Overall the film wasn't very good ... interesting, but a bit grating in spots as they kept cutting to this weird footage of the mechanical "Turk" moving chess pieces.