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11/15/2003 03:07:00 PM | Brad Plumer More important news: Well, day old news, I guess, but Gary Kasparov is losing to yet another computer chess program in a four-game match. Kasparov has a loss and a draw, while the virtual reality program "X3D Fritz" has a win and a draw. Fritz had previously trounced Big Blue, the computer who handed grandmaster Kasparov his only professional defeat back in 1997. Charles Krauthammer wrote an incisive analysis of the event for the Weekly Standard back then, which is still worth reading. All this brings to mind the epic Karpov-Kasparov matches in the 1980s. In 1987, when Kasparov proved himself the greatest player in the world, Economist had this to say about the politics of the match: This being chess, politics have played almost as big a part in the contest as the two Soviet grandmasters. The 24-year-old Mr Kasparov projects openness and even rebelliousness against authority. His supporters in the West say he is more in tune with Mr Gorbachev's new Russia than his brilliant but dour 36-year-old rival. At the end of the match, Mr Kasparov spoke to journalists about glasnost, perestroika and shaking up chess's ruling international body, FIDE; Mr Karpov did not give a press conference at all.If you can find it, Martin Amis wrote a brilliant little essay a while back about the specter of communism hanging over those matches. Kasparov was more than up to the challenge. Alas, as Pejman Yousefzadeh notes, it's possible that Kasparov is no longer the right man to defend the honor of mankind. perma link |
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