Historic Man vs. Machine Match to Be Decided in 6th Game

The fifth game of the historic "Man vs. Machine" match which took place in New York on Wednesday brought success neither to Garry Kasparov, nor to his opponent - Deep Junior computer program. The next to the last game ended at a draw, the score of the match remained even - 2,5:2,5, and the match would be decided in the last 6th game, as many chess experts had predicted.

The game, in which the world's top chess player played for the whites, started on Wednesday with the advantage of Kasparov. However, on the 10th move Deep Junior made an unexpected move, untypical for computer, by giving away its bishop in exchange for a pawn and thus created danger for the white king.

As a result, Kasparov was forced to switch to the defence strategy, which lead to the three-times repetition of the figures positioning on the chess board and after the 19th move the game was automatically announced as finished at a draw. The Wednesday game, which lasted approximately an hour and 30 minutes, turned out to be the shortest one out of the five games, which had been already played. The 4th game, which took place on February 2 and lasted for 5 hours, also ended at a draw. Kasparov who played for the blacks was forced to keep the defence strategy in the course of the whole game.

In his third game against Deep Junior on January 31st, after the victory in the first game and the draw in the second, Kasparov lost to the computer program due to a ridiculous mistake. According to him, the mistake was made due to his physical distress.

The last match of the world's top chess player against the IBM Deep Blue programme in 1997 ended in favour of the artificial intellect.

The current tournament with $1 million of the prize winning money gives Kasparov a chance to return the match and to prove the human's superiority over the product of his intellectual labour. Kasparov's fee for the match is $500,000, $300,000 will go to the winner and $200,000 to the defeated part of the match.

The last game within the framework of the tournament, which is held under the FIDE aegis, will be held on February 7th. According to the Russian Grand Master, "the game will be tough for a human being and a heavy burden lies on him at the present moment". However, Kasparov is optimistic about the forthcoming game. "I hope I will show a better game, than in 1997", he told journalists.