Morning all. In this age of engines and very powerful chess computers I thought
it would be interesting to check out the game six - the final game of the deep blue
versus Kasparov match in 1997 so this was by IBM who constructed Deep Blue
nicknamed 'Deeper Blue' actually by Kasparov - it was an upgraded version so it's
a rematch . The name 'Deep Blue' by the way was after
'Deep thought' which was in Douglas Adams 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy' - the
computer set out to find the answer to life the universe and everything and
took quite a few years - millions and millions of years and came up with '42' but anyway 'Deep
Thought' was renamed to 'Deep blue' and you have a lot of engines after that with
the prefix 'Deep' in them - okay so deep blue game 6 a very memorable game and so
it marked a very important event really - so let's have a look at this game game 6
so 1.e4 from Deep Blue - Kasparov played the caro-kann which is usually
you know enjoys a rock-solid reputation after d4 d5 we see Nc3 black takes
on e4 Nxe4 Nd7 which is safely going to exchange off the
Knight here without incurring any structural damage usually - now we see
this aggressive looking Knight g5 already probing some sensitive spots
like f7 - black plays Ngf6 and now Bd3
okay so far so good ... Kasparov plays e6 and now after the N1f3
the usual move would have been like a bishop move but Kasparov played
something which is very untypical of him he's usually a great opening
theoretician but I believe he was annoyed from an earlier game in the
match where he thought something was really suspect about Be4 which
we've covered in an earlier video on this channel actually - he suspected
something was not quite right but he was already a bit upset by the stage so but
here yeah he seemed to forget his his opening theory and it's needed for great
precision here - instead of playing the Bishop move which would mean you know
the King's ready to castle and it's got you know f8 to go to in certain
circumstances he plays the move h6 - I wonder if you can spot how the computer
punished this move ?! It gives black a difficult position this next move - I
wonder if you can spot if i give you 10 seconds starting from now ...
Okay not a normal Knight retreat anywhere but Nxe6 and okay it's a
knight sac for just one pawn - but it's very very dangerous - you know if it fxe6
okay Bg6+ - the King is in the center white castles and we have a
an imprisoned rook like a previous video recently well this looks quite
unpleasant - how does it get out ?! But I believe actually this position has
occurred in a game of Murray Chandler against Michael Adams which I witnessed
that Lloyd Bank masters many years ago which I think Adams managed to wriggle
out but he was complaining that his rook being in prison for much of the game
okay but um so in this position Kasparov didn't take there - he played
actually Qe7 but it doesn't really help things much white just castles here
so he's got the skewing option if Qxe6 then Re1 skewing the Queen
to the king so he's in big big trouble against the computer here already
he plays fxe6 - he's slightly improved the state of affairs that the
King doesn't have to go to e7 - it can go to d8 now but it's a bit depressing to
have this position against computers - Kasparov was trying to play
against the computer style and research computers a lot their strengths and
weaknesses and would have been horrified with this position because it's going
into the computers major strengths you know it's a very very tactical position
tactical liabilities for black for the computer to exploit but here after
Bf4 he makes things lot lot worse than perhaps what they needed to be - we
should really get an engine evaluation of this position in the second pass
through this game but this next move is described as quite a bad blunder by
several grandmasters - basically in terms of King safety you really want
open lines but secondary to that - that the defender shouldn't create open
invitations to open lines but this move shows maybe
Kasparov's huge frustration with the match and is basically after b5 is played here
but played it's an invitation open invitation to
peel open lines not just with a4 but with c4
if lines are opened up like the C file the A file then access routes the black
King are going to be generated so it's really an open invitation for access
routes to the black King here and the first way that's used is with a4
okay which is very very nasty - black plays Bb7 trying to hold things
together at least protecting his rook and maybe if takes you know he's got a
nice Bishop on the diagonal. The computer doesn't need to take on b5 to liberate
the bishop though - it just plays Re1 so another target is set sight on look at
this imprisoned rook (on h8) - here so the knight sacrifice is very very powerful in this
position - if blacks pieces are just in prison it's not just the rook it's the
bishop that's in prison so Nd5 okay an active piece you might think
Bg3 and the King running a bit to safety in inverted commas Kc8 but
there is that C file and that lever c4 to make use of pretty soon but white
first plays axb5 seemingly allowing a potentially useful Bishop on the
diagonal but it's pretty cruel now because Qd3 hits b5 - how is b5
actually defended?! And it also sets up some possibilities if the knight wasn't
on d5 for Qc3+ and also c4 for this Queen to join forces with the
Bishop which is cutting across that very sensitive diagonal so very unpleasant
position after Bc6 - now this pawn is picked on even further with Bf5
exploiting the pin on the E file so we have these two very very dangerous
bishops on these diagonals. Kasparov in desperation well it's a pretty
hopeless position now because how do these defend actually e6 - if he plays
Nc7 - maybe they can just be snapped off
and then white can take on e6 - it looks fairly fairly unpleasant so where would
the Queen go here and there then there's possibilities of Rxc6+ and
Qe4+ and winning the rook over here - there's all sorts of nasty
possibilities after this but will engine check this in the second pass through
the game so here though Kasparov decided he gave up his queen so in theory because
it was already a piece up it doesn't seem technically as though you
know maybe there's a hope for a balance of forces here because it's rook and two
pieces now but the extra piece from before but it doesn't really balance the
Queen because in this position black's King safety it's pretty bad
it should be noted if black had one move you know maybe f4 looks that looks good to
do something with this Bishop to win this bishop but c4 here is a very
powerful punch in the position unfortunately and it compels actually
Garry Kasparov to resign and I think he was really really annoyed with match
generally and you know wanted evidence of a previous game in the match for
where the computers seem to play human move which I'll put a link for that
video in the description of this one but here yeah he resigned so it marked
actually the first time a computer had defeated a world champion basically in a
match of several games very serious games and he was obliterated - you know
19 moves so it's a miniature - let's have a look what goes on in this final position
with the dreaded Houdini engine which we've all got access to on our computers
now so bxc4 Qxc4 okay hitting the bishop if it if black tries
to defend with that (Nb4) so an incisive move here apparently
is Re1 although Ra6 also looks tempting let's go with Re1 because I
suppose it introduces Re6 - I wonder just in fact d5 should be strong -
that seems simple and strong as well no Nb6 and it could get tricky
okay so white would would have to be still accurate because black has quite a
few pieces so let's see - Re8 Bd6 winning further material in this
position
Qxg7 and white's significantly up and I think these pawns are going to
start being useful but it's a very unpleasant position for black to
try and coordinate a lot of loose pieces against the Queen
and he starts lose even more material now I think just Qxf5 - I think it's a
big advantage - so let's go back on Re1 is there actually anything else?!
so if Bf6 what is the major threat ?! Is it Re6 ?! no Qxb4 - okay
so this Re1 is actually targeted to b4 to winning more material with
Rxe7 maybe and Qxb4 - so here that this is a back row defense of
course Re8 - Rxe7 Rxe7 Qxb4 there's there's um even this though is
good for white so that's why the final position seems fairly convincing after
the simple move Re1 in fact - that seems pretty pretty crushing now if we
go back earlier in the game - so we will go back earlier so in this position the
actual evaluation on this position after Nxe6 - it's given as a move but
you see Houdini liking Ne4 so it's not that convincing that Nxe6 is
the strongest move at this depth but um I think Kasparov himself may have
indicated Nxe6 as refutation - it's a deep refutation but um it's to do with
the imprisoned rook again scenario which is difficult for engines to evaluate so
we've got this imprisoned rook on h8 as an implication of Nxe6
and so actually fxe6 is given and initially we seem to have this this
situation where it's just slightly better for white - I was checking this out
on Chessgames.com and actually there's there's a few games but statistically it
favors White - it's not as if there is an immediate mate or something - it's just
very unpleasant for black to try and defend but technically you know it looks
as though initially at least it doesn't it doesn't seem that bad but it just
gets worse and worse I think I think with the rook on h8 .. Nxe5 dxe5 Ne7 - Is
there compensation?! Is that actually winning if a computer was
playing black obviously this is a much more solid approach than Kasparov's
approach so really I mean that that's why actually perhaps a lot of people
thought - a lot of grandmasters thought b5 later was actually the more crucial
mistake rather than h6 so even even fxe6 seems seems a move here
Qe7 seems a slightly inaccuracy compared to
that with White actually being slightly better technically according to
this modern Houdini engine okay but b5 yes that is increasing White's advantage
technically in one move - it's damaging black's solidity inviting line opening
with a4 and c4 so that I believe is the crucial one of one of the major
crucial contributing factors to the disaster black has here - b5 so we see now
I think white really getting a huge advantage pretty soon now after Kc8
maybe a more determined resistance was b4 but after Kc8 we see line
opening and then further line opening on the cards after this Queen sack now c4
is very very powerful move here - it's creating a lot of loose pieces if
Nb4 I think just Qxf5
then we've got some major threats like Ne5
- keeping the pin here - well okay so that that's pretty nasty going into
heart of black's position hitting the bishop and things like d5 on the cards
Bd8 cxb5 Bxb5 - check .. check ... it's blasting through now on these lines
it starts to look very unpleasant
starting to really tear black apart in these variations so c4 is a very very
powerful line opening move and now it looks as though Re1 would be the
real nail in the coffin in this position okay so that was the classic
game six which if you haven't seen before it's like a it's a very very
significant event in man versus computers back in 1997 comments or
questions on YouTube - thanks very much.