On May 11, 1997, in a hotel ballroom high above the streets of New York, a chess grandmaster named Garry Kasparov sat staring at a board in disbelief. Across from him, a man in a suit moved pieces on behalf of a refrigerator-sized computer called Deep Blue. After only 19 moves, Kasparov tipped over his king in resignation. Deep Blue had won the final game of a six-game match, becoming the first computer to ever defeat a reigning world chess champion in a full match.
Kasparov wasn't just any chess player. He had been world champion for 12 years and was considered maybe the greatest of all time. The year before, he had beaten an earlier version of Deep Blue. But IBM's engineers had spent a year upgrading their machine. The new Deep Blue could check 200 million possible chess positions every second, and it had been taught by human grandmasters how to think about strategy, not just calculation.
Kasparov was furious and shocked. He accused IBM of cheating, demanding to see the computer's logs, and asked for a rematch. IBM refused, dismantled Deep Blue, and shipped its parts to museums. The match made headlines around the world. It was a turning point for artificial intelligence: machines could now beat humans at one of our oldest, most thinking-heavy games. Today, free chess apps on phones are stronger than Deep Blue ever was, and players use them to train and study. The 1997 match showed the world a small glimpse of a future where computers wouldn't just calculate - they would compete.
