This position occurred in the sixth game of the 1996 match between IBM's Deep Blue program and PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov. Five moves have been played, and it is your task to find a good way to develop White's pieces.

This position continues game 6 of the 1996 match. White (Kasparov) is to make his 28th move. Ahead by one game in the match, Garry needs only a draw to win the match. Though both sides have equal material, White has a significant positional advantage. A DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THIS ADVANTAGE FOLLOWS: White has a space advantage (he controls more territory). The player with more space has greater freedom to maneuver his pieces. Conversely, his opponent will be cramped with his pieces stepping on one another. We can see this effect here as Black's queen has only one potential move that doesn't lose her to a white piece or pawn. Each of the knights has but one safe move while the bishop has just two. Garry has obtained the perfect type of position to have against a computer. The position is closed (there are many pawns in the center blocking lines of attack for the pieces) reducing Deep Blue's opportunities to stir up tactical mischief. There are no real weaknesses in White's position for the machine to target. (Also, there is no good way for Black to open up the position to get more mobility for his pieces). That leaves Garry free to carefully improve his position and to slowly creep forward throttling Black's pieces. The most notable aspect of the position is the advanced set of White queenside pawns. White threatens a pawn avalanche, further cramping Black's pieces and eventually creating an advanced passed pawn (a pawn whose further advance is unimpeded by the opponent's pawns). To counter this, Black needs to open up the center. The only way to accomplish this is to advance his e-pawn. But Garry has pawn, knight and rook covering the e5-square and could bring his bishop, another rook, and even the queen to reinforce that square if need be. Without that pawn break in the center, Black will be reduced to passively awaiting events.

This position occurred in the sixth game of the 1996 match between IBM's Deep Blue program and PCA World Champion Gary Kasparov with Kasparov leading the match 3-2. Kasparov, playing with the White pieces, has just transferred his bishop to a nice post outside White's pawns. It is important to not have the bishop constrained by one's own pawns. Now the bishop also controls Black's kingside and protects the e5-pawn.

This position could have occurred in the sixth game of the 1996 match between IBM's Deep Blue program and PCA World Champion Gary Kasparov. Kasparov was leading the match 3-2 and only needed a draw to secure victory. Kasparov, playing with the White pieces, just sacrificed his c-pawn on c6. In the game, Deep Blue captured it with the pawn, but here we want to explore what could have happened if Deep Blue had taken it with the rook.

This position occurred in the second game of the 1996 match between IBM's Deep Blue program and PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov. After Kasparov suffered a shocking loss in game 1, he was determined to even the score with the White pieces. Kasparov chose a relatively quiet line of the Catalan Opening. In the early middlegame, however, he offered the computer a pawn which it could not resist. Black's last move was bishop takes pawn on b4. How should White prove his compensation for the pawn?

This is the conclusion of Game 2. A previous challenge showed Kasparov playing White making positional gains in the middlegame. After more than 40 moves later White has taken advantage of his dominance on the light squares combined with Black's rather exposed king. The result has been an annihilation of Black's king-side pawns, and now Garry is two pawns ahead. How does Kasparov cash-in his advantage to tie the match at one all?

Kasparov had just managed to even the score by winning a long ending in game two. In game three, Deep Blue repeated it's choice of the Alapin Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.c3), but this time, Kasparov was well prepared and appeared to emerge with an early advantage with Black. Try to find a way for White to get out of the bind.

This is an extremely interesting position from the point of view of the gamesmanship that Garry demonstrates. First though, some background: In this position from game 4, it is White (Kasparov) to move on the 42nd move of the game. Deep Blue played the Slav Defense to Garry's Queen's pawn opening and White quickly obtained a big advantage. It was difficult to break through Deep Blue's defenses, however, and when Garry started to get fancy he allowed a sharp, tactical counterattack. On the ropes, Garry defended well to reach this position. An initial assessment of the position shows that material is equal. But on closer inspection, we see that Deep Blue has an advantage. Black's knight, while generally considered to be of equal value to White's bishop, is in this position considerably stronger than the bishop. That is because with so few pawns bunched so close together (and play will be focused around these pawns) the bishop's primary advantage (its long reach) is neutralized while the knight's strength (it can attack squares of both colors) is emphasized. Also it is usually the case that queen and knight are stronger than queen and bishop. The knight is well posted and White's advanced pawn could be weak. All told, Garry has some work to do to draw the game.

Deep Blue (White) opened this fifth game with a variation called the "Scotch Four Knights". This is a strategically simple system that leads to an open position (one without many pawns in the center). The Deep Blue team thus chose an opening (the opening moves have been pre-programmed by the grandmasters working with the Deep Blue development team) that reduced the program's exposure to strategically complex positions (where it is weakest) and maximized the chances of reaching a tactical position (where it shines). Garry defended well and reached this position where it is his (Black's) 23rd move.

Ever since the 1996 match between Deep Blue and PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov, a lot of expectations and speculations arose about the ongoing improvements of computer chess. But in game one of the 1997 rematch, Kasparov clearly outplayed the computer and set the tone. In game two Deep Blue had the White pieces and tried to crack Kasparov's Ruy Lopez Defense, a highly unusual choice for him. The system Kasparov chose is known to be solid, but not very dynamic for Black.

It is a rare occurrence when a world champion resigns a game in a drawn position. Extensive analysis by strong computer programs and thousands of strong players around the world established the fact that Kasparov had a one-time chance to draw game 2 after Deep Blue had played the inaccurate 44.Kf1?. But Kasparov later said that he was so impressed with Deep Blue's positional play that he just couldn't believe the computer would allow a way out.

This position occurred after Deep Blue, playing with the Black pieces, had just unleashed the sharp 28...f5. After a slow opening, Deep Blue had made a few slow and weakening moves, but due to the closed nature of the position, Deep Blue got itself back into the game by relying on active piece play. Kasparov played patiently so far and relied on Black's long-term weaknesses on the kingside.

This is the conclusion of Game 1 of the 1997 rematch. Deep Blue has just played pawn captures pawn on g4, and it is now Garry's turn to play his 41st move.

This position is near the end of Game 3 of the 1997 Rematch. Deep Blue playing Black is one pawn ahead, but Garry has nice outposts for his bishop and knight, and neither of Black's bishops have any scope to speak of.

This position occurred in game 4 of the 1997 rematch. Deep Blue just played his rook to h7 in order to protect the attacked pawn on h4. We will now deviate from the game continuation in order to show how Kasparov could have tried to win this endgame.

After Deep Blue, playing with the Black pieces, seemed to enjoy a little advantage in the middlegame, Kasparov managed to gain a slight initiative after Deep Blue traded queens on the wrong square (g6). This position occurred after Kasparov's 40th move. He had just captured a Black pawn on g7 with the knight and now enjoys an extra pawn. But he has doubled pawns on the g-file and on the b-file. His only realistic hope is to queen the more advanced g-pawn on g5. It is your task to demonstrate how Deep Blue could comfortably draw.

In this final game of the 1997 match, a nerve-racked Kasparov blundered in the opening. Deep Blue sacrificed a piece and continued the attack in convincing style. Kasparov later opted to give up the queen for a rook and bishop, which gave him a total of three pieces for White's queen and a pawn, but Black's position was totally disorganized. We will examine why Kasparov decided to resign after 19.c4 by assuming that Black would have played 19...bxc4. The alternative 19...Nb4 would not have been better after White's queen captured Black's pawn on f5.