Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220014
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAWTHORNE, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
Judit Polgar, a 17-year-old Hungarian chess phenomenon who is the 20th-ranked chess player overall and a contender for the world championship, appeared slightly shaken by the defeat.
"I think Judit was a little stunned by it," said Robert E. Rice, commissioner of the Professional Chess Association. "I think she underestimated the machine."
Polgar, who became the youngest chess grandmaster in history when she earned that rank at the age of 15, lost one game to the computer and earned a draw in the second.
"I need some practice, and then I'll kill it," she said at the conclusion of the second game Friday.
Before the match, Polgar had said: "Chess is 30 to 40 percent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it."
By next year, Deep Blue's developers hope it will be ready to take on world champion Gary Kasparov, who defeated Deep Blue's predecessor in 1989.
When it is completed, it will have the cumulative power of 1,000 supercomputers and be able to analyze 1 billion chess positions per second.
Polgar listened to a short description of Deep Blue's capabilities before the match.
"They cannot scare me," she said. But she acknowledged what most chess players now believe: that it is only a matter of time before computers surpass humans at chess.
"I think the computer will get better," she said. But she added: "When the computer is much better, no one will care. It won't be interesting. Right now, it's interesting."
Polgar returned to Hungary on Saturday after a 12-day U.S. visit in which she defeated the U.S. champion, Patrick Wolff, in an exhibition match.
Chess masters and enthusiasts played down the significance of the encounter between Polgar and Deep Blue. "It's not tournament conditions," said Dan Edelman, a chess player and promoter who helped arrange the match.
The players were each given 30 minutes per game to make their moves. In tournament play, each player gets 2 1/2 hours. Some observers believe the speedy play gives the computer an advantage.
"It's an unrated, private encounter. It doesn't mean the computer is better than she," Edelman said.
One of Deep Blue's developers, Feng-Hsiung Hsu, refused to gloat. "It was a two-game match," he said. "Anything can happen."
by CNB