[Mr. Mojo]

Inevitably, there has been renewed speculation about the implications for mankind if the best human player loses again to a computer.

Kasparov isn't the best player anymore; World Champion Vladamir Krammnik holds that distinction.

[chance33_98]

blah blah blah - whos winning? :)

[chance33_98]

Nevermind - found it: The six-game Man vs. Machine match is tied at two apiece.

[Russell Scott]

We saw what chess did to Bobby Fisher's brains. Turned them into a bowl of oatmeal.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

You would have thought that such speculation would have ended in 1997 with the defeat of Garry Kasparov, the world's top-ranked chess player, by Deep Blue, a computer built by researchers at IBM. Mr Kasparov made much of the notion that he was defending humanity's honour; Newsweek called the contest “the brain's last stand”.

Personally, I would have liked to see the result of a couple of Rounds played between Deep Blue and Bobby Fischer...

A massively-powerful computer "thinking machine" pitted against an erratic, uniquely-brilliant chess strategist who is not only a savant Genius beyond the ken of mortal men, but who is (by all accounts) categorically insane.

("Hi, I'm Bobby Fischer, and I can't decide what to do this weekend. Perhaps I'll come out of retirement after 20 years of complete inaction, casually defeat every Grand Master in the world while arrogantly mocking their stupidity, and win the World Chess Championship like taking candy from a baby... only to sink back into my own morbid, paranoid isolation. Or, I could just stay at home reading the Elders of Zion and anonymously post wacked-out anti-Jewish screeds on fringe neo-Nazi internet websites while sitting around staring at my navel. What to do, what to do....")

[RightWinger]

we now know that chess-playing skill does not, in fact, equal intelligence

I have a solid ivory chess set (probably illegal to have it now) I won in a tournament back in the late 60s. I never could figure out how a dumb ole boy like me could beat all of those smart guys. {;o)

[Alberta's Child]

Mr Kasparov made much of the notion that he was defending humanity's honour; Newsweek called the contest “the brain's last stand”.

Oh, please.

I don't think humanity is any worse off just because the world's greatest distance runners would finish the Daytona 500 about 180 laps behind Sterlin Marlin or Dale Jarrett.

[Voice in your head]

Latest games played by Deep Junior

[July 4th]

there is no need to worry about the world being taken over by chess-mad robots

Well, I'm glad that's settled.