A.I. Defeats Humanity… at Chess

Sports History This Week

May 11th, 1997. The eyes of the world are focused on a chessboard. It's the decisive game of one of the most highly anticipated chess matches of the 20th century. The reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov, is agitated, furrowing his brow and clutching his face while he considers his next move. His opponent—unphased by the pressure—hums loudly from a nearby room.

Today, a legendary battle between arguably the greatest chess player that ever lived and a thinking machine. How does a computer master a very human game? And when they face off, who will come out on top?

Special thanks to our guests: Bruce Pandolfini, veteran chess teacher, author, and consultant on the Netflix series The Queens Gambit; Tom Standage, historian and editor of The Economist series The World Ahead; Murray Campbell, A.I. research scientist at IBM and co-creator of Deep Blue; and Feng Hsiung Hsu, system architect of Deep Blue and author of Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion.

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