THERE is murder in the eyes of Garry Kasparov as he stares at Florencio Campomanes, Chairman of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), from the opposite corner of Philadelphia Hall where the title match for the world championship is about to begin in five minutes.

Both men recall the first Kasparov-Karpov challenge round of the year 1984-85. Kasparov was down 0-5 and Anatoly Karpov needed only one more game to become the champion. When the end seemed near, Kasparov’s resistence lasted for months and he started winning as Karpov became frustrated. Campomanes saw this and terminated the match. Though Garry defeated Karpov in a rematch later in 1985 to become the world champion at the age of 22, he did not forgive Campomanes.

Officials shake both men out of their dreams. They realise that only they are standing in the packed 10,000-persons-capacity hall, while everyone else is sitting in silence and looking at them.

"Friends! As you know, there’s a mystery challenger for this year’s title match, whom I should now like to introduce to all of you. Ladies and gentlemen, the challenger — IBM’s supercomputer chess program, Deeeeep Bluuuue," the old man announces.

The silence of the stunned spectators and the murderous gaze of Kaparov encourages him to continue. Repor-ters are shocked when he says, "The format and chessboard for this match will be unconventional as well. There are 12 black and 12 white knights on a 5x5-grid chessboard, with the centre square unoccupied. Black pieces have been placed on the left of the board and above the centre square, while whites pieces have been placed on the right of the board and below the centre square. The players have to swap the pieces in as few moves as possible."

Campomanes approaches Kasparov, who still has his eyes fixed on him. "People will remember the victory of Deep Blue for a long time to come; it is programmed for success," he whispers in the young man’s ears. "Go to hell," Kasparov whispers back. He goes to the stage, scribbles something on his notepad and sits relaxed as computer calculates. The next day, computer comes up with the following 64-move solution:

5d, 4b, 3d, 1c, 2e, 4d, 2c, 3e, 1d, 2b,

4c, 1a, 5d, 4b, 3d, 1c, 2e, 4d, 2c, 3e,

1d, 2b, 4c, 3a, 5b, 3c, 1b, 2d, 3b, 5c,

4a, 3c, 4e, 5c, 4a, 3c, 2a, 1c, 2e, 3c,

5d, 3e, 1d, 3c, 5d, 3e, 4c, 3a, 2c, 1e,

3d, 5e, 4c, 5a, 3b, 1a, 2c, 4b, 3d, 5c,

3b, 1c, 2a, 3c.

Kasparov consults his notepad and plays the following moves on the board:

1b, 2d, 3b, 5c, 4e, 3c, 5d, 4b, 3d, 1c,

2a, 3c, 5b, 4d, 2c, 1a, 3b, 5a, 4c, 5e,

3d, 1c, 2e, 4d, 2c, 1e, 3d, 2b, 4c, 3a,

2c, 3e, 4c, 2d, 3b, 5c, 4a, 2b, 1d, 3c

"40 moves and man defeats computer!" reads the headline the next morning, as Campomanes throws the newspaper into the fireplace.

— Aditya Rishi