Kasparov, Deep Blue Draw in 3rd Game

The third game in the chess match between world champion Garry Kasparov and the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue ended in a draw Tuesday in New York City. The score in the six-game match remains tied, 1.5 to 1.5.

The winner of the match will receive $700,000 of the $1.1-million purse. Kasparov will get $400,000 if he loses and $550,000 if the match ends in a tie.

Tuesday’s game began while the chess world was still buzzing over Deep Blue’s win in the second game Sunday. The machine played very well, but Kasparov may have missed a chance to save a draw at the moment that he resigned by playing 45 . . . Qe3. The unexpected resource was discovered by one of the amateur players who followed the moves on the Internet.

Deep Blue’s programmers admitted that the machine, which “sees” every possible move, had also underestimated the strength of the saving move. Kasparov called its failure “very human.”

In Game Three, Kasparov continued his do-nothing policy, waiting for the computer to weaken its position unnecessarily. Playing White, he succeeded in obtaining a small advantage at move 18, then tried to play more ambitiously. When Black’s Bishop retreated at move 26, Kasparov had more than enough compensation for the machine’s extra pawn. With careful defense, Deep Blue managed to prevent further erosion of its position.

Kasparov offered a draw at move 48 after 4 1/2 hours of play, and Deep Blue’s programmers accepted immediately.

There should be no controversy about this result. Kasparov made a strong effort to win, and Deep Blue held the balance.

Kasparov has claimed that computers will never play chess as well as the best humans, a claim that many computer experts dispute. After the game, Kasparov said: “Today I didn’t play well, but the computer was a computer and eventually it knew enough not to lose the game.”

However, the emotional champion added praise for Deep Blue. Speaking for the first time about Deep Blue’s second-game victory, Kasparov sounded almost mystical. He said, “The scientists are saying that Deep Blue is only calculating, but it has showed signs of intelligence.”

The fourth game begins at noon today. The match will conclude with games Saturday and Sunday.

Here are the moves of Tuesday’s game:

1 d3 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 c4 Nf6 4 a3 d6 5 Nc3 Be7 6 g3 0-0 7 Bg2 Be6 8 0-0 Qd7 9 Ng5 Bf5 10 e4 Bg4 11 f3 Bh5 12 Nh3 Nd4 13 Nf2 h6 14 Be3 c5 15 b4 b6 16 Rb1 Kh8 17 Rb2 a6 18 bxc5 bxc5 19 Bh3 Qc7 20 Bg4 Bg6 21 f4 exf4 22 gxf4 Qa5 23 Bd2 Qxa3 24 Ra2 Qb3 25 f5 Qxd1 26 Bxd1 Bh7 27 Nh3 Rfb8 28 Nf4 Bd8 29 Nfd5 Nc6 30 Bf4 Ne5 31 Ba4 Nxd5 32 Nxd5 a5 33 Bb5 Ra7 34 Kg2 g5 35 Bxe5+ dxe5 36 f6 Bg6 37 h4 gxh4 38 Kh3 Kg8 39 Kxh4 Kh7 40 Kg4 Bc7 41 Nxc7 Rxc7 42 Rxa5 Rd8 43 Rf3 Kh8 44 Kh4 Kg8 45 Ra3 Kh8 46 Ra6 Kh7 47 Ra3 Kh8 48 Ra6, Drawn.