1997 Rematch:Garry Kasparov versus Deep Blue
Game 1
Annotations by Yasser Seirawan

The Garry Kasparov -IBM Deep Blue rematch started amongst the on May 3rd at 3:00 PM EDT with all the world's major media in attendance. The game itself was played on the 35th floor of the
Equitable Insurance Building in a beautiful set that was designed as if in a professor's study. A lamp blew out in the middle of the game as if in sympathy to the tactics that were produced on the chess board. Garry turned in a model game that was a vintage performance on how a human should play against computer. Garry chose a very cautious opening and extended this same strategy throughout the game. None of his pieces crossed the fourth rank preferring to play, "on my side of the board." Two passed pawns however did cross the divide and they brought home the bacon.
	
For Garry this victory brought him a 1 - 0 lead in the match and as importantly it was his third straight victory over the team from IBM. We were not witnessing the playing style of Kasparov rather a well prepared Kasparov that had adapted his game to match the play of Deep Blue. It worked to perfection.
White: Garry Kasparov
Black: Deep Blue
1.Nf3
The first indication that Garry had prepared a different strategy. Normally he would open the game with main line openings after 1.e4 and 1.d4 grabbing the center. Garry has correctly understood that playing waiting maneuvering chess with no clear lines of battle along with blockaded positions is the best way of meeting the computers.
1..d5 2.g3 Bg4 3.b3
Another early moment of great import. Garry had considered this first game as a kind of
reconnaissance mission wishing to find out what Deep Blue's priorities were in the relationship between Bishop's and Knight's. Here he offers Deep Blue the opportunity to trade a Bishop for a Knight while doubling his own pawns. If Deep Blue declines the opportunity he will have discovered that the computer's valuations have placed a high regard for the Bishop over the Knight. This crucial piece of information becomes a critical factor in the game. Most human players would have quickly played 3.Bg2 protecting the Knight and avoiding the doubled pawns. Another important point is that with the text Deep Blue was out of its preprogrammed opening book.
3...Nd7
While not in itself a mistake, this move can be construed as a matter of taste, it was in fact better to play 3...Bxf3 4.exf3 e6 5.Bb2 Ngf6 6.Bg2 Bd6 7.f4 O-O 8.O-O c6 with a balanced game.
4.Bb2 e6 5.Bg2 Ngf6 6.0-0 c6 7.d3 Bd6 8.Nbd2 0-0
At this point both players moved very quickly indicating that Deep Blue had transposed back into its opening library of moves.
9.h3 Bh5 10.e3!?  (DIAG 1)
A rather cagey move. Kasparov wants to disguise his intentions by not defining the center structure. Should he play 10.c4 and play on the Queenside? Or play 10.e4 and play in the center? The text does neither and leaves it up to Deep Blue to decide where to draw the battle lines.
10...h6?!
Given the opportunity to take a bigger bite of the center, Deep Blue should have. Best was
10...e5 controlling more squares and threatening ...e5-e4 winning a piece. Why didn't Deep Blue make this move? He was concerned about the loss of a Bishop for a Knight! After 10...e5
11.g4 Bg6 12.Nh4 White would have weakened his Kingside but would manage to capture Black's light squared Bishop. With the text, Deep Blue makes the retreat ...Bg6-h7 possible.
11.Qe1
White intends to shift his pieces to the Kingside making attacking opportunities there possible. The hidden idea behind the text is to protect the h4-square.
11...Qa5?
An intriguing mistake to try and understand. The computer is programmed to optimize its pieces by controlling as much space -squares on the opponents side of the board - as possible.
Certainly on her a5-perch Black's Queen does that. The problem however is the Queen lacks any possibility of creating a coordinated attack with her other pieces. Black's Queen will soon
lack cover and get into trouble. Better was 11...Qe7 12.g4 Bg6 13.Nh4 Bh7 14.f4! which was White's point of defending the h4-square. White will try to move more and more of his pieces
Kingside. A kind of "student body right" football play if you will. In this case Black should continue 14...Ba3 in order to force the exchange of the attacking b2-Bishop. After the text, Garry knitted his eyebrows as if to say, "what's this"?
12.a3!
This simple move stops Black's Queenside activity cold. It was important to prevent a possible ...Bd6-a3 and at the same time White keeps the tempo b3-b4 in his pocket. Although the armies are not in a hand to hand conflict, White has made important positional gains.
12...Bc7?
A bad move that simply cuts off the Black's Queen retreat and wastes a tempo. Deep Blue which analyzes at 200 million moves a second must have found a variation or two where the d6-Bishop
lacked support. Best was 12...Qc7 protecting the Bishop and in case of 13.Nh4 Be5! try to force the exchange of Bishops.
13.Nh4!?
An intriguing move as Garry hopes to induce a variation that occurs in the game. A more consequent line was 13.Nh2! (GM Ron Henley) when f2-f4 and g3-g4 will give White a fine
Kingside initiative. Ron is right!
13...g5?
A terrible positional concession. Deep Blue thrusts its protecting pawn shield away from the body politic. Black's King will lack protection in the up-coming middlegame. The pawn is no
musketeer and can't come back. What prompted this mistake? Again, Deep Blue realized that after White's threatened 14.g4 Bg6 15.Nxg6 fxg6 Black would be forced to part with a Bishop
for a Knight and this time, its pawns would be doubled. This cure however was worse than the disease! After 13...Be5 14.Bxe5 (14.d4!?) Nxe5 15.g4 Bg6 16.f4 Ned7 17.Nxg6 fxg6 White has
earned an advantage. After the text, a positional player like myself considered Black's position to be strategically lost.
14.Nhf3 e5
At long last Deep Blue grabs the center which has been offered for some time. But as pawns move forward they leave behind unprotected squares in their wake. In this case the f5-square is issuing an open invitation to one of White's Knights. This squares is an ideal outpost and will act as a magnet for White's ensuing strategy. In defense of Deep Blue it must be said that it is far outside of the computer's horizon to realize that White will one day maneuver a
Knight to the f5-square.
15.e4!
Step one. Garry makes his first claim on the f5-square. Getting a Knight there will take a lot of shuffling of the pieces to achieve. 
15...Rfe8 16.Nh2! Qb6
Undoing his previous Queen sally. This move however costs a tempo. Black may have been better off defining the position at once by 16...dxe4 17.dxe4 Rad8 with the idea of ...Nd7-f8-e6 repositioning Black's pieces.
17.Qc1
White's pieces are a bit confined. He would like to route a Knight through the f1-square as it makes its trek to the f5-square. But the f1-Rook is in the way and the Queen is in the way of the Rook. Thus the text. Another way for Garry to solve his temporary problems is 17.Bf3 making the e2-square accessible for his Queen.
17...a5 18.Re1 Bd6!
At last, Deep Blue wakens up to the problems at hand. His Bishop on c7 was doing nothing and with the text, Black is ready for ...Bd6-c5 putting pressure on the f2-pawn.
19.Ndf1 dxe4
It is always a difficult question as to when this central tension should be resolved. Black didn't want to make this trade in the past as White's Knight could jump to the c4-square. While the time may now be right, Black had to consider 19...Bc5 20.Ne3 Bg6 keeping the pressure on White's e4-pawn.
20.dxe4 Bc5 21.Ne3 Rad8 22.Nhf1 (DIAG 2)
Through a rather long winded series of deft maneuvers, White has now managed to focus upon the f5-square. Its still not a one sided fight as it is the f1-Knight that needs to make it to f5.
22...g4?
Oh my! This ultra-aggressive move came as a real surprise. Deep Blue carries the fight
directly to its opponent. The problem is that in trying to open the game, Deep Blue has
weakened its own pawn structure causing a lot of long term damage. It was better to play 22...Bg6 covering the f5-square and waiting for further developments to take place.
23.hxg4 Nxg4 24.f3?
After the game, Garry was quick to pinpoint this one as an error explaining that there was no reason to weaken his own King. After the simple 24.Nxg4 Bxg4 25.Ne3 Be6 26.Kh2 preparing
Bg2-h3, White would enjoy a large advantage. Note that when White finally plays Ne3-f5, White's c1-Queen lurking behind the lines, is ready to pounce upon the little fella on h6.
24...Nxe3 25.Nxe3 Be7!
A brilliant and surprising repositioning of the Bishop. At first it appears that the Bishop on c5-is doing terrific work by pinning the Knight. While this is true, the Bishop is actually far more powerful on the g5-square. On g5 the Bishop will also be pinning the Knight but also perform double duty by protecting Black's King and the h6-pawn.
26.Kh1 Bg5 27.Re2 a4 28. b4 (DIAG 3)
Again through careful preparations, White is at last ready to cash in all the positional gains that he has made. Just one more move, 29.Qe1 and White has solved the pins on his Knight and will be ready for Ne3-f5 launching his final attack. Most experts were now
predicting a merciless victory for Kasparov.
29...f5!?
An absolutely stunning move that stirred everyone in the press room and auditorium. It seemed that Deep Blue was violating Steinitizian principles laid down for over 100 years. Deep Blue
was attacking from a position of weakness and not strength a strategy that is supposed to back fire and cause immediate loss. But the variations are very tricky and complex. White has to work his way through a minefield of tactics, sacrifice material and only then can Kasparov prove that his position is superior. Many lesser mortals would have failed in the face of such a challenge. Kasparov played his next two moves very quickly. He had also calculated the tactics sometime ago and was well prepared to embrace the complications. 
29.exf5! e4 30.f4!
White has played the two only plausible moves. They do however cost him the Exchange.
30...Bxe2
A critical moment. I thought that 30...Bxf4 was extremely dangerous for White. After the game, Kasparov showed that he was well prepared to meet this capture. His variation was 31.gxf4 Bxe2 32.Qg1! Kh7 33.Re1 Bh5 34.Qh2 Bf7 35.Ng4! h5 36.Qh4! and Kasparov had stopped calculating considering the position to be winning for him. A beautiful variation that shows that White indeed did have everything under control. The IBM team too confirmed that Deep Blue had considered 30...Bxf4 but time and time again had rejected the move as inferior to the text.
31.fxg5 Ne5!
An excellent defensive move as Black blocks the long diagonal of the b2-Bishop. A bad mistake is 31...hxg5?? 32.Nc4 Bxc4 33.Qxg5+ with checkmate to follow. Now, White's task is to take
control over the Kingside.
32.g6!
Nailing down a pair of protected passed pawns. Naturally 32.gxh6? Rd6 would allow Black excellent counterplay. Now the imbalance of Bishop and pawn for Rook, convinced Deep Blue
that his middle game position wasn't to bad. This is a fair judgment, however, all endgame positions are lost! Middlegames have a habit of evolving to endgames and Garry knew that
victory was to be had.
32...Bf3 33.Bc3!
A superb cautionary move. Black's Rooks have to be contained and the text fits the bill nicely. Garry was glowing after the game describing the virtues of his e3-Knight and c3-Bishop as controlling all the business squares on the d-file. Too the e8-Rook is tied to defensive duties for the e5-Knight.
33...Qb5?!
Deep Blue is concerned that White will shift his pieces to the Kingside by Qc1-g1, Ra1-e1 and Qg1-h2 and seeks to penetrate to the e2-square. The problem however is the text allows White
to offer an exchange of Queens and the ending he seeks. Black had to try 33...c5 preparing ...Ne5xg6 sacrificing a Knight for White's connected passers.
34.Qf1 Qxf1
This plays right into White's hands and gives him the ending he desires. In hindsight, several GM's felt that Black had to retreat his Queen. In that case move 33 would have been a wasted tempo indeed.
35.Rxf1 h5!
A good and necessary move. Black makes White's task as difficult as possible. If White is allowed g3-g4 and a King march to the f4-square the game is quickly over. Black's problem is that his well placed Rooks are not performing well and his King has no real opportunity of involving itself in the struggle.Conversely, White's King has no such problems.
36.Kg1!
There is no reason for White to cash is chips to early: 36.Bxe5? Rxe5 37.Bxf3 exf3 38.Rxf3 Kg7 when Black's Rooks play a major role in the game.
36...Kf8 37.Bh3!
Black's mastery over the f3-square creates an annoying blockade in the position. With the text, White aims to push through the break g3-g4 opening up the Kingside.
37...b5 38.Kf2 Kg7
Unfortunately, Black is quite helpless to prevent Rf1-g1 and g3-g4 getting in his break. Black's King steps into a temporary pin which White quickly exploits. (DIAG 4)
39.g4! Kh6 40.Rg1 hxg4
Black cannot allow White to play 41.g5+ Kg7 42.Kg3! when after the further move Kg3-f4 Black would be routed.
41.Bxg4 Bxg4 42.Nxg4+ Nxg4 43.Rxg4
After the series of exchanges, the truth is laid bare. Black has no answer for White's connected passed pawns and ultimate victory. Worse yet, the threat of Bc3-f6 and Rg4-h4 checkmate exists. Deep Blue deals with that threat first.
43...Rd5 44.f6 Rd1 45.g7 1-0
The final point. With f6-f7 on the agenda, White is a favorite to Queen two pawns. An excellent effort by Kasparov and an interesting mixture of indecision and aggression by Deep Blue lead to a most uncompromising struggle. My audience was left breathless. A great start to the match.
Kasparov addressed the audience after his first victory and was received with a standing ovation. His first words accompanied with a very happy smile were: "It's already different from Philadelphia."