Commentary for black move 32: That's not the case at all. But this is a much more subtle type of position. In my opinion, what's happening here is both sides are angling to keep the knight fixed on this d6 square. A move ago when the bishop was back on e7 -- if you can just go back one more. Thanks. Now, in this position, if black were to move the knight away, let's say if black moved the knight to b7, well, this is a disaster, because at this point white plays bishop takes bishop, queen takes bishop, and now pawn takes pawn and now suddenly there's a very big pin along the a-file with that rook on a8. Black would have to recapture the bishop, and the pawns are shattered. Big, big news, very bad position for black. So, instead what Kasparov has done is he moved his bishop back to f8. Now if he wants to, he can move the knight away. If white then captures the bishop, black can recapture with the queen or the king. The point is that the queen is still on that first rank, defending the a8 rook. Now, this is a very small detail, and it may seem as if a small detail like this couldn't possibly be important. But it's exactly these kinds of small details that make all the difference in these kinds of positions. This is why it's an uncomfortable position for black to play and in fact why I think it's quite good for Deep Blue, because Deep Blue is going to see every detail in this position.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Well, let's get back, then, to this question about the moves that you've seen Deep Blue play that are not quite the finesse moves that you would appreciate.

PATRICK WOLFF: Sure. There is one move in particular. It was back on the 27th move, when white captured the pawn on e5. I didn't like that move so much. I'm not sure. I mean it's not a terrible move or anything, but in my humble opinion, it wasn't the best move because, although it creates one kind of advantage for white, it gives away another kind of advantage. The advantage it gives white, for white to capture these pawns, is it gives white a protected passed pawn, and I don't know if that's been explained to you, but a protected passed pawn, a passed pawn is --

MAURICE ASHLEY: We've got some national champions over there, so don't talk now. They know what's going on.

PATRICK WOLFF: Okay, all right. So you all know what a protected passed pawn is. White got a protected passed pawn. But I didn't like it anyway, because it opened up the bishop's diagonal on f8, became a better piece and it also opened up the d6 square which Garry quite correctly moved his knight on immediately giving the knight a pretty good square. I would have preferred to keep the position closed for longer, try to finesse the queen a little bit more, maybe move the queen to f2, f1, keep a little bit more pressure in the position, wait to take on e5 because I don't think it's in Garry's interests to capture that pawn on f4. That's one thing I didn't like on the computer's part. But that's a small detail. I would say right now the computer is playing a very high level game.

MAURICE ASHLEY: When you say high level, what have you seen from yesterday when it was very, very sharp, it was tactical, they played moves that it looked like only hued eeny could have escaped from and Garry Kasparov is sort of the Houdini of chess.

PATRICK WOLFF: Just about the everything of chess, yes.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Do you think that it's playing on a very high, maybe 2600, 2700 level, which is the rareified heights of Grandmaster chess?

PATRICK WOLFF: Well, it's difficult to give a number and here's the reason why. An Elo number is what your expected score will be if you play other human beings. But we know very little about how this computer will do and also it's very difficult to gauge how it would do in different kinds of situations. It's such a different kind of animal than any other human competitor. But what I can say is that it is playing a very dangerous game. The programmers seem to me to have done a good job of addressing some of the typical weaknesses that computers have. For example in positions like this one of the problems that a computer will typically have, is if it can't see any weakness to attack right away, it will just sort of flounder, it will float around, it will just play one move then another move and never really find some way to make progress. Deep Blue it seems to me is finding ways to make progress. It's not obvious to me how white should play but all of its moves have been good moves, making progress, improving its position somehow. That's very impressive to my way of seeing things. That makes it more dangerous. I know that Deep Blue has all the strength that computers have. You don't want to get into an open position against this thing, you don't want to get into a tactical fight against this thing. So given that they have addressed some of those weaknesses I think it is quite clear it's playing at a high level. But as to what Elo number to give it, it's hard to say.

MAURICE ASHLEY: What do you see derrick I've been looking at this position for a while and I'm not sure how to use this bishop, but -- Just as we speak something very dramatic has occurred. The computer has decided to go for an exchange of pieces, Deep Blue has.

PATRICK WOLFF: Wow.

MAURICE ASHLEY: And that's a very dramatic decision. That changes the complexion of the game significantly.

PATRICK WOLFF: Yes, it does.

MAURICE ASHLEY: And that says that it's time to --

PATRICK WOLFF: Rock 'n' roll.

MAURICE ASHLEY: -- get busy. It's rock 'n' roll time right now. So Nf5, we're going to have our U.S. champion have a good look on this one --

PATRICK WOLFF: Now I have to say something --

MAURICE ASHLEY: Forget about the idiot guy stuff, get into the meat of this position, because obviously Deep Blue is changing the whole nature of the position by exchanging off these pieces. It's going to have a pawn -- this pawn here on e4 is going to end up on f5, and the pawn on e5, black's pawn, is going to be passed also. So all kinds of changes have happened, Patrick, and I'm not going to make a comment. I'm leaving it to you to figure it out.

PATRICK WOLFF: Great. Here we go. First off, I just want to make sure that everybody understands why this this is such a significant decision. The pawn structure has been dominating the game. The pawn structure has been determining the play of the game. And what's happening now is if black captures this knight on f5, which I think we all agree is probable. At any rate, it looks like he probably will have to -- let's say, for example, black captures with the bishop, okay?

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