Commentary for black move 34:

PATRICK WOLFF: Well, I think that raises a very important point, which is that yesterday's victory was very, very impressive by Kasparov, but let's not forget that Kasparov had the white pieces. And having the white pieces is always an advantage. It's especially an advantage when playing against the computer, because when you have the white pieces, you can control the tempo of the game in the early part much more easily, and that's exactly what Kasparov did. He kept the position closed, he gave himself a small positional advantage, didn'ts do anything too quick, too fast. The computer wasn't able to get close enough to him to really touch him. And so Kasparov said to get the kind of position he wanted he had to do very well with tactics in the middle but managed to keep control. So it looked as if this was going to be very overwhelming by Kasparov. But now it seems that when the computer has white, Kasparov has played a completely different opening than he usually does. He has avoided the tactical skirmishes he usually encourages because he's afraid of the computer's ability -- maybe I shouldn't say Garry's afraid of the computer's ability --

MAURICE ASHLEY: Respectful.

PATRICK WOLFF: Respectful of the computer's abilities, changed his style of play. That has given the computer an advantage in the game which the computer has I think pressed very, very well. I think what we've seen here is if the play continues as we've seen so far, we may have a back and forth match all the way to the end. It may be that the advantage of the white pieces is a larger advantage than normal.

MIKE VALVO: I think this is a much more impressive game than the win they had in the first game last year.

PATRICK WOLFF: Yes, the win that the IBM team had in the first game last year had the smell of being a little bit luck /AOEFPLT it was a good game by Deep Blue, no question about it, but Deep Blue did so many strange things and they all worked out in the end. And you could tell that Garry wasn't used to playing the machine, he didn't quite appreciate how much different this kind of opponent was. This time around if the computer manages to win this game what we're going to see is a computer, you know, playing Garry Kasparov, the world champion, the greatest chess player whosever lived, versus the greatest chess player who has never lived. The greatest chess player who has ever lived, in a great game.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Let's not count Garry out, I don't know about you, but we're still playing some moves here, and Garry Kasparov is the world champion, he's been that way for 12 years, and let's assume he knows a little something-something that we don't know about the position, and he'll come up with something to save his butt, even though I don't think it looks very good for him right now. Let's get a question from the audience.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I just wanted to ask Mr. Wolff, on move 33 you said that black had to take the knight, either bishop takes knight or Nf5. You just said that had to be made. I'm just wondering is Nb7 is a -- Nb7 a possibility in that position considering the fact that you could just not exchange knights?

PATRICK WOLFF: No question that was a possibility. The reason I was wary of this move is that this knight is such a powerful piece and on b7 is so weak. For example, perhaps white could play Bxf8 Qxf8 and now to borrow

YASSER's idea of Qb6. Qg3 is also possible. If Qg3, bishop takes knight. At any rate this looks very powerful to me. This looks to me like Garry would be having real problems. In fact it's possible this position is already winning material for white. For example, if bishop takes f5 Qxb7. This bishop is attacked and also pawn takes pawn is a going concern. So this could be a real problem for black. So I mean I can't prove that black would have to capture the knight on f5. That will take a little more time, but I think it's probably the case.

MAURICE ASHLEY: I am somewhat surprised that Deep Blue is taking so long on this move. It always moves quicker than this. And I have to say I'm very surprised. Maybe it sees the win of the pawn as just making absolutely sure that there are no chances for Kasparov. It is taking quite a long time. It never takes this long too move -- to move.

MIKE VALVO: There's two possibilities with computers in a situation like this. First of all, it's got extra time, and it may try to go one more full ply. It sees it has enough time to do that and may try to do that. Secondly there's probably a lot of extensions in this position, a lot of captures and recaptures and it's going to follow them all to the end. And that's time-consuming. Even if it guessed Garry's move, it might have gone for the next ply, if it could.

PATRICK WOLFF: One thing I found very impressive is that both sides, particularly Kasparov in the first game I think have used their time very well. In the first game, Kasparov used all of his time but was never in time trouble, and that's very good. That's exactly what you want to do. Here it seems to me like Deep Blue is using its time very well. It's got a critical position here, maybe one as Mike suggested hadn't looked at as carefully, and it's doing exactly what you should do in such a situation. It's bideing its time and trying to figure out what the best move is.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Almost like an experienced Grandmaster would.

PATRICK WOLFF: Absolutely.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Another question?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: How about asking the audience to vote as to who's going to win the game? I vote that Deep Blue is going to win.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Got the poll.

PATRICK WOLFF: Everyone who knows Deep Blue is going to win, raise your hand? Oh, no faith."

MIKE VALVO: What's this?

PATRICK WOLFF: No faith in the world champion!

MIKE VALVO: How many think Garry is going to win?

PATRICK WOLFF: It could be a draw. How many think a draw?

MAURICE ASHLEY: A lot of hopefuls. A lot of Garry Kasparov fans in the audience. I know I saw your hands rooting for Kasparov at the beginning of the game. Now you switched around.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You were talking earlier about the possibility of bringing -- white bringing the queen up to b6.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Yes. A-ha. And we have seen a move. We will get to that question in a moment. We have seen the move Bxd6. Kasparov is slowly returning to the board and we can certainly expect Bxd6 by Kasparov. And we will not have to wait long, I suppose, for Deep Blue's next move. It spent quite a bit of time getting itself ready to play this move Bxd6. It has now done so, and we are anticipating the big move, Qb6, penetrating into the position. That would be the most advanced white piece to date. You don't want the queen sniffing around in your position.

MIKE VALVO: Ha-ha-ha.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Dangerous.

Real-time text commentary is made possible by LiveNote, Inc. and Vincent Varallo Associates