Commentary for black move 26:

MAURICE ASHLEY: More intriguingly to me, though, is not only did Deep Blue not -- not only is Deep Blue thinking about the position, but it didn't think that Kasparov's move was the best move because usually when it guesses Kasparov's move, it moves immediately. And although Qa4 must have been one of the very basic moves it looked at, and now is responding Rd8.

DB MOVE: 26...Rd8

MAURICE ASHLEY: It wasn't that impressed. It is spending time saying why did he carry out that move? This is all basic cheapo. Rd8 has been played. And Kasparov now thinking about the position. What would have given Kasparov the idea that this is the move he wants to play, Yaz? Does he want to go into an endgame where the bishop might be a little bit better than the knight? Here I can't really see that. I can't really follow Kasparov's logic after that move. Kasparov has to now be concerned about the block. And in the meantime, this knight O if 3 looks like a very bad piece, because it has nowhere to go, has no forward jumps at all, and the bishop on g2 is not saying anything at all. So it seems for the moment, with this pawn on f2 under attack, Kasparov is not in a very comfortable position.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: I didn't anticipate the move Qa4 because I didn't think it was a good move. With the queen O C -- on c2 it protects the f2 pawn. Now after this exchange of moves Garry still has a problem of what he's going to do with his f2 pawn and unless he's come up with something very clever, I don't quite understand his reasoning behind his last move Qa4. Susan, do you see something with that?

SUSAN POLGAR: No, I was just thinking. You know Garry better than I do. Do you think it's possible that he overlooked Rd8?

MAURICE ASHLEY: No!

YASSER SEIRAWAN: No! (Audience laughter.)

SUSAN POLGAR: It doesn't make sense.

MAURICE ASHLEY: No, his heart could not have suddenly skipped a beat, oh, man, Qa4, I win a piece. This is Garry Kasparov we're talking about.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: Without the move Rd8, if there had been no -- if Deep Blue didn't have this option of Rd8, it would be game over.

SUSAN POLGAR: What about Re4? I think it doesn't work, but it's just a move, it threats, discovered check.

MAURICE ASHLEY: That's a very good point.

SUSAN POLGAR: I think Nd4 might be --

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