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Aggressive Playing Style
Left Little Room for Error

Chalk one up for the humans.

After nearly four hours of tension-filled play today, world chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated the International Business Machines Corp. supercomputer Deep Blue. The game is the first of six that Kasparov and the computer will play over the next week.

Deep Blue's loss on the 45th move, several chess experts here said, stemmed from its its aggressive -- and sometimes rash -- playing style. On the 28th move, the computer sacrificed a pawn to capture one of Kasparov's rooks two moves later. Kasparaov then seized the opportunity to march two of his own pawns, supported by a bishop and a rook, down the board to strand the computer's king.

"It's just the beginning . . . but I'm very happy," Kasparov told a cheering crowd of 500 people who had gathered in an auditorium to watch a closed-ciruit broadcast of the game, which took place several floors above the match.

Despite the computer's loss, chess experts here called the competition very evenly matched. "They both played extremely well," said Patrick G. Wolff, a former U.S. chess champion.

Kasparov played white, an advantage that allowed him to move first and set a tone for the game. On Sunday, in the second game, Deep Blue will play white.

Deep Blue's designers said they plan to make a series of adjustments to the computer tonight. They would not elaborate on what types of changes they planned to make.

"It's obviously a disappointment," said Miguel Illescas, a chess champion from Spain who has been advising the IBM team. "It's clear that we need to make some changes. . . . The machine played too aggressive."

Other Deep Blue team members defended the computer's bold style, saying it would have paid off had Kasparov made even the slightest mistake. "The game was touch and go until the end," said Feng-Hsiung Hsu, one of the project's leaders.

But Kasparov's strategy also was to wait for his opponent to make a mistake, and then capitalize on it. He got the first chance -- and capitalized on it.

"I kept my promise before the match that I would not play as Garry Kasparov usually plays in human events," Kasparov said, noting that he played a more conservative game than usual. "At least I found some flaws today."

At a news conference Thursday, Kasparov vowed "to repeat history," referring to his victory in Philadelphia in February 1996.

Today, seeking to put the best spin on their initial defeat, Deep Blue team members noted that at last year's match, the winner of the first game, Deep Blue, eventually lost the match 4-2.

"I hope history can indeed repeat itself," said Chung-Jen Tan, manager of the Deep Blue team.

Chess moves from Game 1 match between Garry Kasparov and the computer Deep Blue: