Game Over: Kasparov And The Machine
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Mon 5 April 2004 // 20:00
Tue 6 April 2004 // 20:00
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Thu 8 April 2004 // 20:00
GAME OVER: KASPAROV AND THE MACHINE
(Vikram Javanti / 2003 / UK/Canada / cert PG)
(Mon 5th / 8pm / £4/3/2)
In the summer of 1997 World Chess No.1 Garry Kasparov played 6 games against the supercomputer Deep Blue in a re-match, having walked away victorious the previous year. The result gave chess the media exposure its fans usually only dream of. To everyone's disbelief, none more so than Kasparov himself, the computer won. This facinating documentary details the event game for game, and offers background on both Grandmaster and the passionate, geeky programmers behind Deep Blue. We realise however that there was a third player in this complex experiment, IBM itself.
Kasparov still asserts that the game was lost under suspicious circumstances, asking why Deep Blue was dismantled immediately after the match, and how could the computer suddenly switch from behaving like a typical computer: void of creativity and intuition. In the wake of his recent pledge (along with other prominent liberals in Russia) to oust Vladimir Putin in the 2008 elections, this film offers an timely insight into a man refusing to admit defeat. Does GAME OVER mark an inevitable evolutionary crisis for mankind, or is it a fine example of corporate chicanery with IBM taking a win-at-all-costs approach to protect their share value?
(Vikram Javanti / 2003 / UK/Canada / cert PG)
(Mon 5th / 8pm / £4/3/2)
In the summer of 1997 World Chess No.1 Garry Kasparov played 6 games against the supercomputer Deep Blue in a re-match, having walked away victorious the previous year. The result gave chess the media exposure its fans usually only dream of. To everyone's disbelief, none more so than Kasparov himself, the computer won. This facinating documentary details the event game for game, and offers background on both Grandmaster and the passionate, geeky programmers behind Deep Blue. We realise however that there was a third player in this complex experiment, IBM itself.
Kasparov still asserts that the game was lost under suspicious circumstances, asking why Deep Blue was dismantled immediately after the match, and how could the computer suddenly switch from behaving like a typical computer: void of creativity and intuition. In the wake of his recent pledge (along with other prominent liberals in Russia) to oust Vladimir Putin in the 2008 elections, this film offers an timely insight into a man refusing to admit defeat. Does GAME OVER mark an inevitable evolutionary crisis for mankind, or is it a fine example of corporate chicanery with IBM taking a win-at-all-costs approach to protect their share value?