Chess the beautiful game

  

I have just finished watching an exciting television series that came out last year. It is on Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. It is about the game known as "the battle of the minds" between the greatest Chess champion, Garry Kasparov and the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue, in 1997. However, much has been said and written about this "battle of the minds". However, this particular television series examines it from a different perspective, focusing more on the emotional and psychological aspects, as well as its impact on the main characters. I relate to this series because I have worked as a psychiatrist and software developer. Some characters are fictionalised to produce a better story, as the main narrative focuses on the psychological and emotional effects that Deep Blue had, especially on Kasparov. It begins with a disclaimer stating that some aspects of what you might be watching may be inaccurate, but at least it is "based" on actual events.

The series has the actor Christian Cooke as Garry Kasparov, Sarah Bolger as Helen Brock (who was IBM's Vice-President of research and development at that time) but is a fictional character and represents IBM efforts, Trine Dyrholm as Klara Kasparova (Garry Kasparov's mother and his assistant),  Aidan Quinn as Roger Laver (his manager in the United States), Tom Austen as Paul Nelson (IBM Chess advisor) but also is a fictional character, Luke Pasqualino as Xavier Valens (Chess Grand Master), Orion Lee as the creator of Deep Blue nickname "PC",  which he said was meant to mean "perpetually clingy" but whose real name is Feng-hsiung Hsu. 

The story begins with Garry Kasparov lecturing in San Francisco, US. He states, "On the chess board, whether you face a human or Artificial Intelligence, there is only one truth. Chess is war, in its purest form, two armies on a battlefield of 64 squares with precise rules of engagement for each troop". He further describes the role of each piece and adds that at first glance, it looks nothing too complicated, but on the chessboard, it could be pure mental torture. Kasparov lives a focused and disciplined life, doing press-ups and running whenever he is not playing or studying chess. He has been living this regimental lifestyle since he was a kid, and his commitment to chess may have contributed to his failed marriage. Kasparov's first match against Deep Blue was on the 10th of February 1996 in Philadelphia, US, and Kasparov saw it as a scientific experiment. One could see code from the chessboard being analysed, along with what appeared to be C programming language, on a television screen beside the visual output of the chessboard, which included conditional statements, variables, keywords, functions, and indentation in the code. Deep Blue won the first game, which marked the first victory by a computer against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. But Kasparov recovered and won the whole match 4–2. The top-ups at IBM seem to have noticed that anytime IBM won, their stock price increased. Hence, a rematch was inevitable from a business standpoint.

The first episode introduced a storyline that I love very much. Here, we are introduced to the main characters, setting up the situation for a rematch. It shows "PC" being brought up from the basement, where he usually works, to the upper floors. IBM's VP, Helen Brock, told him that a rematch had been arranged for a year, and anything he needed or thought he needed to win against Kasparov would be made available to him; all he needed to do was ask, and no expense would be spared. PC initially believed he was being sacked while being brought up from the basement. After analysing various games, PC concluded that the only person in the wide world who spooked Kasparov was one of the film's fictional characters, Paul Ntheelson. PC and Paul worked on the chess algorithm for a  few days before the main match, but it kept crashing as the various permutations required were quite tricky for the computer to handle. It is said that the multiple outcomes needed for any single move exceed trillions. Then, PC reprogrammed the chess algorithm to use a brute force approach. This would involve considering all possible legal moves and selecting the best outcome based on the opponent's values and expected response. The number of moves it could analyse this way is about 200 million per second, and it could think more than 20 moves ahead. 

With $1 million in prize money, Klara Kasparov, who was Kasparov's mother, felt she could no longer manage her son's affairs for this high-stakes game. Mrs Kasparov, for the past 30 years of his career, had been his manager; now they needed a professional manager who had experience in the US corporate world dealing with other organisations, the press, the public and the general international celebrity culture. The contract they required Kasparov to sign for the rematch was over 500 pages long, with clauses and conditions that required the expertise of a trained corporate lawyer or someone with access to them. Garry's manager in the movie is Roger Laver, and in reality, it was Owen Williams, who has an entirely different personality. But Laver brought greater drama to the movie.

In the film, Kasparov continuously asks for analytic data from the games that Deep Blue has been playing so that he can analyse Deep Blue's method of thinking. He thought it was unfair since all his games were public knowledge and had been used to train Deep Blue. In Game 1 of the rematch, Kasparov was concerned about a particular move; he could not know whether it was a mistake or a trap, but he eventually won after concluding it was a mistake on the machine's part. After Kasparov's win, he explained that the computer did act as a human being on the 36th and 44th moves. IBM brought out the world's chess grandmasters, and they enhanced the code to reflect more human-like strategies, prioritising the protection of their King and pausing for a while. However, they knew what move to play, but the pause gave it a human element. They randomised this function to make it unpredictable as a human would, so it will be faster for some and slower for others. Kasparov resigned from the second game, conceding defeat when he was placed in what he saw as an untenable situation. However, "PC" later deleted the function, as he saw it as a psychological trick rather than Kasparov being defeated by a better and brighter computer. Since the game was live and further analysed by the international chess community, they all concluded that Kasparov could at least have drawn the game if he had continued playing.

Kasparov was particularly concerned after losing the second game and wanted to know how machine computers think. IBM had reinstalled the pause function despite the PC's objection. Trying to understand how the computer thinks, Kasparov bought 10 computers and set them up in his hotel room. He played them throughout the night and was able to devise a strategy. By the way, he had decided to overwhelm the computer with speed and a complex strategy that it would find difficult to adjust to. In subsequent games, the computer was pushed and took longer and longer to respond; Kasparov was pushing Deep Blue to make more and more calculations, causing it to crash or make a mistake. This game ended in a draw, as Kasparov had attempted it and ultimately offered a draw, which was accepted by the Deep Blue team. The push for analytic data was always present, and the difference in the games made Kasparov more demanding. The presence of four grandmasters also made him more suspicious. Additionally, he viewed it as a challenge, and if Deep Blue could defeat him, being the best human chess player on the planet, what would the future hold? Towards the end of the third episode, he asked, "What would become of me?" and disappeared into the streets of New York, where the game was taking place.

The fourth episode delved into the backstory of Garry Kasparov and his time in Russia, particularly his games against Anatoly Karpov in the mid-1980s. Karpov was supported by the USSR government, and many people within the KGB supported him. Kasparov believed that the authorities were using many psychological methods on him, including giving false impressions and using listening devices to distract and confuse him. Kasparov later became paranoid, anxious, uneasy, tense, suspicious, and nervous about their rivalry. He decided to use Mohammed Ali's rope-a-dope strategy to wear Karpov out, and in the USSR, the draws did not count; hence, he continued to force draws. Therefore, after numerous draws were played over a prolonged period of more than five months, the USSR Chess Federation, with the approval of the International Chess Federation, had to call a meeting, stating that it was endangering the physical and mental health of the grandmasters. The series of games could not be resolved, and Karpov should remain the Chess champion. Kasparov refused to accept this, demanding a rematch, which he won in November 1985, becoming world chess champion. He had tried Karpov out, using Mohammed Ali's strategy.

Every programmer goes through a period. You may have developed, programmed, and know a piece of software or particular program better than anyone else, putting a lot of work and some of your personality into it, and knowing it inside out better than anyone else. However, you do not own it personally. The software or program is paid for by the company, and although it might be your "own baby", it is not your own. "PC" was made painfully aware of that, and my heart went out for him. Deep Blue was his own concept or baby that he had been working on for more than twelve years, and he came across an article in a magazine that suggested that Helen Brock was the heart of the machine (computer), i.e. Deep Blue. Still, he was not even mentioned once in the article. But I understand it and believe that the business is the key to the success of the computer; if it were not for Helen's vision and persistence, his Deep Blue computer would still be a "science experiment". Helen Brock brought him up from the basement to the upper floor and ensured that "PC" had the funds and expertise to ensure that Deep Blue was up to speed and that Kasparov would return for the rematch.

The fifth episode started with a score of 1.5 for each opponent. This was their fourth game, and Deep Blue's response time was taking longer and longer due to the calculations and the rising temperature in the mainframe, despite being in a cold room, which was the real reason they could not bring it out to the front. The computer had crashed, and they had to reboot it. When Deep Blue crashed, IBM's stock plummeted, prompting IBM's CEO, George Silverman, to descend to the refrigerated room where Deep Blue was housed. He asked "PC" directly what was wrong, then "PC" went into technospeak, after which he asked the CEO whether he understood. The CEO said he does not need to understand anything but run the company, which is why his signature is at the bottom of PC's paycheck. Deep Blue crashed and seemed to play a different move entirely after rebooting. The crush seemed to put off Kasparov, and he agreed to draw. Still, later Kasparov became paranoid and, as he believed that the Americans were playing mind games on him, he thought that his room was being bugged. His actions were being spied upon, as he always felt they were being used on him by the former Soviet Union.

Towards the end of the fifth episode, they considered changing the computer's name, but they agreed that he would receive the recognition he deserved. The sixth and final episode began in Game 5, with the score tied at 2:2. When the Deep Blue team emerged, they were booed, while Kasparov received a standing ovation, as he was seen as humanity's last hope. In the morning, while he was going for his jog, he was hailed by the people of New York, and the taxi drivers all hooted him as he passed by. In the final game, the Deep Blue team was to play white; hence, it was to play first using a unique opening move, with the King in the centre refusing to castle and using computing power to avoid any other errors. Kasparov's team were playing people worldwide to develop strategies to protect itself. In the TV series, he was to sacrifice one of his Knights early in the game. They got PC to reprogram a scenario to react to when there is an attempt to sacrifice a piece early in the game. Unfortunately, when Kasparov attempted to implement the sacrifice, Deep Blue anticipated this and implemented procedures to counter it. Hence, the sacrifice was negated, and Kasparov eventually withdrew, conceding defeat.

PC resigned after taking the computer's mainframe. Helen Brock was sacrificed and retired from IBM. She was told that, like in chess, they had to sacrifice her to win the game, but she was given a large settlement. Although there was an impression that Kasparov really won, IBM was accused of cheating. IBM dismantled Deep Blue and compensated specific individuals, but computers would have ultimately prevailed, as they continue to do so now.