And of course, they already could play chess because we had already many engines and Deep Blue was there. But from that moment onward, machines were taking a larger and larger space in our preparation. So still kind of brute-force number crunching at this point.Įxactly. The Compaq 486 ( used under license) (Image credit: Uscleo) Not that the machine could do much, but it could assure me that the main line was correct. And the moment that can be marked as a milestone, where a machine actually helped in preparation was 1995, my game against Anand: game 10 when I checked the rook sacrifice, some of the main lines, with the machine just to make sure. Very primitive, but they still could calculate like old-fashioned calculators. The first time that I think we tried to use the engine was 1993. To bring the latest technology at the time to make it part of my preparation, because I thought that would be very useful. I had a computer at home, and in 1988 I think I was the first player who bought a laptop, though I'm not sure we can call it a laptop: Compaq 486? It's nearly five kilos and $5,000, doesn't look like a laptop for people today, but in 1988 that was a really big deal! So I was always trying to catch up. Since 1986-87 it gradually became a part of our preparation. When do computers become a tool that can help a chess world champion? I brought 53 Ataris as payment for my contract And that's how we started first computer club in the Soviet Union. You remember Atari ST? That was the beginning of the chess computer club in Moscow. I had another short-term computer contract with Atari computers. And I thought that could be a big help because I had all these notebooks, so how about bringing everything together? Because I could then look at these games on the screen. We didn't think about it as machines playing and chess engines, but more like a database.
And I shared my idea: time to start using machines, computers to help chess players.
So in 1985, I spoke to to my new friends in Germany, the future creators of ChessBase. You know Hopper? Remember the game Hopper? So that was definitely the first computer in my town of Baku, and we played all sorts of games. So I eventually asked them to give me one and I remember carrying the monitor with me in an Aeroflot flight back to Russia. That is, wow, I mean they were very primitive, absolute primitive. I was shocked because I came from the Soviet Union. And I am almost sure you haven't heard the name of the company that sponsored my semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi: Acorn Computers! Acorn Computers, 1983. But going back to my career, the first time I actually saw computers, real computers, that was in 1983.
KASPAROV CHESS GAME DOWNLOAD
So today, I always say that the difference between Magnus Carlsen and the chess engine you can download on your laptop: it's about the same as comparing Usain Bolt and a Ferrari And, of course, you know, if you have a chess app on your mobile, it's stronger than Deep Blue. I don't know, call them entities, strongest players, you know, if we take computers into account, and of course the gap keeps growing.
KASPAROV CHESS GAME PROFESSIONAL
And in some ways I can claim myself as being the last world champion, because I was the last world champion who was the strongest on this planet! When I left professional chess, clearly the world champions were not the strongest. Garry Kasparov: A great question to start with though it may take a few hours or maybe a few days to actually cover, you know, my career, and the influence of machines! And how the game has changed, how the game was influenced by the gradual machine takeover of many fields of the game of chess. If you have a Chess app on your mobile, it's stronger than Deep Blue
When did they start appearing as a tool for serious training? And when did it become clear they were going to become something more than that?
KASPAROV CHESS GAME PC
PC Gamer: Can you talk about the changes you've seen in the chess world over your life in regards to computers? Your career aligns with some pretty remarkable advancements. (Image credit: Garry Kasparov / Louis Germain)