The Deep Blue Chess Engine is something that you will often hear about when the topic of chess and famous matches comes up. You will hear about how Deep Blue was able to beat legendary Chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov back in the 1990s. With this in mind, you are probably asking yourself a simple question.
Last Updated: October 19th, 2021
What Is The Deep Blue Chess Engine?
Deep Blue is a computer designed by the IBM company to play chess. The development of the Deep Blue Chess Engine first began back in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University.
As a part of the development team, IBM brought in Chess Grandmaster Joel Benjamin.[1] The initial name of the chess-playing computer was Deep Though but it was renamed to Deep Blue in 1989. The chess-playing computer has the distinction of being the first to win a game, and then a match against a reigning world champion.
How Good is Deep Blue at Chess?
This is a common question asked by chess enthusiasts and people in general that simply want to know. To put it simply, the computer was able to evaluate 100 million positions each second during its 1996 match with Garry Kasparov.[2] The 1997 version of Deep Blue doubled this at 200 million positions each second. At the time, the chess-playing computer was considered to be the world’s 259th most powerful supercomputer. These numbers alone give a good idea of Deep Blue’s ability to consider possible moves during a chess game.
Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue
The Deep Blue Chess Engine made its mark permanently in the Chess world in 1996 to 1997. One of the most legendary Chess events that Deep Blue, the Chess world, and Chess engines in general, have ever been involved in was when the computer go up against legendary Grandmaster Garry Kasparov on two separate occasions between 1996 and 1997. The first match being in Philadelphia in 1996, the second match in New York in 1997.
These matches quickly became among the most anticipated in the game’s history and they would have ramifications that reverberated across the worldwide chess community for years to come.
Let’s go through some games of two matches between Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov.
Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue 1st Match 1996
- 6 games were played
- Result: Garry Kasparov won (4-2)
The first of these legendary matches took place on the 10th of February in 1996.
Feb 10th, 1996
Feb 13th, 1996
Feb 14th, 1996
Feb 16th, 1996
This famous Chess match between machine and human continued over the following days before finally wrapping up on the 17th of February in 1996. Though Kasparov would win the overall match by a score of 4-2, it was a notable event because Deep Blue became the first computer to ever successfully win a chess game within a match while facing off against a reigning chess world champion and a respected Chess Grandmaster in the form of Garry Kasparov.
Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue 2nd Match 1997
- 6 games were played
- Result: Deep Blue won (3½–2½)
The second chess match that took place between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue occurred from the 3rd to the 11th of May in 1997. Anyone who expected the same result as the past encounter was surprised. Kasparov did win the first game of the match, but Deep Blue took the second game. From that point forward, Deep Blue seemed to take control.
May 3rd 1997
May 4th 1997
May 6th 1997
May 10th 1997
May 11th 1997
Deep Blue won game 2 of the match with play that seemed to stun Kasparov. When the rematch concluded, it was in favor of Deep Blue by a score of 3–2. The deciding game of the match was won by Deep Blue after Kasparov made a critical error during its opening. This victory on the part of Deep Blue would go down in chess history since a computer had never before defeated a reigning chess Chess champion in a
match.[3]
It should be noted that there were upgrades made to Deep Blue in the aftermath of the Chess computer’s loss to Kasparov in their first encounter. The programmers behind Deep Blue at this point gave the computer the nickname Deeper Blue. There was certainly some controversy surrounding the rematch as Kasparov suggested that there was human intervention involved. This would of course violate the rules of the match. The team at IBM denied that this was the case but the controversy remained due to Kasparov’s allegations.
Can Magnus Carlsen Beat Deep Blue?
Norway’s legendary Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, is the reigning world champion for the game. He is one of the most legendary players in the history of chess. His career has seen him dominate the FIDE rankings in chess since 2010 and only the famed Garry Kasparov has spent a longer amount of time ranked as the world’s top chess player.
Due to his legendary standing in the game of chess, many people commonly ask whether or not Magnus Carlsen can beat Deep Blue. Though this is a compelling question, it would certainly appear that we will never have the answer to it as Deep Blue has been retired since 1997. This retirement occurred after the second match against Garry Kasparov. Beyond this, Magnus Carlsen has stated that he is not interested in playing chess against computer opponents.
Can You Play Deep Blue in Chess?
Can you play Deep Blue in Chess? Though this is a common question and an ambition held by many chess players, it is not possible to play Deep Blue in chess. As has been previously noted, Deep Blue was retired in 1997. This might disappoint many chess players to find this out but there is some good news. This good news is the fact that there are some great chess engines out there that you can test your skills against.
Using a chess engine is a practice that many coaches recommend. These engines can often be scaled up or down to make it harder or easier to play against them depending on your skill level. Some of the world’s top-ranked chess engines that are currently available include Houdini, Igel, RubiChess 2.1, Fat Fritz, Komodo Dragon, and Stockfish. There have been some great technological advances that have assisted in continually improving the realm of chess engines. You might not be able to play chess against the Deep Blue Chess Engine, but you should consider one or more of these to see how you do. It can be an interesting and educational way to mix things up as opposed to playing against real chess players.