Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine [Paperback]

Bruce Pandolfini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 1997

In the first comprehensive book about the highly publicized chess match between world champion Garry Kasparov and the IBM chess program Deep Blue, renowned chess teacher and author Bruce Pandolfini offers a play-by-play of each game--as well as his own unique analysis and historical perspective. 80 diagrams.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (October 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068484852X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684848525
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,117,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good report of match, but nothing spectacular, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine (Paperback)

Pandolfini annotates practically every move of the six games of Kasparov's match loss to Deep Blue (I thought it was called "Deeper Blue"). This is book is written at a fairly basic level. He explains a lot of basic chess terms, such as open files and pinned pieces. All told, the book is interesting for those who want a record of the event, but it's not really instructive. It's also not a great value with only 6 games, though it does provide the game scores (no annotation) of the first match which K. won.

Pandolfini makes some questionable comments - such as calling K. the "last human world champion" - and isn't afraid to express his opinion. He thinks that Kasparov would have won if he'd only played his own game instead of trying to get cute with anti-computer moves.

There's no behind-the-scenes repoortage, nor much here about the technology behind Deep Blue. I think Panda might have written it on his couch from reading the games scores in the newspaper.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A commentary on championship chess accessible to beginners!, December 29, 1999

By 

Herbert M. Bryant Jr. (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine (Paperback)

As a beginning chess player who's returned to the game after a thirty-nine year lapse since high school, I found this book an good introduction to the thinking involved in tournament level play. It made chess commentaries seem exciting, whereas they'd never seemed so before.

The author's clear exposition of the problems facing the players on each move, and the book's well organized format, made this the first collection of chess games to lead me to take up a board and follow along. :-)

Chess diagrams are inserted at critical points in each of the six games of the match, and informative mini essays appear in highlighted boxes throughout the text. The game records are written in easily interpreted short algebraic notation. Only the knowledge which can be gained from any brief introduction to chess is presumed, and even that's not mandatory.

Over the years, I sometimes glanced through chess books on bookstore and library shelves, but most appeared somewhat tedious, certainly not suitable for leisure study. Bruce Pandolfini's description of Garry Kasparov's performance as John Henry against IBM's Deep Blue steam hammer is an exception to that pattern.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Compact and Accessible, but Shallow, November 27, 2000

By 

"microtherion" (Sim City, CA (Somewhere in the Bay Area)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kasparov and Deep Blue: The Historic Chess Match Between Man and Machine (Paperback)

This book contains the complete games of both Kasparov-Deep Blue matches in a compact and affordable volume, which makes it a good value for its price for anybody interested in these matches. Pandolfini does a reasonable job picking positions to diagram. However, at least to me as a reasonably experienced, if mediocre, chess player, the author's analysis was entirely worthless.

Clearly, Pandolfiini's intention was to use this high profile match to teach some general principles of chess to an inexperienced public. I'm not sure this is a viable strategy, given at what high level the games were played, but there is nothing wrong with the principles the author teaches. However, In his attempt to cater to the chess novice, Pandolfini goes overboard in avoiding the discussion of any but the most obvious lines. As a result, the somewhat more experienced reader is left without help to the somewhat less obvious questions.

As a glaring example of this, it would have been well worth a discussion, giving specific lines, why the black position at the end of game 6 is indeed lost. Instead, Pandolfiini just states some generalities ("Time to buy IBM stock").

Furthermore, the book is utterly disappointing in its failure to provide any substantial information at all about the technology behind Deep Blue, instead of the clichés that the author seems to find amusing.