m0smithslash's Journal: Man V. Machine - Kasparov and Fritz

From Chessville Weekly

On Tuesday, a momentous event in chess history will occur. The worldwide sports network, ESPN, will begin a series of four live broadcasts of the latest Man vs Machine match featuring world number 1, Garry Kasparov, against a program called X3DFritz. Not since Fischer-Spassky in 1972 has there been this much live coverage of a chess match on US television. The first show will air this Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST with the following shows set for November 13, 16 and 18. If this event gets the ratings, ESPN will look into broadcasting future chess competitions. You can find out further information at the event website.

Kasparov is more than a grand-master at the venerable game of chess. He is not too bad at marketing. This is the 3rd Man V. Machine chess match. Each was a martketing tool for some company: IBM, Chessbase and now X3D.

Does Kasparov know he is being used as a marketing shill? Of course he does! Does Kasparov know he looks silly in 3D glasses? Of course he does. This is a case of a win-win situation. The sponsor gets lots of publicity and chess gets a big boost as well.

What if he loses to the computer? He has before and it hasn't hurt him in the least. He seems to see the computer as a tool both to improve his own game as well as making chess more popular.

I wish him well.