World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated computerized challenger Deep Junior on Sunday in the first of six games pitting human wit against computer logic.
Kasparov forced the Israeli-programmed Deep Junior into a position from which it could not win, compelling the human moving its pieces to resign four hours into the game.
Both players" queens, the most powerful pieces on the board, were captured by the end of the game, leaving them to use less powerful knights, bishops and rooks. That gave the advantage to Kasparov, who used white pieces and moved first.
"Once he was able to remove the queens from the board, it was just arithmetic," said commentator and international grand master Maurice Ashley.
Early in the game, Deep Junior stunned experts when it paused for 25 minutes to contemplate a countermove to Kasparov"s attack. Kasparov was able to parlay that into dominance for the remainder of the game, Ashley said.
"The entire time there was no doubt of his superiority during the game," Ashley said.