Deep Blue - Kasparov Game 2 1997

[Kevin Bonham]

Kasparov famously wrongly resigned the following position against Deep Blue in game 2 of their second match (which he went on to lose 2.5-3.5) :

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Today I came across some comments in which fellow psephologist Nate Silver, writing about the match in a book about statistical predictions, had suggested Kasparov resigned because of anxiety about the computer's super-human capacities caused by a strange move in the previous game. Frankly, although that was a secondary comment based on some comments by others, I think Nate should stick to his day job on this one. Kasparov's resignation was something that could have easily happened between two humans in the same position.

But that made me curious about this game again and online coverage of it and I found some fresher analysis to that from the time of the game.

While Kasparov's resignation was obviously premature there has been dispute since as to whether it was even drawn at all. It does not seem, at least, that it was clearly drawn by perpetual check.

These are some lines from various sources mainly here.

The current position is that it is a draw with best play but I wonder if anyone can propose any wins for white that overturn this.

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Further contributions welcome.

[first25plus5]

Thanks for collating this line.
54.Qd4 is a better try for White, I believe. (instead of the 54.b5)
I have a very good pdf file containing all necessary and latest lines. Its 400+Kb large so too big to upload I suspect.
Anyway anyone wanting it let me know. cheers

[first25plus5]

'Main line' is:
45...Qe3 46.Qxd6 Re8 47.Qd7+ Re7 48.Qc6 Qxe4 49.d6 Qd3+ 50.Kg1 Re8 51.Ra1 h5 52.Qxb5 Rd8 53.Qb7+ Kg8 54.Qe7 Qxd6 55.Qxd6 Rxd6 56.Ra8+ Kf7 57.Rc8 Rd1+ 58.Kh2 Ke7 59.Rxc4 Kd6 60.Rc8 Rc1 61.Kg3 Kd5
after the next white move there can be various transpositions over the next several moves but they come to the same
62.Kf3 Rf1+ 63.Ke3 Re1+ 64.Kd3 e4+ 65.Kd2 Rg1 66.Rc5+ Kd6 67.Ke3 Re1+ 68.Kd4 e3 69.Kd3 e2 70.Kd2 Rb1 71.Kxe2 Rb2+ 72.Ke3 Rxg2 73.Kf3 Rg1 74.Kf4.

[Kevin Bonham]

Thanks.

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[first25plus5]

I've had a major computer upgrade, and now believe part of the the 49...Qxf5+ line collated earlier is the best way for Black
So,
45...Qe3 46.Qxd6 Re8 47.Qd7+ Re7 48.Qc6 Qxe4 49.d6
then
49...Qxf5+ 50.Kg1 Rd7 51.Qxb5 Qe6 52.Qc5 Kg6 53.Rc6 e4 (- collated elsewhere).
But then now its unclear where White should go to from here.

[first25plus5]

Thanks mainly to others it looks like now that the 49...Qd3+ line is the way to go now. I'll post a brief summation next week.

[first25plus5]

After analysis elsewhere, I'm convinced at a draw after spending time going through it myself.

45...Qe3 46.Qxd6 Re8 47.Qd7+ Re7 48.Qc6 Qxe4 49.d6 Qd3+ 50.Kg1 Re8 51.Ra1 h5

is the way. All subsequent lines have been deeply analysed to draws.