Commentary for white move 12:

YASSER SEIRAWAN: Well, on that note a recall a comment of Grandmaster Robert Byrne, who is a columnist, chess columnist for the New York Times. He recalls one of America's great players Sammy Reshevsky --

DB MOVE: 12 Bxg6

MAURICE ASHLEY: Well, Deep Blue has varied from your suggestion, Yaz, and notice, by the way, this last move, if you look at the bishop on the g6 square, it is standings right on the g6 square is a bit off center. We spoke clearly yesterday about how as a nonchess player the operator makes these moves, and the pieces end up off the squares from time to time, and that irritates the heck out of chess players. (Audience laughter.)

MIKE VALVO: In fact, last year as arbiter I had to walk over to the arbiter and say "put the piece on the center of the square." But it wasn't as bad as this one, it was half over the next square.

MAURICE ASHLEY: This is what the Husseinlers in Washington square park will do to you and suddenly the bishop changes color, it slowly goes off -- "Hey, what happened?"

YASSER SEIRAWAN: I thought we were playing bishops of opposite color!

MAURICE ASHLEY: Suddenly the right color.

MIKE VALVO: The pieces off the board suddenly come on the board.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Well, this bishop on g6 will be removed immediately, so we won't have to worry about it being so ugly at the moment.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: Just to continue the story. So what happens is Robert Byrne would like to analyze the position with Grandmaster Reshevsky, and he would say, "What do you think of this position? And Reshevsky would say to Robert "What side am I playing on? What side is mine?" And he said I just want to get an idea. He said, "Am I white? Then I like white. -- (Kasparov adjusts the bishop on g6.)

MAURICE ASHLEY: Did you see that?

MAURICE ASHLEY: Well, even if he had planned to play the next move instantly, he couldn't help putt-putt that bishop back into the middle of the square.

MIKE VALVO: And if they say touch move he doesn't care, he's going to take it anyway.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: Let me just talk a moment about the position because actually it's an intriguing decision, and it's conceivable that Garry may spend some time making it. It's an absolutely standard and let us even use the word "automatic" to recapture towards the center. This is like the overwhelming general principle that beginners get hammered with, "Capture towards the center." However, in this particular position, there are reasons for playing f7xg6, which is a move actually a computer would consider much more deeply than most humans. The reason why you could consider the move f7xg6 is the advance of the g4 pawn has weakened the knight on f3 so that after f7xg6 black could swing a rook to the f8 square and get counter play on the f-file. I don't know if Garry will make this antipositional move f7xg6, but it deserves some consideration.

MIKE VALVO: He may think a while on this one.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: I suspect he will.

MIKE VALVO: A crucial decision for the game.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: It will have a long-term effect.

MAURICE ASHLEY: Yeah, he's certainly studying the position better than -- he better than any of us knows the concept of capturing toward the center and its effect, but now we have to -- he has to wonder to he wants to create this somewhat double-edged position creating the weakened pawn on e6 but giving his pieces the f-file to operate on.

YASSER SEIRAWAN: He's almost weighing the decision in his mind.

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