Post-game: Dealing with a draw

Our web reporter is spending the week with the Kasparov team, bringing back an exclusive look at the mood and the moments inside the world champion's camp.

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? For the Kasparov team, even after the champion had to settle for a draw in the all-important game three, the answer was an easy one.

It certainly wasn't a disaster, they reasoned. People "don't understand he is not playing a human opponent. This is just all part of the learning process for Garry," said Andrew Page, who heads Club Kasparov, the champion's web site.

But "it is a disappointment," conceded Kasparov's technical advisor, Frederic Friedel. "He has to suss out the machine. He'll do it until Game 6. I just hope he figures it out before it's too late."

Friedel's natural caution came into play when discussing -- or declining to discuss -- Kasparov's incredulity at Deep Blue's human-like play in Game 2, which it won. In his post-Game 3 comments, Kasparov said, "I think something truly unbelievable happened yesterday ... I do not have a viable explanation for it." Kasparov's agent, Owen Williams, was only slightly more forthcoming, saying, "His comments were self-evident. He's searching for answers, but he's very careful not to make accusations."

Friedel described the champion as "tense" before the game. He abandoned his lucky suit, opting instead for a blue sports jacket and khaki slacks, the kind of outfit that would blend nicely with the gaggle of journalists viewing the game from the 49th floor press room. One of the more interesting visitors to the press room was the venerated Russian grandmaster, Boris Gulko, who was a guest of the Kasparov camp.

Gulko had been imprisoned in a Soviet gulag for many years under extremely harsh conditions and was the subject of a widespread effort in the United States to petition for his freedom. Friedel pointed out that Gulko is one of the very few grandmasters who has a favorable won-loss record against the world champion.

The prevailing view about Game 3 in the Kasparov camp was that the champion did not appear to be suffering as he had during Game 2. "He is not desperate," said Friedel, watching Kasparov as he made one of his many exits from the table, almost always fingering the middle button of his sport jacket. "He is more relaxed."

At that point, so were they. "I would hate to play Gary after a loss. It is a suicide," Friedel said. For a human, maybe, but at the last look, Deep Blue had not popped any of its chips.

Bits and Pieces Who says chess players don't have a sense of humor? This joke was culled from Friedel's bimonthly CD-ROM program ChessBase: A grandmaster sits down to play a game against a dog. A crowd of people stand around in amazement. "It's astounding. What an amazing dog!" they exclaim.The grandmaster looks at them incredulously. "What's so amazing about the dog? I'm the three-to-one favorite." ... And Friedel might have offered the most fascinating tidbit of the day. Speaking on the auditorium stage, he said Anatoly Karpov likes to entertain people by plucking flies out of the air with his bare hands.

-- Jeff Kisseloff