Frederic Friedel is such a pessimist that he'd take along an umbrella on a trip to the Sahara. So it's astonishing to hear him say after the draw in Game 4, "Deep Blue is beatable. I feel good about the next two games."

Friedel, Kasparov's technical advisor was not even discouraged by the champion's inability to convert what seemed to be a winning position. "He's very tired. He would have won if he had been fresher."

He also was pleased with what he saw of Deep Blue. "I think we're going to learn a lot about the machine from this game," he said. That was echoed by Grandmaster Gabriel Schwartzman of Club Kasparov, the champion's web site. "Garry will get lots of information about how Deep Blue plays its end game," he said.

It seems that the team grows more confident the more it sees of the computer, which reflects Friedel's view that the Kasparov team was at an initial disadvantage because it had not seen any of Deep Blue's prior games. "If we had seen just ten games by Deep Blue this would have been a different ballgame."

Perhaps the biggest obstacle Kasparov will have to overcome is fatigue, something that concerns Friedel deeply. "Poor Garry, he is like a kid brother to me, and it is hard for me to see how exhausted he is. It is so unfair. It is like boxing against a robot. Deep Blue comes back perfectly fresh the next day."

Still, the team began the day with what now seems to be the usual level of high anxiety. "I was playing the black pieces, and I didn't have big aspirations," Kasparov said after the game was over. Friedel, too, seemed unsure. He had only four hours sleep, spending most of the night preparing for the game. He was being interviewed by a TV crew at a point in the game when Kasparov appeared to be reeling under the computer's pressure. It so unsettled Friedel that one of the cameramen went to fetch him a drink so he could complete the interview. But three hours later, Friedel appeared in the auditorium wearing a grin that was as rare as a May snowfall. He was still smiling when it was over.

Bits and Pieces: Friedel is from Hamburg, Germany, but his grasp of English is remarkable. Today, he referred to someone in the press room as "perspicacious." Then he said, "You know who I learned that word from? Lisa Simpson"... The strangest question heard today in the press room was from a reporter who asked an IBM official if he could interview Deep Blue... Schwartzman said he wanted to get Deep Blue on tape, saying "Hello." But, alas, he was told the computer has no voice capability."

-- Jeff Kisseloff