Deep Junior Forces Fast, Clever Draw In Game 5

In a 17 move game that was as lightning fast as the last one was long, Kasparov playing white opened with queen’s and queen bishop’s pawns forward; Deep junior responded with a four-move kingside castle. A pawn exchange led to Kasparov also castling on kingside by move 8. Two moves later Deep Junior broke both the white castle and the game wide open with a bishop-pawn exchange that exposed the white king once it moved to the second rank to take Deep Junior’s bishop. Black posted check with its knight and Kasparov moved his white king further into the open on rank three by attacking the offending knight. Deep Junior brought the black queen into play to defend its knight and play incredibly moved into the end game at this early stage with Kasparov struggling to get his king back under cover. By move 17 Kasparov was faced with losing a knight or allowing Deep Junior to draw the game with a perpetual check; he chose the latter and game 5 was a draw. The Man Vs. Machine score is thus a tie at 2.5 – 2.5 with Kasparov playing black going into the critical Game 6, a position under which he choked during similar circumstances in his 1997 match with Deep Blue. Play resumes on Friday Feb. 7 at 3:30 PM ET and webcast live.