Kasparov vs. the World

As GM Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand and Chess.com are about to embark on a Vote Chess journey together, we recall the first major event where a top grandmaster took on the world in a game of chess. Exactly 25 years ago, back in 1999, GM Garry Kasparov vs. the World took a much younger internet by storm. After four months and 62 moves against more than 50,000 voters on the Microsoft Network (MSN), Kasparov finally won. He would later call it “the greatest game in the history of chess.”

A lot has changed in 25 years, but not everything. In honor of the upcoming game, here is a quick recap of the Kasparov vs. the World game that blazed a trail that Vishy vs. the World will follow.

The Champions

Kasparov was no less a legend by 1999, even though he grew up in what was already the strongest chess nation in the world. He was still the highest-rated player in the world in 1999 and would remain so until his 2005 retirement. He had at the time also beaten Anand in the most recent match for the classical world championship and had, by 1999, been champion for 14 years.

So it’s pretty easy to see why thousands would be motivated to play an epic game against Kasparov, just like it’s easy to see why thousands could do the same with Vishy.

The Background

Kasparov was no stranger to computers either. His prior experience in the field of computer chess was mostly positive—he was one of the first grandmasters to really take advantage of electronic opening databases—but suffered a giant black eye from his loss to Deep Blue in 1997. 

But that was a supercomputer. You might have thought that the world champion facing off against an assortment of internet denizens left to their democratic devices would be an easy win for the champion. But the internet folk were not alone in their quest to defeat the champion and so, to quote Norm Macdonald (in a different context, obviously): “No, it was actually close.”

How did the world hang with the champion for so long?

The Advisors

The main thing that helped the world team put up a fight was its advisors. Microsoft assembled a crack squad of what Joe Pesci might call “yutes” (youths) and assigned them the task of suggesting moves. Those players—all between age 14 and 18 at the time, and listed below with their highest achieved titles, although none yet had them at the time of the game—were:

Krush’s move suggestions ended up dominating the results, but the whole team’s advice was indispensable to the World’s big fight. You will also have assistance against Vishy—names coming soon!

The Game

And here is the game itself, Kasparov vs. the World. If you’d like to read along with an analysis Krush and others wrote soon after the game, it can be found here (moves 1-31), here (moves 32-50), and here (moves 51-62).

The game was so long, influential, and complicated that Kasparov co-authored an entire book about it. 

What’s Changed

Of course it has. Perhaps the biggest difference between then and now is just how good computers have become at the game. Engines could be helpful in 1999—in fact, Kasparov announced mate in his game after analyzing with one—but they weren’t the superpowers of 2024.

But the main purpose of consulting a computer in a game like this would be to avoid simple blunders, which are going to be rare anyway in what is effectively a correspondence game between a champion on one side and the wisdom of crowds on the other. The problem, whether it’s 1999 or 2024, is that when several moves show a very close evaluation, humans still have to decide what the best move for the situation is—and, even more difficult, get thousands of other humans to agree with them!

Secondly, more general but perhaps more obvious too, is that the internet of today is a completely different animal. If the Kasparov game could get 50,000 voters in 1999, in an era with far fewer people connected to the internet, how many can we get today? For example, in 1999, about three million people in India had internet access—that number today is over 900 million. And that’s just one country out of almost 200. All those extra people are sure to make this upcoming match even more interesting.

Conclusion