From America’s foremost chess coach and game strategist for Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit comes the classic confrontation of Man versus Machine—the match between Kasparov and IBM's chess program.

In six games that riveted chess enthusiasts and laypeople alike, world chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM’s chess program Deep Blue fought for the title of best chess player in the world. The games themselves were dramatic events, filled with fascinating strategic moments, but their impact reverberated for beyond the chess world and the world would never look at computers the same way again.​

Pandolfini follows the tournament in a game-by-game, play-by-play analysis that reveals the significance of this important match. With numerous diagrams and easy-to-follow explanations of the key moves of every game, Paldolfini reenacts the drama of this intense week. Sidebars, tips, and short essays also provide a broader view of the match in terms of the history of artificial intelligence, computers’ creative abilities, and whether or not human intervention was the ultimate cause of Kasparov’s defeat, as the defeated champion claims.