Kasparov versus the World

Kasparov versus the World was a game of chess played in 1999 over the Internet. It was a , in which a World Team of thousands decided each move for the black pieces by plurality vote, while Garry Kasparov conducted the white pieces by himself. More than 50,000 people from over 75 countries participated in the game. The host and promoter of the match was the MSN Gaming Zone, with sponsorship from First USA bank. After 62 moves played over four months, Kasparov won the game. The game produced a mixture of deep tactical and strategic ideas; Kasparov wrote that he had never expended as much effort on any other game in his life. He later said, "It is the greatest game in the history of chess. The sheer number of ideas, the complexity, and the contribution it has made to chess make it the most important game ever played." In the 1990s, Garry Kasparov was considered the reigning chess champion. Kasparov says he originally discussed the idea of a correspondence match in 1997 after his second match with Deep Blue in 1997; his friend Fred Friedel suggested arranging such a match and to work with the newspaper Der Spiegel. Nothing came of it, but Kasparov was intrigued. He was interested in expanding his presence on the Internet, and thought he could get more interest from investors if he could measure a potential audience and show interest. He looked to partner with an existing major Internet presence who would be able to handle an event of its size and came to Microsoft, which was happy to work with him. The event would be run on the MSN Gaming Zone website. The main concern for Microsoft was the possibility that the game could turn into a farce if the World were to succumb to blunders that would turn the game into a rout early. The most prominent previous example of majority Internet voting had produced only mediocre competition; in 1996, Anatoly Karpov easily defeated the voters against him in such a match. As such, several innovative measures were taken. Analysts would explain the situation for more casual voters and help the World avoid catastrophic blunders.