A world champion against Artificial Intelligence

Revenge - MovistarIn 1996, the chess champion Garri Kasparov agreed to take part in an experiment: to play a game of chess against a machine named Deep Blue. After Kasparov won with little difficulty, IBM offered him a rematch: a series of six games spread over 1997.

Revenge may be reminiscent of classic feature films and series about chess, such as In search of Bobby Fischer (1993), The Queen of Katwe (2016) or the recent Queen's Gambit (2020). And, in many respects, it does unfold in the usual molds of this kind of work. But Revenge adds in its favor an original component: the battle between the human being and the machine, the frontier between human reason and artificial intelligence. The key to the story is whether or not Deep Blue will be able to beat the world chess champion. 

In this way, it reveals itself as a work full of substance and rabid topicality. The characters argue about what is proper to man and what is proper to the machine; those who work for IBM introduce in Deep Blue numerous functions, algorithms and rules to surprise Kasparov, and, of course, there is the temptation to cheat. For his part, Kasparov is not playing just any game: his own vocation as a chess player is at stake (will chess end if he loses?), his fears and ghosts are limitations to compete, and he must deal with a family conflict due to the neglect of his wife and daughter. 

Throughout its six chapters, the tension of the chess games is interspersed with Kasparov's conversations with his manager and his family; the work sessions of chess players and computer scientists to perfect Kasparov's chess skills. Deep BlueWe look at how IBM's management made the duel a matter of survival for the company, fearing that its stock market value would plummet. In addition, we show some of the flashbacks The series also includes some relevant scenes about Kasparov's beginnings as a chess player in the USSR, as well as some less necessary scenes that took place in 2015. Finally, the denouement is not perfect and does not live up to the series as a whole, although it will surely excite both chess fans and those with an interest in artificial intelligence and the battle between man and machine.