So my boys prefer watching this medieval humor to the brain-work of chess. I learned last month that even Kasparov has lost to a computer playing speed chess. I learned quite a few moves that semester and actually became conversant in openings, end-games and replaying the masters, but it took its toll in calculus and chemistry class so that by second semester I completely gave up playing chess. A professor under whom I later studied argued vigorously that chess was the best measure of human intelligence. I don't support the professor's position as fully as when I was an adoring student.
Chess is many things, and it certainly involves intelligence, but it's more.
I think even Kasparov might acknowledge that the scientists who put together Deep Blue are likely more intelligent than he, and the benefits that accrue from Deep Blue's ability to perform massive calculations in milliseconds go much farther toward helping humanity than Kasparov's wizardry on a board of 64 squares. In one sense, Kasparov won the battle, but Deep Blue is winning the war. One day, the computer will win a world chess championship. And these masters among us always seem to acknowledge that it's our inexplicable humanness that turns to our advantage. I would add surprise and whimsy.