To me, the last question doesn't seem that radical. I am sure that many readers have been through these shocking experiences before. Nonetheless, having a computer beat us at our most revered game of intelligence seems even scarier. Some people thought that computers, with their incredible processing capacities, should have beaten us a long time ago. Facts, however, prove that things are not so clear.
Chess is such a complex game, even a computer has trouble calculating everything.
Another fact is that computers, by definition, waste a lot of their time calculating very bad moves, that a human wouldn't even take into consideration. Intuition remains our important strength, and as the recent match proved, it will continue to do so for some time. On the other hand, I disagree with those people who believe that computers will never become better than humans at chess. The constant advances in technology will sooner or later create a new generation of computers, for which even calculating possibilities equal to the number of electrons in the Universe won't be a problem. Copyright 1996-2000 Gabriel Schwartzman.