Lesson
White to move. Main line: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Ng5 Ngf6 6. Bd3 e6 7. N1f3 h6 8. Nxe6 Qe7 9. O-O fxe6 10. Bg6+ Kd8 11. Bf4 b5 12. a4 Bb7 13. Re1 Nd5 14. Bg3 Kc8 15. axb5 cxb5 16. Qd3 Bc6 17. Bf5 exf5 18. Rxe7 Bxe7 19. c4
Kasparov chose a sharp Caro–Kann line and accepted the knight on e6 with 8...Qe7 9.O-O fxe6. The king was forced to d8, and White’s lead in development became immediate pressure.
Deep Blue’s pieces entered with tempo while Black’s queenside remained undeveloped. After 19.c4, the center is about to open against a king on c8 and the pinned knight on d5 cannot solve Black’s problems.
Kasparov resigned after 19.c4. The short deciding game became the defining image of the match: a machine had defeated the reigning World Champion in a traditional match format.
The game that ended the rematch
This is game 6 of the 1997 rematch in New York, and it decided the match. Deep Blue won it in nineteen moves, taking the match 3½–2½ — the first time a computer beat a reigning World Champion in a match under classical conditions.
The result is the historical milestone. The game itself is short, and not because the machine played something incomprehensible.
A known sacrifice, played by a machine
Kasparov entered a Caro-Kann line where the knight sacrifice on e6 is an established idea — it is in the theory. He then played a move order that walks straight into it.
So the famous game is not a case of a computer finding something humans could not see. It is a case of a very strong player, under enormous pressure late in a match, making the kind of mistake pressure produces.
What actually changed in 1997
The match ended the era in which the best human was assumed to be the best chess player, and it began the era of engines as analytical tools rather than opponents.
Everything downstream of that — opening preparation, engine-assisted commentary, the way this very page verified its move assessments — follows from that shift.
Knowing a sacrifice exists in the theory does not help if you allow it in the wrong move order.
Match pressure is part of the position. The shortest famous losses are usually not about chess understanding.
Engines went from opponents to instruments — and the instrument is more useful than the rivalry ever was.
Source: Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_versus_Garry_Kasparov
Source: Garry Kasparov — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov