Jandorf had resigned his game to Votbinnik some minutes ago, rather more surlily.
After a while Angler sealed a move, handing it to Vanderhoef with a grin just as the little red flag dropped on his clock, indicating he'd used every second of his time.
Up in the stands Sandra worked her shoulders to get a kink out of her back. She'd noticed several newsmen hurrying off to report in the Machine's first win. She was thankful that her job was limited to special articles.
"Chess is a pretty intense game," she remarked to Dave.
He nodded. "It's a killer3. I don't expect to live beyond forty myself."
"Thirty," Bill said.
"Twenty-five is enough time to be a meteor," said Judy.
Sandra thought to herself: the Unbeat Generation.
Next day Sherevsky played the Machine to a dead-level ending. Simon Great offered a draw for the Machine (over an unsuccessful interfering4 protest from Jandorf that this constituted making a move for the Machine) but Sherevsky refused and sealed his move.
"He wants to have it proved to him that the Machine can play end games," Dave commented to Sandra up in the stands. "I don't blame him."
At the beginning of today's session Sandra had noticed that Bill and Judy were following each game in a very new-looking book they shared jealously between them. Won't look new for long, Sandra had thought.
"That's the 'Bible' they got there," Dave had explained. "MCO-Modern Chess Openings. It lists all the best open-moves in chess, thousands and thousands of variations. That is, what masters think are the best moves. The moves that have won in the past, really. We chipped in together to buy the latest edition—the 13th—just hot off the press," he had finished proudly.
Now with the Machine-Sherevsky ending the center of interest, the kids were consulting another book, one with grimy, dog-eared pages. "That's the 'New Testament'—Basic Chess Endings," Dave said when he noticed her looking. "There's so much you must know in endings that it's amazing the Machine can play them at all. I guess as the pieces get fewer it starts to look deeper."
Sandra nodded. She was feeling virtuous5. She had got her interview with Jandorf and then this morning one with Grabo ("How it Feels to Have a Machine Out-Think You"). The latter had made her think of herself as a real vulture of the press, circling over the doomed6. The Hungarian had seemed in a positively7 suicidal depression.
One newspaper article made much of the Machine's "psychological tactics," hinting that the blinking lights were designed to hypnotize opponents. The general press coverage8 was somewhat startling. A game that in America normally rated only a fine-print column in the back sections of a very few Sunday papers was now getting boxes on the front page. The defeat of a man by a machine seemed everywhere to awaken9 nervous feelings of insecurity, like the launching of the first sputnik.
Sandra had rather hesitantly sought out Dr. Krakatower during the close of the morning session of play, still feeling a little guilty from her interview with Grabo. But Doc had seemed happy to see her and quite recovered from last night's defeat, though when she had addressed him as "Master Krakatower" he had winced10 and said, "Please, not that!" Another session of coffee and wine-and-seltzer had resulted in her getting an introduction to her first Soviet11 grandmaster, Serek, who had proved to be unexpectedly charming. He had just managed to draw his game with Sherevsky (to the great amazement12 of the kibitzers, Sandra learned) and was most obliging about arranging for an interview.
Not to be outdone in gallantry, Doc had insisted on escorting Sandra to her seat in the stands—at the price of once more losing a couple of minutes on his clock. As a result her stock went up considerably13 with Dave, Bill and Judy. Thereafter they treated anything she had to say with almost annoying deference—Bill especially, probably in penance14 for his thoughtless cracks at Doc. Sandra later came to suspect that the kids had privately15 decided16 that she was Dr. Krakatower's mistress—probably a new one because she was so scandalously ignorant of chess. She did not disillusion17 them.
Doc lost again in the second round—to Jal.
In the third round Lysmov defeated the Machine in 27 moves. There was a flaring18 of flashbulbs, a rush of newsmen to the phones, jabbering19 in the stands and much comment and analysis that was way over Sandra's head—except she got the impression that Lysmov had done something tricky20.
The general emotional reaction in America, as reflected by the newspapers, was not too happy. One read between the lines that for the Machine to beat a man was bad, but for a Russian to beat an American machine was worse. A widely-read sports columnist21, two football coaches, and several rural politicians announced that chess was a morbid22 game played only by weirdies. Despite these thick-chested he-man statements, the elusive23 mood of insecurity deepened.
Besides the excitement of the Lysmov win, a squabble had arisen in connection with the Machine's still-unfinished end game with Sherevsky, which had been continued through one morning session and was now headed for another.
Finally there were rumors24 that World Business Machines was planning to replace Simon Great with a nationally famous physicist26.
Sandra begged Doc to try to explain it all to her in kindergarten language. She was feeling uncertain of herself again and quite subdued27 after being completely rebuffed in her efforts to get an interview with Lysmov, who had fled her as if she were a threat to his Soviet virtue28.
Doc on the other hand was quite vivacious29, cheered by his third-round draw with Jandorf.
"Most willingly, my dear," he said. "Have you ever noticed that kindergarten language can be far honester than the adult tongues? Fewer fictions. Well, several of us hashed over the Lysmov game until three o'clock this morning. Lysmov wouldn't, though. Neither would Votbinnik or Jal. You see, I have my communication problems with the Russians too.
"We finally decided that Lysmov had managed to guess with complete accuracy both the depth at which the Machine is analyzing30 in the opening and middle game (ten moves ahead instead of eight, we think—a prodigious31 achievement!) and also the main value scale in terms of which the Machine selects its move.
"Having that information, Lysmov managed to play into a combination which would give the Machine a maximum plus value in its value scale (win of Lysmov's queen, it was) after ten moves but a checkmate for Lysmov on his second move after the first ten. A human chess master would have seen a trap like that, but the Machine could not, because Lysmov was maneuvering32 in an area that did not exist for the Machine's perfect but limited mind. Of course the Machine changed its tactics after the first three moves of the ten had been played—it could see the checkmate then—but by that time it was too late for it to avert33 a disastrous34 loss of material. It was tricky of Lysmov, but completely fair. After this we'll all be watching for the opportunity to play the same sort of trick on the Machine.
"Lysmov was the first of us to realize fully35 that we are not playing against a metal monster but against a certain kind of programming. If there are any weaknesses we can spot in that programming, we can win. Very much in the same way that we can again and again defeat a flesh-and-blood player when we discover that he consistently attacks without having an advantage in position or is regularly overcautious about launching a counter-attack when he himself is attacked without justification36."
Sandra nodded eagerly. "So from now on your chances of beating the Machine should keep improving, shouldn't they? I mean as you find out more and more about the programming."
Doc smiled. "You forget," he said gently, "that Simon Great can change the programming before each new game. Now I see why he fought so hard for that point."
"Oh. Say, Doc, what's this about the Sherevsky end game?"
"You are picking up the language, aren't you?" he observed. "Sherevsky got a little angry when he discovered that Great had the Machine programmed to analyze37 steadily38 on the next move after an adjournment until the game was resumed next morning. Sherevsky questioned whether it was fair for the Machine to 'think' all night while its opponent had to get some rest. Vanderhoef decided for the Machine, though Sherevsky may carry the protest to FIDE.
"Bah—I think Great wants us to get heated up over such minor39 matters, just as he is happy (and oh so obliging!) when we complain about how the Machine blinks or hums or smells. It keeps our minds off the main business of trying to outguess his programming. Incidentally, that is one thing we decided last night—Sherevsky, Willie Angler, Jandorf, Serek, and myself—that we are all going to have to learn to play the Machine without letting it get on our nerves and without asking to be protected from it. As Willie puts it, 'So suppose it sounds like a boiler40 factory even—okay, you can think in a boiler factory.' Myself, I am not so sure of that, but his spirit is right."
Sandra felt herself perking41 up as a new article began to shape itself in her mind. She said, "And what about WBM replacing Simon Great?"
Again Doc smiled. "I think, my dear, that you can safely dismiss that as just a rumor25. I think that Simon Great has just begun to fight."
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1
adjournment
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| 休会； 延期； 休会期； 休庭期 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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coverage
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| n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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Soviet
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| adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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disillusion
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| vt.使不再抱幻想，使理想破灭 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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jabbering
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴 | |
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tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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columnist
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| n.专栏作家 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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physicist
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| n.物理学家，研究物理学的人 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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30
analyzing
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| v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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maneuvering
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| v.移动，用策略( maneuver的现在分词 )；操纵 | |
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avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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40
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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41
perking
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| （使）活跃( perk的现在分词 )； （使）增值； 使更有趣 | |
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