(3 of 3)
In the final match, even Berliner's wife Araxie is torn between wanting Hitech to win and not wanting its human opponent to lose. "He's so nice," she says of John Burke, the manager of a manufacturing plant in Carol Stream, Ill. Near the beginning of the game, Hitech startles Berliner by choosing to move one of its bishops on a bold diagonal, driving deep into enemy territory. But Burke, who has a master's rating, is no pushover. Indeed, he fights back so well that Berliner is worried about the outcome. His concern increases when Hitech suddenly seems to get cold feet, agonizing over how to avoid losing pieces. "It keeps going round and round the mulberry bush," Berliner sighs. Ultimately, Hitech stops dillydallying and resumes its attack. The win gives Hitech an impressive seventh-place finish, just after six humans who tied for first.
Burke is a good-humored loser. "I lost to the box," he says, as he hands in his scorecard. "If it reaches the point where a computer becomes the world chess champion, I guess that would take some of the fun out of the game. But then I suppose we'd all get used to it as just one more thing computers can do better than us." Will a computer ever threaten the likes of Gary Kasparov? "No," argues former World Champ Tal. "Chess cannot be put down simply as algorithms. Chess takes imagination. The computer does not have imagination." Bill Maddex, a philosophy student from the University of Oregon, agrees. "I don't think a computer will ever get that good," he says to Berliner. "There's too much abstract thought involved."
Hitech may not be that good, Berliner acknowledges -- yet. But he adds, with quiet conviction, "Ever is far too long a time."