krakatower had lost two pawns when the first time-control point arrived and was intending to resign on his 31st move when the machine broke down. three of its pieces moved on the electric board at once, then the board went dark and all the lights on the console went out except five which started winking like angry red eyes. the gray-smocked men around simon great sprang silently into action, filing around back of the console. it was the first work anyone had seen them do except move screens around and fetch each other coffee. vanderhoef hovered anxiously. some flash bulbs went off. vanderhoef shook his fist at the photographers. simon great did nothing. the machine's clock ticked on. doc watched for a while and then fell asleep.
when vanderhoef jogged him awake, the machine had just made its next move, but the repair-job had taken 50 minutes. as a result the machine had to make 15 moves in 10 minutes. at 40 seconds a move it played like a dub whose general lack of skill was complicated by a touch of insanity. on his 43rd move doc shrugged his shoulders apologetically and announced mate in four. there were more flashes. vanderhoef shook his fist again. the machine flashed:
you played brilliantly. congratulations!
afterwards doc said sourly to sandra. "and that was one big lie—a child could have beat the machine with that time advantage. oh, what an ironic glory the gods reserved for krakatower's dotage—to vanquish a broken-down computer! only one good thing about it—that it didn't happen while it was playing one of the russians, or someone would surely have whispered sabotage. and that is something of which they do not accuse dirty old krakatower, because they are sure he has not got the brains even to think to sprinkle a little magnetic oxide powder in the machine's memory box. bah!"
just the same he seemed considerably more cheerful.
sandra said guilelessly, "winning a game means nothing to you chess players, does it, unless you really do it by your own brilliancy?"
doc looked solemn for a moment, then he started to chuckle. "you are getting altogether too smart, miss sandra lea grayling," he said. "yes, yes—a chess player is happy to win in any barely legitimate way he can, by an earthquake if necessary, or his opponent sickening before he does from the bubonic plague. so—i confess it to you—i was very happy to chalk up my utterly undeserved win over the luckless machine."
"which incidentally makes it anybody's tournament again, doesn't it, doc?"
"not exactly." doc gave a wry little headshake. "we can't expect another fluke. after all, the machine has functioned perfectly seven games out of eight, and you can bet the wbm men will be checking it all night, especially since it has no adjourned games to work on. tomorrow it plays willie angler, but judging from the way it beat votbinnik and jal, it should have a definite edge on willie. if it beats him, then only votbinnik has a chance for a tie and to do that he must defeat lysmov. which will be most difficult."
"well," sandra said, "don't you think that lysmov might just kind of let himself be beaten, to make sure a russian gets first place or at least ties for it?"
doc shook his head emphatically. "there are many things a man, even a chess master, will do to serve his state, but party loyalty doesn't go that deep. look, here is the standing of the players after eight rounds." he handed sandra a penciled list.
one round to go
player
wins
losses
machine
5-1/2
2-1/2
votbinnik
5-1/2
2-1/2
angler
5
3
jal
4-1/2
3-1/2
lysmov
4-1/2
3-1/2
serek
4-1/2
3-1/2
sherevsky
4
4
jandorf
2-1/2
5-1/2
grabo
2
6
krakatower
2
6
last round pairings
machine vs. angler
votbinnik vs. lysmov
jal vs. serek
sherevsky vs. krakatower
jandorf vs. grabo
after studying the list for a while, sandra said, "hey, even angler could come out first, couldn't he, if he beat the machine and votbinnik lost to lysmov?"
"could, could—yes. but i'm afraid that's hoping for too much, barring another breakdown. to tell the truth, dear, the machine is simply too good for all of us. if it were only a little faster (and these technological improvements always come) it would out-class us completely. we are at that fleeting moment of balance when genius is almost good enough to equal mechanism. it makes me feel sad, but proud too in a morbid fashion, to think that i am in at the death of grandmaster chess. oh, i suppose the game will always be played, but it won't ever be quite the same." he blew out a breath and shrugged his shoulders.
"as for willie, he's a good one and he'll give the machine a long hard fight, you can depend on it. he might conceivably even draw."
he touched sandra's arm. "cheer up, my dear," he said. "you should remind yourself that a victory for the machine is still a victory for the usa."
doc's prediction about a long hard fight was decidedly not fulfilled.
having white, the machine opened pawn to king four and angler went into the sicilian defense. for the first twelve moves on each side both adversaries pushed their pieces and tapped their clocks at such lightning speed (vanderhoef feeding in angler's moves swiftly) that up in the stands bill and judy were still flipping pages madly in their hunt for the right column in mco.
the machine made its thirteenth move, still at blitz tempo.
"bishop takes pawn, check, and mate in three!" willie announced very loudly, made the move, banged his clock and sat back.
there was a collective gasp-and-gabble from the stands.
dave squeezed sandra's arm hard. then for once forgetting that he was dr. caution, he demanded loudly of bill and judy, "have you two idiots found that column yet? the machine's thirteenth move is a boner!"
pinning down the reference with a fingernail, judy cried, "yes! here it is on page 161 in footnote (e) (2) (b). dave, that same thirteenth move for white is in the book! but black replies knight to queen two, not bishop takes pawn, check. and three moves later the book gives white a plus value."
"what the heck, it can't be," bill asserted.
"but it is. check for yourself. that boner is in the book."
"shut up, everybody!" dave ordered, clapping his hands to his face. when he dropped them a moment later his eyes gleamed. "i got it now! angler figured they were using the latest edition of mco to program the machine on openings, he found an editorial error and then he deliberately played the machine into that variation!"
dave practically shouted his last words, but that attracted no attention as at that moment the whole hall was the noisiest it had been throughout the tournament. it simmered down somewhat as the machine flashed a move.
angler replied instantly.
the machine replied almost as soon as angler's move was fed into it.
angler moved again, his move was fed into the machine and the machine flashed:
i am checkmated. congratulations!
