Artificial intelligence

You thought it was all over. Man versus machine, that great theme of science fiction, played itself out when Garry Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in 1997. But just when computers thought they ruled the (chess) world, Man changed the rules. That is the thing about Men: they may not be able to calculate 3.5 billion moves per second, but they are clever. So when Vladimir Kramnik took on Deep Blue's successor, Deep Fritz, he was given two weeks to study his opponent's playing style. Mr Kramnik started well, but lost yesterday, bringing the score to 3-3. His reaction was a substantial contribution to the archive of sport as philosophy. "I am not so depressed – the result is not positive, but the game was a pleasure," he said. "There were some beautiful moves. I did the right thing from a human point of view." When they invent a computer that can improvise that kind of solace in defeat, then and only then will machine's battle for supremacy have been won.