Gary Kasparov, sometimes hailed as the greatest human chess player ever, is duking it out with another computer, Deep Junior. This is a grudge match, since Deep Blue, Deep Junior’s ancestor(?) beat Kasparov in 1997, and the man alleged cheating. I can’t wait for the Scorcese treatment in a few years; I’m sure blood, guts, and transistors will go flying in an outburst of creative license.

Kasparov won the first match, drew the second and lost the third. So while they’re tied, mighty mo is in Deep Junior’s corner. (Somebody is going to have to have a talk with those IBM guys about how to name a product.) If I were a traditional pundit, I’d draw a straight line and conclude that Kasparov won’t win any more games. But I have too much organism pride (does that make me an organist?), and I want the man to beat the machine.