Garry Kasparov loses to chess supercomputer
Deeper Blue in a controversial rematch (2½-3½). Afterwards,
IBM announce that they are scrapping the machine. The contest is subsequently made the subject of the 2003 documentary film Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
Kasparov wins a double round contest at
Novgorod with a 6½/10 score and sweeps to victory at the
Linares chess tournament by a score of 8½/11 (from Kramnik, 7½/11).
Kramnik is the winner at
DortmundSparkassen with 6½/11 (from Anand, 5½/11).
The
European Team Chess Championship, held in
Pula, is won by England, on tie-break from Russia. England's
Matthew Sadler posts an outstanding 7/9 score, which echoes his performance at last year's
Chess Olympiad. The bronze medal goes to
Armenia. In the Women's event, Georgia take gold, from Romania (silver) and England (bronze).
Jonathan Mestel gains his Grandmaster title in
Chess problem solving and becomes the first over-the-board (OTB) GM to do so.
Étienne Bacrot becomes the youngest
Grandmaster ever at 14 years, 2 months, but later in the year loses his record to
Ruslan Ponomariov, who achieves the same at 14 years, 1 month.