Garry Kasparov and his team celebrated his victory over Deep Blue in Game 1 with a lobster dinner at the Ocean Club in midtown Manhattan. The group was there until around 11 o'clock when "Garry's mother sent us all home and to bed," said Kasparov's technical advisor, Frederic Friedel.

Of course, there was work to do. Before dinner they sat down to analyze the day's events. Then, while the team slept, their own computer chess program stayed up overnight to solve several technical problems. Before breakfast this morning (ham and cheese, yogurt and tea), Kasparov got the answers he needed from the program and presumably let it get a well-earned rest.

Kasparov then took advantage of the Sunday morning sunshine with a walk in Central Park. Friedel said the mood in the camp was much less tense than it was yesterday. "We are up a point, and Garry learned several important things about Deep Blue yesterday." Friedel felt that one key to the match involved the passed pawns, whose importance Kasparov was able to recognize using simple human judgement, an area where even the most powerful computers are lacking.

Still, Friedel is a chronic worrier, and he saw in Deep Blue a number of things that furrow his brow. "The problem is that the machine can play in a style that should make it easy for Garry to win, but it is still forcing him into difficult calculations. That takes a lot of energy, and I don't know if Garry can keep that up for six games."

Friedel also pointed out that a human opponent might have walked away from the board yesterday psychologically destroyed, "but Deep Blue doesn't know that it lost. It's just sitting there saying, `Show me the board and let's go.' "

Chess Pieces: Kasparov and Deep Blue are playing on a set that looks like a study, complete with bookshelves, a potted plant and duck decoys. If Kasparov wants to do some reading, however, he's not apt to find much of interest on the shelves. The books are out of date New York and New Jersey law books... Also, on the set is a special room where Kasparov can go rest in between moves. It is equipped with a sofa, if he chooses to lie down, but since the computer is so fast he doesn't have much time to rest or even use the bathroom if he needs to without costing time on the clock.

-- Jeff Kisseloff