World chess champion Garry Kasparov played out a draw with his supercomputer opponent 'Deep Junior' in the second game of the Man versus Machine contest in New York on Tuesday.
The game, which was about a half-hour shorter than their four-hour match-up on Sunday, was more intense, spectators said, and drew on new strategies.
But Kasparov, 39, remained dominant, using the famed Sicilian defence: He employed his less-powerful pieces, pawns, to prevent Deep Junior's own pawns from establishing an early advantage.
"It's considered the sharpest and most aggressive move," said John Fernandez, a chess consultant for X3D Technologies, a sponsor of the match. "He was able to steer the computer into a position that was quite favourable."
After establishing a stalemate, or positions that would simply keep Kasparov and Deep Junior playing with no winner, the game was declared a draw.
Both players received a half-point for the game, leaving Kasparov with 1 point overall to Deep Junior's half-point.
The matchup, which could be seen on X3D's Web site, attracted about 3.5 million Internet viewers.
The third of the six games in the match, sanctioned by the World Chess Federation, is on Wednesday and both competitors are expected to bring in new strategies, experts said.
Kasparov will be paid $500,000 by the federation, the international governing body of the game, for playing Deep Junior, which has not lost a match to a human opponent in two years. He can earn an additional $300,000 if he wins.
