Garry Kasparov is currently playing Deep Junior in the deciding 6th game of the human vs. computer Chess tournament; you can watch live via flash widget here. When I was studying for my A-Levels, Kasparov played Nigel Short in a tournament televised on Channel 4. In the space of a couple of days, the sixth form common room went from a pit of noise and general teenage madness to a hushed arena of contemplation as everyone hunched over their Chess boards. You could forget Nirvana, Sonic Youth and The Smashing Pumpkins, Chess was where it was at.

Incidentally, Fark is offering some interesting perpectives on the Kasparov/Junior game.

Update: The game ended as a draw. This puzzled the commentators because Kasparov was clearly in a winning position. One explanation is that he had a bad headache and could not continue. I don’t blame him really.