The Russian news service Interfax has posted a summary of the Kasparov-Ponomariov announcement that was reported here in DD 51. Nothing new, but one interesting paragraph at the bottom: "Asked to comment on the chess strength of Deep Junior, Kasparov cited prominent U.S. chess player Yasser Seirawan as saying it is a chess player with a rating of 2,400 that does not make mistakes." Funny, that's almost exactly what I wrote in one of my articles at ChessBase during the match! Great minds think alike? Many places have the Associated Press report with the same announcement.
The American media are always fascinated by professional athletes who play chess, as if they were Nobel Prize winners or something. Here's another fine example of the "and he plays chess!" phenomenon. Why WOULDN'T they play chess? It takes 20 minutes for someone to learn, this isn't calculus. I really don't think chess benefits from this rarified view at all. Players might think it's cool that people find them exotic, or suspect them of genius, but it's also part of the barrier that keeps chess from being mainstream in many places.
