On December 5, 1995, IBM took the wraps off its Deep Blue prototype, a supercomputer designed to beat the world’s greatest chess players. IBM would manage to achieve its goal two years later, after a host of software and hardware revisions. In 1997, Deep Blue famously triumphed over an at-his-peak chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, during a rematch in New York City. The win was a turning point for IBM, who was increasingly characterized as a has-been, with a dire share price to match. It was also a cornerstone in the company's approach to computing, pivoting from mere chunks of hardware to ‘thinking systems.’
Interestingly, Deep Blue originated from work on a chess chip, which started a decade earlier at Carnegie Mellon University. That hardware research project was dubbed Deep Thought, which will tickle The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans.
