Did you like playing queen? This series of head-to-head chess champions and machines should delight you

What is it about?

In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov took on IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue. A year later, it’s a revenge match. For the first time in history, Kasparov will have to bow before the computer.

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Man VS Machine

As a reminder to fans of the Netflix hit series Le Jeu de la Dame, the new series about the chess master made its world premiere at the Séries Mania festival. Except that in a rematch, the player’s opponent is a car.

Inspired by real events, this Franco-Hungarian production recalls the legendary duel between champion Garry Kasparov and an IBM supercomputer named Deep Blue. Created by Ian Inglis, Andre Gulun and Bruno Nahon, the series begins in 1996 with the first ever clash between man and machine over 6 rounds.

Although Deep Blue puts him in trouble, Gasparov wins the match and maintains his status as a near-undefeated Grand Champion. But things changed when IBM offered a rematch to Garry Kasparov the following year.

Because this time he will have to fight against an advanced version of the supercomputer named Deeper Blue and enhanced by the research and strategies of a team of skilled players and talented engineers.

Rest assured, you don’t need to be a chess expert to understand the games played between Kasparov and Deep Blue. As in the Queen game, the outlines of the arena that serves as the battle between man and machine are well drawn and the ingenious and nervous staging makes it all very attractive.

Inside the mind of a chess champion facing an uncertain future

Especially since the issues go beyond failures. Rematch is intended more as a psychological thriller that questions artificial intelligence and humanity’s position in the face of new technologies that always create new challenges and above all questions about their superiority.

Because the rematch between the chess champion and Deeper Blue will be much more difficult and difficult to predict. The series plunges us into the psyche of Kasparov, a victim of doubts in the face of an increasingly powerful and increasingly unpredictable machine, enough to keep us on our toes.

Deeply lonely, despite his mother’s unwavering support, the champion finds himself at a disadvantage amid what appears to be a turning point in society’s perception of artificial intelligence. We applaud British actor Christian Cooke’s (Cemetery Junction, Love, Rosie, The Oath) performance as Garry Kasparov’s tortured genius, whom we want to follow and root for until the end.

You can find the first two episodes for free on the platform Seriamania+ for another 24 hours. The Rematch series will be aired on Arte soon.