If our worst fears are confirmed and the machines do one day decide to take over, we can lay blame at the doorstep of IBM. As a PR move, IBM decided to develop a computer program capable of defeating a chess champion. Development began in the early days in 1990s and went on for a solid couple years, with the best minds in the business working on its programming, while American Grandmaster Joel Benjamin added his encyclopedic knowledge of opening moves.On this day, February 10, in 1996, the highly anticipated playoff between the world’s greatest chess player and the world’s most advanced mainframe began with a solid victory for the machines, though IBM took credit. “In a wild ending,” its account of the game crowed, “Deep Blue coolly pressed its advantage, while the champion’s frustration mounted against time pressure.”

IBM was not so gleelful over the remaining games. Kasparov adapted, and Deep Blue could not win a single game of the following six. Kasparov won three and drew two more. Over the next year, IBM heavily upgraded their machine and invited Kasparov for a rematch. This time, the machine had the upper hand. Kasparov won the first match and lost the second. The following three matches were tied, leading to the decisive Game 6. Kasparov started it off with an inexplicable error for a player of his caliber in his sixth move, and that was all the advantage “Deeper Blue” needed to win the game in a short 19 moves.