An ego crumbling in the face of a corporate onslaught would not normally make for edifying viewing, but Vikram Jayanti's account of grandmaster Garry Kasparov's humiliation at the hands of IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, is fascinating. In 1996, Kasparov beat the machine but, within a year, it turned the tables so conclusively that the Russian sensed foul play.
It would be pleasing to think that Kasparov's conspiracy theories hold water, if only to discredit the smug programming team. Certainly, IBM's dismantling of Deep Blue and the effect the stunt had on its share prices feels unduly suspicious. But Jayanti's inclusion of clips from Raymond Bernard's silent classic, The Chess Player, to suggest a gross deception is itself highly mischievous.