IBM built the greatest machine in history, won $500,000,000, stock hits all-time high, then they turned it off

29 years ago today, Deep Blue was created to surpass humans

Deep Blue was a supercomputer that evaluated 200 million chess positions per second. IBM built it for one purpose: beat Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion since 1985

Timeline:

• 1996: Kasparov beats Deep Blue 4-2. IBM goes back to the lab

• 1997: IBM rebuilds it from the ground up

• May 11, 1997: Deep Blue wins the rematch. Kasparov resigns in 19 moves

• Next Day: $IBM(IBM.US) stock jumps to a 10-year all-time high

• Kasparov accuses IBM of cheating and demands another rematch

• IBM refuses, shuts the project down, and retires Deep Blue to the Smithsonian

Nobody knew it then, but this was the first time a machine proved it could outthink a human