Round Four saw the Machine spring the first of its surprises.
It had finally forced a draw against Sherevsky in the morning session,
ending the long second-round game, and now was matched against
Votbinnik.
The Machine opened Pawn to King Four, Votbinnik replied Pawn to King
Three.
"The French Defense, Binny's favorite," Dave muttered and they settled
back for the Machine's customary four-minute wait.
Instead the Machine moved at once and punched its clock.
Sandra, studying Votbinnik through her glasses, decided that the
Russian grandmaster looked just a trifle startled. Then he made his
move.
Once again the Machine responded instantly.
There was a flurry of comment from the stands and a scurrying-about
of officials to shush it. Meanwhile the Machine continued to make its
moves at better than rapid-transit speed, although Votbinnik soon began
to take rather more time on his.
The upshot was that the Machine made eleven moves before it started to
take time to 'think' at all.
Sandra clamored so excitedly to Dave for an explanation that she had
two officials waving at her angrily.
As soon as he dared, Dave whispered, "Great must have banked on
Votbinnik playing the French--almost always does--and fed all the
variations of the French into the Machine's 'memory' from MCO and maybe
some other books. So long as Votbinnik stuck to a known variation of
the French, why, the Machine could play from memory without analyzing
at all. Then when a strange move came along--one that wasn't in
its memory--only on the twelfth move yet!--the Machine went back to
analyzing, only now it's taking longer and going deeper because it's
got more time--six minutes a move, about. The only thing I wonder is
why Great didn't have the Machine do it in the first three games. It
seems so obvious."
Sandra ticketed that in her mind as a question for Doc. She slipped
off to her room to write her "Don't Let a Robot Get Your Goat" article
(drawing heavily on Doc's observations) and got back to the stands
twenty minutes before the second time-control point. It was becoming a
regular routine.
Votbinnik was a knight down--almost certainly busted, Dave explained.
"It got terrifically complicated while you were gone," he said. "A real
Votbinnik position."
"Only the Machine out-binniked him," Bill finished.