The Rematch between Gary Kasparov and IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue was played out in New York television studio, located at the 39th storey of the Equitable Center at the beginning of May 1997. It was regarded as the most spectacular chess event in history. The champion began with great enthusiasm and optimism. He won the first game in 45 moves.

The second game was full of controversy as Kasparov accused IBM of cheating which he eventually lost. Many believed Kasparov resigned a drawn position, since he missed a deep tricky perpetual check and observers suspected that he was spooked by the strength of his electronic opponent. Kasparov began the third game by playing irregular Mieses Opening, hoping to lead the computer out of its opening book strategy. However both ended up drawing the game.

In the fourth game Kasparov neared his time limit which prompted him to hurry into his moves and eventually the game ended in a draw. Deep Blue in the fifth game played an excellent endgame to Kasparov's King's Indian Attack opening and forced the champion to draw from a very winnable position. With both tied with a score of 2.5 and one more game to go, the entire chess world was glued to this match. Gary was too nervous and tense to speak. He began the game with Caro-Kann Defence and allowed Deep Blue to a knight sacrifice in the eighth move which left Kasparov struggling and finally resigned on his 19th move. For the first time a "Machine" had accomplished which no man did, defeat Kasparov.

The first game in this tournament took the chess community by surprise as IBM's Deep Blue defeated the world champion Kasparov under normal chess tournament conditions and time control. Later in an article published in Time Magazine Kasparov related that during the first game, Deep Blue sacrificed a pawn. This really shook him up, because he felt that the machine "...understood the game" and was not just calculating the optimal moves. The shock left him nervous, because he "..could smell a new kind of intelligence across the table", and he lost the game.

Kasparov began the second game with Open Catalan Opening and blocking all Deep Blue's development tries. After 73 moves Kasparov won the game with three pawns still standing against Deep Blue's one. The third and fourth games were drawn, while the fifth game was regarded as the "turning point". It was won by Kasparov and was a bit of embarrassing to Deep Blue as it had declined Kasparov's draw offer after the 23rd move. Kasparov won the sixth and final game thus defeating the Computer Chess Challenge. Later Kasparov commented the match to be one of the most difficult of his career and issued a rematch challenge for 1997 which was immediately accepted by Deep Blue's team.