Manchester International Festival - The Machine

In 1997, Garry Kasparov, the world’s greatest chess player, arrived in New York City for the biggest match of his life.

His opponent wasn’t a fellow Grandmaster but a faceless super-computer: Deep Blue, built by tech giant IBM. The match was IBM’s bid to raise its profile and its stock price.

An international celebrity and the undisputed master of his art, Kasparov came to America for freedom and glory. What he didn’t expect to confront was the lifelong dedication of another man, Deep Blue’s wunderkind inventor Dr Feng-Hsiung Hsu. Both geniuses, they staked their reputations on the tournament. What followed was one of the most compelling stories of our time.

Directed by Josie Rourke, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, award-winning playwright Matt Charman’s dramatisation of modern history is a story of mind against matter, man against machine.