One Round to Go
| Player | Wins | Losses |
| Machine | 5-1/2 | 2-1/2 |
| Votbinnik | 5-1/2 | 2-1/2 |
| Angler | 5 | 3 |
| Jal | 4-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
| Lysmov | 4-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
| Serek | 4-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
| Sherevsky | 4 | 4 |
| Jandorf | 2-1/2 | 5-1/2 |
| Grabo | 2 | 6 |
| Krakatower | 2 | 6 |
Last Round Pairings
Machine vs. Angler
Votbinnik vs. Lysmov
Jal vs. Serek
Sherevsky vs. Krakatower
Jandorf vs. Grabo
After studying the list for a while, Sandra said, “Hey, even Angler could come out first, couldn’t he, if he beat the Machine and Votbinnik lost to Lysmov?”
“Could, could—yes. But I’m afraid that’s hoping for too much, barring another breakdown. To tell the truth, dear, the Machine is simply too good for all of us. If it were only a little faster (and these technological improvements always come) it would out-class us completely. We are at that fleeting moment of balance when genius is almost good enough to equal mechanism. It makes me feel sad, but proud too in a morbid fashion, to think that I am in at the death of grandmaster chess. Oh, I suppose the game will always be played, but it won’t ever be quite the same.” He blew out a breath and shrugged his shoulders.
“As for Willie, he’s a good one and he’ll give the Machine a long hard fight, you can depend on it. He might conceivably even draw.”
He touched Sandra’s arm. “Cheer up, my dear,” he said. “You should remind yourself that a victory for the Machine is still a victory for the USA.”
Doc’s prediction about a long hard fight was decidedly not fulfilled.
Having White, the Machine opened Pawn to King Four and Angler went into the Sicilian Defense. For the first twelve moves on each side both adversaries pushed their pieces and tapped their clocks at such lightning speed (Vanderhoef feeding in Angler’s moves swiftly) that up in the stands Bill and Judy were still flipping pages madly in their hunt for the right column in MCO.
The Machine made its thirteenth move, still at blitz tempo.
“Bishop takes Pawn, check, and mate in three!” Willie announced very loudly, made the move, banged his clock and sat back.
There was a collective gasp-and-gabble from the stands.
Dave squeezed Sandra’s arm hard. Then for once forgetting that he was Dr. Caution, he demanded loudly of Bill and Judy, “Have you two idiots found that column yet? The Machine’s thirteenth move is a boner!”
Pinning down the reference with a fingernail, Judy cried, “Yes! Here it is on page 161 in footnote (e) (2) (B). Dave, that same thirteenth move for White is in the book! But Black replies Knight to Queen Two, not Bishop takes Pawn, check. And three moves later the book gives White a plus value.”
“What the heck, it can’t be,” Bill asserted.
“But it is. Check for yourself. That boner is in the book.”
“Shut up, everybody!” Dave ordered, clapping his hands to his face. When he dropped them a moment later his eyes gleamed. “I got it now! Angler figured they were using the latest edition of MCO to program the Machine on openings, he found an editorial error and then he deliberately played the Machine into that variation!”
Dave practically shouted his last words, but that attracted no attention as at that moment the whole hall was the noisiest it had been throughout the tournament. It simmered down somewhat as the Machine flashed a move.
Angler replied instantly.
The Machine replied almost as soon as Angler’s move was fed into it.
Angler moved again, his move was fed into the Machine and the Machine flashed:
I AM CHECKMATED. CONGRATULATIONS!