Another anecdote that supports the computers-take-over theory comes from my Grad project interview with Larry Christiansen, U.S. Chess Champ in 1980, '83, and '02. I asked Larry whether and when he thought machines would be unbeatable by the best human players. He said that they already are unbeatable in short games like blitz (5 minutes) or rapid (up to 30 minutes), because even the most experienced human player can't keep up with the computer's calculation speed in games as short as these. Using a standard tournament clock, humans can still compete, says Larry, but not for long; he thinks it will be 5-10 years before Human/Computer standard tournaments are moot.
Larry knows the programmers from the Big Blue team, and he said that there is nothing to Kasparov's claim that a temporary shutdown of Big Blue helped it win the final game.
So while chess may never be reduced to an equation, it seems to have been solved with speed.
