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. Judy hummed Beethoven's "Funeral March for the Death of a Hero." Nevertheless Votbinnik did not resign. The Machine sealed a move. Its board blacked out and Vanderhoef, with one of his assistants standing beside him to witness, privately read the move off a small indicator on the console. Tomorrow he would feed the move back into the Machine when play was resumed at the morning session. Doc sealed a move too although he was two pawns down in his game against Grabo and looked tired to death. "They don't give up easily, do they?" Sandra observed to Dave. "They must really love the game. Or do they hate it?" "When you get to psychology it's all beyond me," Dave replied. "Ask me something else." Sandra smiled. "Thank you, Dave," she said. "I will." * * * * * Come the morning session, Votbinnik played on for a dozen moves then resigned. A little later Doc managed to draw his game with Grabo by perpetual check. He caught sight of Sandra coming down from the stands and waved to her, then made the motions of drinking. _Now he looks almost like a boy_, Sandra thought as she joined him. "Say, Doc," she asked when they had secured a table, "why is a rook worth more than a bishop?"