The Fable-Makers Have a New Story

Two of three top grandmasters, including former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, lost in the first of four rounds of the “People vs Computers” match at the Bilbao International Chess Festival in Spain, it was learned Thursday.

Is this a repeat of the John Henry and Paul Bunyan legends? If this is simply a repeat of man vs. machine, what exactly is at stake? Isn't the result inevitable?