I think we'll have to wait another few years to claim this prize.
Kasparov is in fact the FIDE recognized world champion, but Deep Blue
would probably not have made it through the preliminary rounds of
the world championship challenge procedure, because it was written
specifically to beat Kasparov; it was tuned to his style, and learned
from his matches. It would certainly do well in general competition,
but it would probably lose to someone with a very different style of
play from Kasparov's, like Mikhail Tal or Vasily Smyslov.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC