| 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.