Mind vs. Machine - Steve Sheinkin

Mind vs. Machine - Steve Sheinkin

Steve Sheinkin

£12.99
Pre-order

Published 19 October 2026

Order now and we’ll post it on publication day. We take payment today and hold your order until then; if the publisher moves the date we’ll email you, and you can cancel for a full refund at any point before it ships.

  • Pages · 240 pages
  • Publication Date · 19/10/2026
  • Genre · Comic strip fiction / graphic novels (Children's / Teenage)
Collect in store Pick it up free from the shop in Oxford's Covered Market, usually quicker than the post.
Delivery Standard tracked £1.99, free on orders over £20. Express tracked £2.99.
Book Lovers' Happy Hour Three cocktails matched to your taste, three books chosen for you, an hour and a half at the bar. £60 per person. Book a place →
A high-stakes children's nonfiction graphic novel about the legendary chess match between World Champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue computer, co-authored by Steve Sheinkin and Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley and illustrated by Thien Pham The hopes of humanity rest on the shoulders of one chess player. It's May 1997, in Manhattan, New York. World champion Garry Kasparov is about to begin a six-game match against Deep Blue, the cutting-edge supercomputer developed by IBM, led by Feng-Hsiung Hsu. No machine has ever defeated a chess champion in a multi-game match. If it happens, it will be a major turning point in human history. This is, as Newsweek declares on its cover, "The Brain's Last Stand." Will the human mind prevail? Or is this checkmate for humankind? Told through the three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin's searingly propulsive storytelling and first-hand accounts from chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, with riveting illustrations by Eisner winner Thien Pham (Family Style: A Memoir), this nail-biting narrative captures the excitement and suspense of a classic sports showdown, along with thought-provoking themes about where humanity stands at the rise of AI.

Only at Gulp Fiction

Book Lovers' Happy Hour

An hour and a half at the bar, with three cocktails matched to your taste and three books chosen for you. Tell us what you like when you book, and we'll have them waiting when you arrive.

  • 1½ hours
  • £60 per person
  • 3 cocktails, 3 books
Book Happy Hour

Up to four of you can come — book a place each and choose the same time slot, then tell us who you're with. For larger groups, email gulpfictionbooks@gmail.com and we'll arrange it.

Three customers at the window table in Gulp Fiction, cocktails in hand beside a stack of books, with Oxford's Covered Market visible through the glass

Collect in store

Order online and pick it up from the shop. It's free, and usually quicker than the post.

Find us

Units 28–29, Covered Market, Oxford OX1 3DU. Mon–Wed 10–5, Thu–Sat 10–10, Sun 11–4.

Book a table

The bar is open late Thursday to Saturday. Reserve a table for a drink among the books.