The game which lasted for four months ended after Kasparov's move forced his opponents to resign.

The worldwide team chose their moves by voting for options suggested by a panel of experts on a dedicated website every two days.

Writing on the Microsoft web site on Thursday when it became clear he would win, Kasparov - thought by many to be the greatest ever chessplayer - said the game had covered all the elements of modern chess.

"I thank the world for a great fight."

Historic game

The game finished on the 62nd move when more than 50% of the internet voters opted for resignation, which under the rules conceded the contest to the Russian.

Microsoft said that over the course of the game, the site hosted more than 3 million visitors from more than 75 countries.

The game, was described by Kasparov and Microsoft as an experiment for chess playing on the internet and afterwards was being hailed as one of the greatest chess games in history.

However the contest was not without hitches. At the start of the contest embarrassing technical glitches meant chess pieces appeared all over the board, which Microsoft blamed on overloaded servers.

And earlier this week world players accused Microsoft of messing up one of their moves.

In 1996 and 1997 Kasparov played two matches against the Deep Blue computer, winning the first and losing the second.