Human player Brad Rutter and the supercomputer named Watson ended an initial round tied at $5,000. The other challenger, human Ken Jennings, was far behind with $2,000.

Rutter (the show’s all-time money-winner with $3.25 million) and Jennings (who has the longest winning streak at 74 games) are the most successful players in “Jeopardy!” history. Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is powered by 10 racks of computer servers running the Linux operating system.

“You are about to witness what may prove to be an historic competition,” host Alex Trebek told viewers at the top of the show.

No question, Watson proved to be an amazing competitor — maybe even a little creepy in the speed and accuracy he displayed.

With categories including Beatles People, Olympic Oddities and Name the Decade, the round got started with Rutter choosing the first answer, Alternate Meanings for $200: “4-letter word for a vantage point or a belief.” “What is a view?” was Rutter’s correct response in the form of a question.

But Watson took charge with his answer to Alternate Meanings for $400: “4-letter word for the iron fitting on the hoof of a horse or a card-dealing box in a casino.” “What is a shoe?” said Watson in his resonant electronic voice.

His next selection was the game board’s Daily Double, and, after wagering $1,000, he correctly named the literary character being sought: “Who is Hyde?” At one point Watson was dominating to the tune of $4,000, against $200 each for Jennings and Rutter. Then Rutter, giving hope to worried human viewers, began his rally.

Along the way, Watson made a few embarrassing stumbles.

After Jennings incorrectly said the 1920s was the decade in which Oreo cookies were introduced, Watson jumped in with his answer: “What is 1920s?” “No,” Trebek told him. “Ken said that!” Rutter got it right when he responded, “What are the 1910s?” Later, Watson slipped up on the question: “Stylish elegance, or students who all graduated in the same year.” “What is chic?” ventured Watson.

“What is class?” Rutter correctly answered.

“Any time you feel the pain, hey — this guy — Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders,” was one clue posed by host Trebek.

“Who is Jude?” answered Watson.

Watson’s ability to understand language and solve problems through complex algorithms makes it even more evolved than Deep Blue, an IBM chess-playing supercomputer that beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

But Watson also made some errors, coming up with the wrong Latin word for “terminal” and repeating another contestant’s mistake because it can’t interact with other players.

In an earlier practice session, it mistakenly named Beethoven instead of actor and musician Jamie Foxx, prompting contestant Brad Rutter to quip: “I get the two mixed up all the time.” Watson didn’t laugh, revealing what some say is another flaw — the lack of a sense of humor.

The exhibition tournament will continue with the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy rounds of the first game airing Tuesday and a second, complete game airing Wednesday. The overall winner will collect $1 million.

The bouts were taped at the IBM research center in Yorktown Heights, New York, last month. Both men and Watson have managed to keep the final outcome under wraps.

IBM plans to donate all of Watson’s winnings to charity. The company spends around $6 billion a year on research and development. An unspecified part of that goes to what it calls “grand challenges,” or big, multiyear science projects such as Watson and Deep Blue.

IBM executives have said Watson’s linguistic and analytical abilities may eventually help develop new products in areas such as medical diagnosis.