Hey, whatever floats your boat. I'd rather let my computer waste time with this crap while I'm out having fun.
False moves
Now, 27 years on from that pivotal moment, chess engines are so advanced that not only do they crush every grandmaster alive, but they often play moves that humans struggle to even interpret (great video here showing Levy Rozman taking on a 3500+ Elo-rated chess engine). And, unlike Deep Blue, which ran on two 2-meter-tall computer towers, modern engines can run on just a smartphone.
However, these developments have also exacerbated players’ means of cheating — a problem that’s plagued the chess community for years. There was the infamous ‘Toiletgate’ at the 2006 World Championship, and, in 2022, when world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen was beaten by up-and-coming online star Hans Niemann, some wild accusations caused considerable… well, buzz, even inspiring an upcoming A24 movie.
Although Niemann’s ensuing lawsuit was eventually settled, cheating in chess remains an endless game of cat and mouse, particularly for online platforms. After all, anyone with two devices can instantly get help from a near-unbeatable chess master… and many do. According to Chess.com, the site bans ~90,000 players every month for cheating, using algorithms to detect when a series of moves might be suspicious.
Check, please
As a puzzle, the mystery of chess is gone, solved by computers thanks to the brute force of calculation. But, far from destroying the game, chess is still thriving… which may offer some small glimmer of hope against a backdrop of a growing number of pursuits being threatened by AI.
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