News
New Billionaire Chess Bots, Meltwater Champions Tour Finalists Announced
Billionaire Bots
Chess.com has announced the enrollment of some new bots… billionaire bots? Yep, we’ll now be able to play against automated chess caricatures of billionaires. The site has decided to name the bots, and I quote, “Gill Bates”, “Melon Husk”, “Zark Muckerberg”, “Biff Jezos”, and “Barron Wuffet”. Yes, you read that right. Not entirely sure why they opted for this stylization, although it’s clear with the recent Hans Niemann lawsuit that caution is best when it comes to using names.
Many may assume that these bots will be of exceptional chess strength. But I posit that they probably shouldn’t be too strong. Why, you might ask? These are highly intelligent members of society who’ve climbed their way to the top of the economic ladder! Well, that may be argued in some capacity, but might I remind you of billionaires’ track records in chess?
Yeah. 11 seconds, and with an extremely elementary checkmating technique early in the opening too. So I wouldn’t be too optimistic about the chess rating of the average billionaire. Maybe every 10 billion dollars translates to a hundred Elo points?
Meltwater Finalists
A very exciting lineup filled with fighting players, to say the least. Given that Magnus has already sealed his victory over the overarching tour by winning the majority of the events in dominant fashion, we’ll see players more ready to abandon careful opening theory and just duke it out. A $210,000 prize is still on the line though, so I doubt we’ll be seeing any Richard Rapport tier openings.
I personally look forward to seeing Pragg face off against Shakh. A clash of generations, and a clash of similar volatile playing styles as well. Here are the previous tournament results of the tour so far. It goes without saying that Magnus has it in the bag.
I can’t say for sure who I believe will run away with the finals of the event. Normally if someone asked who I thought would come out on top, I’d answer Magnus in my sleep. But over the last couple weeks, Magnus has been struggling somewhat. Not to say I can blame him; the man has been under intense media scrutiny with every move he makes. But given that his play has been on a slight down trend, the door is at least opened for other players to get the W.
I don’t think there is a clear favorite aside from Magnus, but I do believe that Duda and Mamedyarov are the two most likely to win if Magnus does falter. That being said, my dark horse candidate to steal the prize is none other than Pragg. The kid has been engulfed in flames recently, and has actually beaten Magnus a number of times in the last couple of months. I’m certainly rooting for him. That accolade would be a huge boost. Not to mention the $210,000 purse.
