The value of Chess in the era of AI dominance
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years ago, although the origins of chess are uncertain.
The earliest form of chess possibly originated from India and then spread to Persia and then subsequently spread to Southern and then Western Europe. It is in Europe during the 15th Century where it evolved to its current form. But it wasn’t until the introduction of competitive chess in 1834 that the rules were cemented. Since then, players of all levels have thought to explore unique and better ways of have an edge over their opponent.
This article, explores of the strategy of chess has evolved, the impact of technology on the game, the usefulness of chess for personal well-being and tying back to a case-study on an evolutionary business model of reconciling chess, well-being and work.
‘Evolving’ strategies
During the Romantic Era (1500s-1800s), strategy of this period was characterised by quick attacks, tricks and surprises mixed with clever combinations and sacrifices rather than long term strategic planning.
As accentuated by David Shenk in The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, style was more meaningful than winning. During this period, chess was not very well understood. The Romantic method of chess fit well with the Romantic ideological paradigm. This strategic orientation, too, diminished after the First World War.
During the Two World Wars, chess players adopted more logical and calculated approach to chess, bringing about new concepts like ‘hyper- modernism’ a strategy that, similar to the evolving tactics of WWI, required players to question traditional approaches.
Chess masters still acknowledged that controlling the centre of the board was necessary, however, they believed there are many ways to achieve this rather than simply moving the Queen’s or King’s pawn forward.
Pre-WWII chess was also used by Nazi Germany as a propaganda object to circulate the successes of the Romantic era chess was largely contributed by ‘Aryan’ chess legends, such as, Morphy and Anderssen.
Post-WWII, the Soviet School of Chess succeeded and controlled from the late 1950s to 1960s. This was defined by, bold, dynamic and fast-moving style of play. This approach introduced the concept of the professional chess player to the world.
Other chess styles followed soon after, including the disciplined concrete approach. In the modern world, no particular style or technique dictates. As stated by grandmaster Garry Kasparov, “the elite chess players are part of no school”. Nonetheless, Kasparov adds the unique style of Magnus Carlsen resembles that of a computer, for example, most seasoned chess players have an issue moving back their pieces to the prior position but not Carlsen.
Impact of technology on chess
Since Chess legend Garry Kasparov’s loss against IBM’s Deep Blue, players have accepted machines are better at chess than humans.
Nonetheless, humans can take credit for building such capable and clever machines, but remarkably enough the way machines play chess does not resemble that of a human.
Despite being made by humans, the machine’s superiority lies in its ability to sift through huge amounts of moves to find objectives was to solve a position.
In comparison, Chess Grandmasters might be able to evaluate a series of positions, machines can search through millions of positions-a-second, the solution may appear questionable at first but it will be an unquestionably winning move.
Enter Alpha Zero
At the start of any chess program lies the fundamentals of chess: first and foremost the information on how each piece can move, how to set the king in checkmate, how castling works. Special moves such as promotion and en passant, and the basic value of all pieces must also be learned by the machine.
The Google-owned AI company’s AlphaZero is a paradox. AlphaZero taught itself chess starting with no knowledge about the game beyond the basic rules.
It developed its capabilities and arsenal of strategies by playing millions of games against itself, this ongoing self-learning led to the machine discovering various avenues of exploration from the games it won and lost. The results was ‘Captain America’ like a chess player with superhuman speed and strength with a style that is also human-like.
Another fascinating aspect is how AlphaZero evaluates chess positions. Traditional engines evaluate a given position via a scale based on material (the general chess term for pawns and pieces). For example, a score of +1.5 indicates an advantage of one-and-a-half pawns. (The generally recognised scale for material in chess is that pawns are worth one point, knights and bishops are worth three points, a rook is worth five points and a queen is worth nine points.)
AlphaZero evaluates positions probabilistically based on its perceived chance of winning or drawing (in fact we don’t even know whether it assigns any values for pawns and pieces!)
This may explain why AlphaZero is not afraid to sacrifice its pawns and pieces to achieve its goals: what does a pawn or two matter if your expected score increases?
The evaluation of traditional engines also reflects only the single best variation it finds in the position. AlphaZero’s evaluation is a weighted average of all the variations it considers in the position, not just the single best variation. This seems to allow AlphaZero to steer games “intuitively” into promising-looking situations, in which danger and the possibility of mistakes are ever-present for the opponent, without needing to calculate every detail — just like strong human players do.
Chess and well-being
Yes, technology is continuously changing the way we play the games of chess. However, technology cannot change the many benefits to us when playing the beautiful game of chess.
One of the most classical forms of problem solving in puzzle gaming is Chess.
Chess is competitive problem solving: both you and your opponent have the same goal in mind — place the opponent’s King in check — and you have the same resources to do so. It’s an exercise of infinite possibilities of the mind, one which develops mental abilities used throughout life: concentration, critical thinking, abstract reasoning, problem solving, pattern recognition, strategic planning, creativity, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, to name a few.
Chess is not about physical strength but about calculating better and faster, tricky ideas and moves, having control over nerves when the clock ticks down to seconds.
It‘s completely calm and silent on the outside but internally it‘s the absolute opposite!
“Its like a circus of mind” — Tania Sachdev, the Indian chess master and woman grandmaster, played her first match at 7 and won her first international title when she was just 8.
One has to plan and strategise, calculate the moves ahead, solve problems, fight and try to save the worse positions, it’s almost like a brain battle. The mind is constantly being challenged to come up with new resources.
Even the great Benjamin Franklin has claimed chess provided “several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life.” The Vulture Culture sums up some of the many benefits of chess below:
- Chess can improve memory
- Chess can help you relax
- Chess can direct your focus
- Chess can help you socialise
- Chess is simply fun
Case-study: Chess Clubs in the City
Chess Clubs is an upcoming organisation, designed to give workers in the corporate world the opportunity to play chess. There is now a greater emphasis in companies on general well-being and good mental health and this is where Chess Clubs looks to come in and help.
The philosophy integral to Chess Clubs’s vision is that anyone should be able to play chess and it must be easy for them to do so. With this in mind, the idea is quite simple — if you work in the corporate world and you (along with others) want to learn and play chess, then Chess Clubs comes into your workplace and set up a Chess Club.
Chess Clubs provide the chess boards and sets and the know-how of how to run the club effectively and efficiently. Not only that, experts come in regularly to ensure your members have access to world-class expertise and coaching in how to enjoy chess and also how to become that better player.
In one company Chess Clubs operates in, a small advert was placed in the company’s weekly email, trying to gauge demand for a Chess Club. The response to the advert was phenomenal — more than 25 people responded within a short space of time! The Chess Club operates weekly in this company and over time more and more people have wanted to join the Chess Club.
Playing chess provides many benefits, from strategic thinking to problem solving to well-being, and Chess Clubs’s vision is to bring these benefits to as many people.
If you are eager to learn more please visit: chessclubs.co.uk
