The game of Chess has been traced as far back as the 7th Century, it has evolved through time and it is now the 64-squared board game we know today. As timeless as the game has been, games and strategies have continued to evolve, with a lot of memorable grandmaster games such as Morphy vs. Allies (1858), Kasparov vs. Topalov (1999), and more. Today the world of chess continues to evolve as A.I. is currently becoming more accessible to the public. As the public turns to A.I. for several things, chess is not an exemption. Which is more effective? To train by playing against the machine? Or against humans?
In 1996, Deep Blue the IBM supercomputer built for chess was created to calculate and “perfect” chess as a set of numbered moves. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov was able to win over the machine by 4-2. However, in the rematch of 1997, Deep Blue successfully triumphed over Kasparov. The machine still has a thing or two to learn from humans playing chess.
AI vs Human chess learning
This brings us to the topic at hand when learning chess, is it more effective to learn from machines or humans? Many don’t have the luxury to play with people whenever they please, unlike with the availability of machines. According to most of the chess community on online forums, it says A.I. chess is way different from playing with humans as when the A.I. makes mistakes, it isn’t a very likely mistake that humans would make. Training solely by playing bot games will eventually lead players to have a skill ceiling. The A.I. isn’t as creative, aggressive, or unpredictable as playing with people, for they are programmed to play a certain way. To learn how to play accurately especially at the beginning of your journey in chess, playing with bots will help you sharpen your skill with the basics and get a general good foundation on how the game works. Gradually increasing the difficulty of the bot will help as well with problem-solving and growing your skill. However, nothing challenges and grows man better than man. We can say both worlds would be very beneficial. Human chess playing will encourage us to try and be more creative and create our playstyle, while chess bots will help in sharpening our foundation and accuracy in strategies.
