‘AI Could Be Interesting In…': Vishy Anand Reveals Slant On AI Wave's Impact On Chess

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On the sidelines of the ongoing Chennai Grandmasters 2025, Viswanathan Anand opened up on his impression of the possible impact the AI revolution could have on the game of chess.
Leonardo Torres Quevedo's demonstration of automation with the creation of 'El Ajedrecista', the machine that had the capacity to play endgames out with a human on the 64-chequered board in the year 1912, opened up new avenues to be explored in the domain of automated chess.
The contributions of Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, Dietrich Prinz, and Alick Gennie through the 1940s and 1950s paved the way for American Alex Bernstein's ground-breaking Program, built on the IBM 704 mainframe, which was in 1957 arguably the only machine with the capability to calculate complicated mathematical constraints.
The late 1950s proved to be a watershed period for chess as the remarkable work of Carnegie-Mellon scientists and the NSS Program, which was the first machine to beat a human, however, new to the game.
MIT's foray into the world of automated chess in the 1960s made possible the invention of the MAC HACK VI, which was the first machine to beat a human at the State Championship.
Towards the end of the 1980s, multiple iterations and experiments on the aforementioned programs aided in the rapid upscale of chess engines as the automations got strong enough to beat a Grandmaster, Bert Larsen, in the year 1988.
The era of the Deep Blues, Fritz further cemented computers' place in the confines of the world of chess, and it has been rather uphill, and only uphill, there on out.
The advent of resourceful chess engines altered the landscape of chess, as machines designed with the explicit focus on outwitting the human brain led to a seismic shift in the perception of the game in terms of education, competition and overall consumption.
The quivering impact advanced engines had on the sport had a profound significance in the direction the sport took following the same, calling into question the need to ponder over the possibilities made available with the astronomical developments in the modern world.
The exponential growth in the realms of technology, with the enhancement of Artificial Intelligence as we know it today, has put the proletariat in a fix over the future of their bread and butter, as AI threatens to disrupt the commercial market that drives the economy.
With the extent of the effect of AI on the game of chess still unknown, the legendary Viswanathan Anand opened up on his impression of the possible impact the AI revolution could have on the game of chess, on the sidelines of the ongoing Chennai Grandmasters 2025.
'In the case of chess, computers became much stronger than humans well before AI," India's flagbearer in the game of wits for decades, said.
'So, it's not clear to me what exactly AI is going to do in that sense," he revealed.
'If AI is stronger than previous generation computers, then yes, but the next generation of people might be stronger than previous ones as well," the icon continued.
'I think AI could be interesting in chess education and things like that, but further than that, I'm not sure as of the moment," he added.
Apples And Oranges
Anand, the first person from the nation to clinch the World Championships title before repeating the feat four times over, addressed the way forward for incumbent champion Gukesh and expressed that the teenager is aware of the direction he has to head in moving forward.
'I think 'Mere Paas Panch Hai' is a good starting point," the legend jested.
' I think he knows what to do," he said, expressing his confidence in the abilities of the youngster.
'Sport is evolving very fast; new formats, new things. I think the only thing I can do is if they ask, I can describe how I face a certain situation, and then it would be their job to convert that."
'We are not comparing the same thing anymore," he explained.
Dangers of 'Jack Of One'
With the sport of chess also diversifying with the advent of fresher formats, such as Chess960, the icon also touched on the pitfalls of pigeonholing oneself in a particular format of the game.
'Probably, the simplest way to say it is that they shouldn't rule out any format mentally," the 55-year-old said.
'In a sense, say you don't probably have good results in all the formats, in all the years, but I don't think you are assured of one format either in that case," he said.
'I mean, Gukesh has had a bad classical in Romania, for instance. I think when one misfires, you should be able to compete in the other,"
' So, you should try to be competitive in all. Maybe you won't succeed, but it's worth it."
'I don't see myself settling into one genre. Having made that point that one should try to be good at other formats, I should follow it myself," Anand said, reiterating the need to serve by example.
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Chess Chess Grandmaster chess news Chess Olympiad chess tournament
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Location :
Chennai [Madras], India, India
First Published:
August 11, 2025, 13:46 IST
News sports 'AI Could Be Interesting In…': Vishy Anand Reveals Slant On AI Wave's Impact On Chess
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