How DeepMind Restored the Beauty to Chess
Chess masters feared that computer programs would suck the artistry out of the game, but the company’s AlphaZero plays with soul
In the world of professional snooker — a game similar to pool, played throughout the U.K. — there is confusion about the word “tactic.”
Loosely put, there are two kinds of shots in snooker. There are attempts to pocket balls and score points, and there are safety shots where the goal is to make things more difficult for your opponent. A frame of snooker can descend into a protracted exchange of safety play — not particularly compelling to the casual observer — with neither player attempting to pocket balls. Such frames are described as “tactical.” This is wrong. The proper word would be “strategic.”
The world of professional chess has it right, and the difference between tactics and strategy in chess was once elegantly described by Austrian-born grandmaster Savielly Tartakower: “Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do.”
This difference is crucial to understanding — or rather, appreciating — a recent eruption of enthusiasm in the chess world. Last year a computer program called AlphaZero was pitted against another program…
