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Introduction
Well well well, today in the new series, Big Questions, Small Opinions, I take a deep dive into one of my favourite games and debate on the key question: Is Chess rigged? I will slowly dissect this topic as we progress through this article. Do look out for the final answer, hope you enjoy the first episode of this new series!
Contents
Section A: The Problem: Is AI Rigging Chess?
Section B: The World Chess Championship
Section C: Your Opinions
Section D: Conclusion
Section A: The Problem: Is AI Rigging Chess?
1. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov vs IBM and Super Chess Computer Deep Blue (Coverage of 1996 match and 1997 rematch)
Over 20 years ago, World Champion Garry Kasparov took on IBM and the super-computer Deep Blue in the ultimate battle of man versus machine. This was a monumental moment in chess history and was followed closely around the world. This match appealed to chess players, scientists, computer experts, and the general public. At the time of the match, Kasparov was the reigning world champion. Kasparov was put to the ultimate test carrying the weight of humanity on his shoulders heading into this iconic chess battle.
Deep Blue, being a computer, was putting a lot of pressure on Kasparov as this was "The Battle for Humanity". A Champion was going to play a Super Chess Computer, which got basically the whole world excited and looking forward to the big match that would occur in Philadelphia, USA.
So, on 10 February 1996, the first game began with Deep Blue taking White and Garry Kasparov taking Black.
Below are the PGNs for the chess matches.
Note: If you want to go through the game without having to visualise it in the air, go click on any the links below, copy and paste the PGN into the PGN section
Chess.com Analysis (Press "Load PGN button and paste PGN into it)
Lichess.org Analysis (Scroll down until you see PGN section and paste PGN into it and press "Import PGN" button afterwards. Remember to switch on the engine as well.)
Chess Notation
PGN of Game 1
Game 1 Comments:
After 37 moves of combat on the 64 squares, Kasparov was forced to resign due to the fatal blunder (32... Re8??) and that gave Deep Blue the win for Game 1, shocking the whole chess world. This was the first time in the history of chess that a reigning world champion lost to a chess computer in classical time conditions. This was clearly not a good start for Kasparov.(Both figuratively and literally) We shall see how Kasparov fared in the next game.
For Game 2, Kasparov got the White pieces while Deep Blue got Black.
PGN of Game 2
Game 2 Comments:
Garry Kasparov did well in this game. Kasparov took the initiative and despite being a pawn down in the early positions, he understood that king safety was of utmost importance and thus as a compromise from sacrificing the pawn, he managed to open up Black's king and till the end of the match he kept his advantage without making any mistakes or blunders and eventually got Deep Blue's King in a vulnerable position, thus forcing the Super Chess Computer to eventually resign after a long battle of 73 moves over the board. Kasparov had indeed managed to recover from his previous loss.
For Game 3, Deep Blue got the White pieces while Garry Kasparov got the Black pieces.
PGN for Game 3
Game 3 Comments:
Peace at last. In a short game only spanning 39 moves, the game was drawn at the end. Deep Blue played the Alapin Sicilian (Click to see what it is.) once again but Kasparov changed his tactics a little bit and after reaching an equalized position, the game was officially drawn by both players.
Overall Results so far:
Player / Score | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Total |
Deep Blue (Com) | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
GM Garry Kasparov | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
For the next game, Game 4, Kasparov would get the White pieces while Deep Blue would have Black.
PGN for Game 4
Game 4 Comments:
Kasparov held on to the game quite well and on move 42, Kasparov found a way to successfully build a fortress, managing a draw as neither side could make any progress at all.
In Game 5, Kasparov got Black and Deep Blue had White.
PGN for Game 5:
Game 5 Comments:
Deep Blue declined a draw offer by Garry Kasparov and soon fell as Kasparov took over the initiative. What a game!
Final Game, Game 6, Kasparov with White and Deep Blue gets Black.
PGN for Game 6
Comments on Game 6:
Just amazing, I am speechless!
Overall Results:
Score / Player | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | Game 6 | Total |
Deep Blue | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
GM Garry Kasparov | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov
2 - 4
Videos Recommended to watch:
Well, in 1997, there was a rematch between Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov. Will the reigning World Champion continue his hot streak against this super computer or will it mark the downfall of Kasparov? Let us find out! (I will only feature interesting games.)
Game 1. Kasparov has White and Deep Blue has Black.
PGN of Game 1
Comments for Game 1:
I am not sure about the bug thing for Deep Blue but Kasparov played excellently and absolutely deserved that win.
Game 2. Computer Deep Blue with the White pieces, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov with Black.
PGN for Game 2
Comments on Game 2:
Kasparov went down in flames in just 19 moves after Deep Blue found the amazing knight sacrifice that enabled White to coordinate all the pieces to launch a full out attack on Black, it was actually White that held the advantage despite being down 1 point of material.
Garry Kasparov had lost to Deep Blue, a year after he had previously won the super chess computer. This news shocked the world and signalled the age where technology would rise high above human chess prodigies in the coming years.
2. Beyond Deep Blue: Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik vs Chess Computer Deep Fritz 2002 and 2006 Overview
Here we have Vladimir Kramnik, World Champion from 2000-2006. In his reign of being the World Champion, Kramnik played Deep Fritz twice. In 2002, he got the score 4-4 after the 8 rounds ended, resulting in a draw. In 2006, Kramnik drew the first game with Deep Fritz. In the second game, in a shocking turn of events, Kramnik, a World Champion for 6 years, blundered checkmate in 1, allowing Deep Fritz to lead with a point. The next 3 games, Game 3, 4 and 5 were drawn and for the final game, Deep Fritz showed the world who's boss, forcing Kramnik to resign in merely 47 moves. Deep Fritz won against Vladimir Kramnik with a convincing 4-2.
After 2006, in the 2007 World Championship Match, Vladimir Kramnik, was upset and his title was taken over by famed Indian Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand (Commonly known as Vishy)
3. The Rise of Super Chess Computers (Chess Computers Stockfish, Leela and AlphaZero)
The Mighty Rise of Stockfish
Stockfish was developed quite early and since participating in the Top Chess Engines Championship in 2013, it has dominated the competition and has won 8 times, also securing 2nd place 6 times in the same competition. It has been deemed as the Strongest Chess computer/engine in the world for a very long time. Reigning as the Strongest Chess Computer Engine in the world until now, it has suffered quite some setbacks.
Despite frequent overtaking by other engines like Leela Chess Zero, Houdini, Komodo and AlphaZero, Stockfish has been most consistent in rankings. As of October 2020, Stockfish is the highest-rated engine according to the computer chess rating list (CCRL) with a rating of 3514—it is the only engine with a rating above 3500. According to the July 2020 Swedish Chess Computer Association (SSDF) rating list, Stockfish 9 is ranked #3, Stockfish 10 is ranked #2, and Stockfish 11 is ranked #1 with a rating of 3558. Taking the top three spots with three different versions is quite impressive.
Credits: Chess Programming Wiki
The Unprecedented Win Over Stockfish: AlphaZero by Google
Credits: Chess.com
AlphaZero has unremarkably left a mark on the chess world. AlphaZero is one of the strongest chess engines in the world. In 2017, AlphaZero beat Stockfish, in the Computer Chess Championship with a shocking 28 wins 72 draws and 0 losses. The chess world was excited by this famous news and it was revealed AlphaZero trains by constantly playing against itself, something I could never do as this would never help me improve since it meant losing and winning every game. However it was a genius tactic to first try defeating your best opponent, "yourself" and that was how AlphaZero trained to win Stockfish in the 100-match championship. AlphaZero was designed by Google after its development of AlphaGo turned out to be a huge success after it won against World Go Champion Lee Sedol with a 4-1 victory.
Credits: Chess.com
The Lc0 VS Stockfish Rivalry
Lc0, the full name being Leela Chess Zero, has accomplished quite some feats in the recent years. Leela defeated Houdini to win the 2nd TCEC. (Top Chess Engines Championship) In May 2019, Leela won Stockfish in the finals to take the 3rd TCEC Cup. In April 2020, Leela upset Stockfish by winning the 13th Chess.com Computer Chess Championship with a 106-94 in the 200-game finals. Lc0 had suddenly started beating Stockfish quite a few times, thus making AlphaZero and Leela Chess Zero a worthy match against the "Strongest Chess Engine in the World".
Section B: The World Chess Championship
4. Evolution of World Chess Championship and the Involvement of Chess Engines
The World Chess Championship is held every 2 years and has existed since as early as 1886. There have been 16 World Champions from 1886 till present day.
World Champions:
Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894) - Austria
Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921) - Germany
Jose Raul Capablanca (1921-1927) - Cuba
Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935, 1937-1946) - Soviet Union
GM Max Euwe (1935-1937) - Netherlands
GM Mikhail Botvinnik (1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963) - Soviet Union
GM Vasily Smyslov (1957-1958) - Soviet Union
GM Mikhail Tal (1960-1961) - Latvia
GM Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969)- Armenia
GM Boris Spassky (1969-1972) - Soviet Union
GM Bobby Fischer (1972-1975) - USA
GM Anatoly Karpov (1975-1985) - Soviet Union
GM Garry Kasparov (1985-2000) - Soviet Union then Russia
GM Vladimir Kramnik (2000-2007) - Russia
GM Viswanathan Anand (2007-2013) - India
GM Magnus Carlsen (2013-present) - Norway
Since Garry Kasparov played against Deep Blue in 1996, computers started to become an analysis tool for top players to train along with. As technology becomes more and more advanced, the chess computers will improve along with it as well. As Chess commentating for the World Championship matches slowly rolled out on various chess platforms, more engines were put to work to help examine and show lines that may have been winning or losing or equalizing, thus the engines like Stockfish was commonly used to analyse World Championship Matches.
5. World Chess Championship 2021: Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi: What is Happening?!
Magnus Carlsen faced Russian Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in this year's World Chess Championship. Well, Magnus Carlsen was supposed to defend his title of World Champion and continue his streak. Well, defend the title he did. He managed to create history with Ian in the World Championship this year, by breaking the record of the longest game ever in WCC history. Magnus Carlsen clearly had better stamina and won the long 8-hour game. Out of the 11 games played in total, Magnus drew 7 games and won the rest of the 4 games. He managed to win by getting a score of 7.5-3.5 in Dubai this year, successfully retaining his title against Nepomniachtchi. Magnus Carlsen has proved to be one of the greatest chess players of all time since beating Viswanathan Anand in the 2013 World Chess Championship. He was also only one of the few people who passed 2800 ELO rating, with GM Alireza Firouzja also breaking 2800 just very recently.
Featuring Game 6 of the World Chess Championship, the longest ever game in the history of the World Chess Championship.
PGN of Game 6
Game 6 Comments:
Messy but that's that.
6. Current World Champion Magnus Carlsen vs Super Chess Computers/Engines: What would the results be?
Magnus Carlsen on playing against computers/chess engines:
“I personally never wanted that. I find it much more interesting to play humans. And also, of course, now that they have become so strong in a game like that, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Magnus Carlsen, although being an excelling player who is also current World No. 1 and World Champion, cannot beat a computer consistently. Magnus' rating is about 2860+ and Stockfish's rating is about 3600+, which is actually quite a far cry away from world players. In the modern world chess like the 21st century, chess computers and engines are usually only used for analysation of games to constantly improve. Human intuition can never be compared to the strength of computer engines as AI is just too strong for us to handle. While Magnus Carlsen has the whole team to help him analyse his games, the main helper is usually Stockfish. As much as we try to be like chess computer, it is pretty much impossible to be so accurate and computers also blunder a lot sometimes. However, the point is that if Magnus Carlsen really were to play against the computer, he would not really be able to win so consistently.
7. Other Super GMs (Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana etc.)
After hearing about AlphaZero’s big win against Stockfish, some super grandmasters were impressed, some were shocked while some were actually quite doubtful about it. Here are all the reactionby super grandmasters after hearing about AlphaZero’s big win: https://www.chess.com/amp/news/alphazero-reactions-from-top-gms-stockfish-author
BONUS!!!: Viswanathan Anand vs Nikhil Kamath, Kamath: Secret Grandmaster or Super Cheater?
The Game between A Fishy Millionaire and a Super GM “for charity”
Section C: Your Opinions
8. Your Opinions and My Comments
Well after such a long and thoughtful discussion, we can finally get to your opinions.
So 4 people said chess was rigged and 2 replied otherwise. There was some trolling while filling up the form, so I shall just list the valid reasons here.
Chess is rigged.
There’s a lot of possibilities of being attacked by the opponent and a many times it’s unexpected.
-AnonymousComments:
"For this response I don't think the participant really understood my question as my question related to computer engines helping to analyse chess moves and cheating etc. but ok good try I think."Chess is rigged.
I think is rigged because we should be playing against people and not computer engine. Since cheating is common in online chess, it can also harm a player’s knowledge of the game.
-AnonymousComments:
"This is actually quite true and this is kind of my opinion as well and since we are humans, we actually have feelings and we will make mistakes. This is totally acceptable and it is why chess was made more for humans to play with each other but since the invention of various technologies, some people are forced to think that chess engines will definitely dominate the chess world since AI will usually be accurate."Chess is rigged.
If humans are required to play against artificial intelligence, they are at a disadvantage as the opponent is not prone to human error. Besides, the AI has already been programmed to know every single chess technique, while most humans only know a few chess techniques. Therefore, I can say that in this case, chess has been manipulated to let AI always win.
As for cheating, it can be quite easy as your opponent only needs to look away for a few seconds for you to secretly place a cheating move. Thus, chess can also be rigged even with humans playing against humans.
Side note: Cheating can be prevented if chess matches are played online.
-AnonymousComments:
"In 1996, Kasparov could have won the computer but nowadays, in the age of advanced technology, I would not say players would not be able to win but they would just be very inconsistent in their streak and well yes, cheating is currently a very widespread problem as well. However, chess games played online may not prevent cheating but actually make it easier since you can open up two tabs at once with a chess engine analysing your moves as you play your match."Chess is not rigged.
How is it rigged? Isn't it a fair game for both opponents?
-Anonymous
Comments:
"Well unfortunately it isn't really because people can cheat and well yes I do get that you did not think much about computers playing chess against humans with stunning accuracy."Now here is the answer to the Big Question in my opinion.
Section D: Conclusion
9. So, is chess rigged???
Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that chess is actually rigged as chess computers really do dominate the chess world and despite humans not playing against them, there is no doubt that they are the rulers of chess since AI is just to strong for us to handle. However, we should still continue to learn and play chess as it is always more meaningful to play against real players rather than computers.
Well that is finally the end of this whole first episode of BIG QUESTIONS, Small Opinions. Do look out for our next episode that will be coming as soon as you all fill up its Opinion Form. Hope you enjoyed this episode. See you guys soon! Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Best regards,
The Good Writer
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