Thank you Christopher Chabris for your excellent essay and much to think about in your comments. “Whether the true world chess champion is named Carlsen or Komodo depends on what the meaning of ‘champion’ is.” The first “official” World Chess Championship match took place in 1886 between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. In chess lore, there is the often told story of Steinitz and Zukertort attending a banquet before their historic match. A toast was proposed to the Chess Champion of the World. Both of them stood up in response! Here, there is no doubt that only Magnus Carlsen (and Hou Yifan,Women’s World Chess Champion) need stand. Komodo for all of its frightening chess strength is at the end of the day (or when it checkmates you) is after all, still an engine, albeit an invaluable one. I would submit that there should be no ambiguity or “arbitrary realm of definitions” here. The governing body of world chess, the World Chess Federation (FIDE), clearly has a structure in place as to who is the “world chess champion” (and Women’s World Champion, as well). The process is guided by a series of agreed upon World Chess Championship Cycle General Provisions, organization, candidates’ tournaments, etc. Chess is, fortunately, an imperfect game as GM Savielly Tartakower once observed, “The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.” You allude to this “…more interested in other humans than in machines and algorithms.” Engines are outstanding partners in working on honing chess skills, practice games, working through complex positions but human nature is such that one, even as strong as Komodo, can never be recognized as ‘the’ world champion. Thank you again for your insights!
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:36:39 +0000
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