Monthly Archives: January 2020

Chess teams that pair humans with machines beat humans alone and beat unaccompanied machines. The lesson is that workers should not fear being replaced by technology, says Xavier Litt.

While Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg hails artificial intelligences potential to make the world better, many others are far more cautious.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has warned against machines taking over the world. Reluctance to technical progress is not a new phenomenon.

In 19th century Britain, the Luddites, worried about being replaced by technology, sought to destroy textile machinery.

The fear persists, all the more since AI is improving by the day, including at tasks previously thought of as exclusive to human intelligence.

In 1997, the IBM computer Deep Blue spectacularly defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov for the first time.

Many commentators were shocked by the prowess of AI in a strategy game often referred to as the king of games.

AI has moved beyond being a super calculator and most advanced machines will be prominent in strategic thinking and creativity.

While many people worry about being overtakenby some form of Skynet, the artificial intelligence defence system from the Terminator film franchise, the last 20 years of computer usage in the game of chess actually suggests the future could be a lot more positive.

Chess was one of the first areas tackled by AI, making it an interesting case study. In hindsight, AI brought chess and its human players to previously unattainable heights.

Advanced chess computers helped humans improve their own skills. Nowadays, top chess players spend most of their time analysing the game via computers.

AI can be used to re-evaluate positions that were previously misunderstood or to rule out moves that are inefficient and focus, instead, on more promising game plans.

This evolution occurred despite critics lamenting the end of chess when the machines first defeated man in 1997.

Though it was feared at the time, chess players have not given up on the game.

They trained harder and became stronger than players of the past. Rather than competing against AI, chess players utilised it.

The benefit of teaming up with AI is illustrated by a new game mode, cyborg chess.

It is named after the cybernetic organism, an entity with both organic and mechanical body parts.

As in a typical chess match, the human players face each other across a chessboard, but in cyborg chess they also each have a computer, running chess engines.

While AI is superior to the human brain in a one-to-one chess contest, human players still contribute to the team.

Humans may let the machines make most of the calculations, but, ultimately, they have their own understanding of the game.

In some situations, human players make better decisions than machines, and successful cyborg chess players know when they can let the machine decide on the move to play, and when they shouldnt.

Hence, the best cyborg chess team is higher ranked than the best chess engine. This means that the association of human intelligence and AI outperforms stand-alone AI.

Another crucial teaching of cyborg chess is that there is a specific skill set for collaboration with AI.

The ability to work efficiently with AI matters more for cyborg chess players than their standalone strength in chess. Several cyborg chess competitions were not won by the strongest attending chess players.

For instance, in the PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament in 2005, three chess grandmasters could notdefeat the team Zacks, comprised of two average club players using less powerful AI than the grandmasters.

However, the latter were extremely well-prepared. They had trained extensively with several chess engines and had selected the one they understood the most.

In a one-to-one game againsta grandmaster, these two amateurs would have less than 1% chance of winning.

Hence, this stunning performance suggests that although mastering chess is a valuable skill for cyborg chess, it is not the main skill.

Instead, fruitful collaboration with AI is the key skill.

This example teaches us that humans and machines have complementary capabilities.

Machines supervised by humans are often capable of doing more than machines or humans on their own.

This is becoming common in many fields: plane pilots assisted with auto-pilot programmes, computer-assisted surgeons for complex surgeries, and many others.

AI will increasingly be used in the near future and automated tasks will bring forth new jobs.

A recent study of the Institute for the Future and Dell Technologies states that 85% of jobs that will be occupied in 2030 do not exist yet; just as countless jobs that exist today were unimaginable 20 years ago.

These new jobs will most certainly revolve around this specific human-machine collaboration skill.

Since machines first defeated humans 20 years ago, the evolution of chess suggests that AI need not be feared; it can be embraced and pave the way for continuous improvement in all fields.

The key is to switch from competition to collaboration with AI. Businesses should neither turn away from AI nor simply replace employees with machines.

Success will come from creating adapted teams of men and machines working together.

We humans should primarily focus on improving our understanding of AI by honing our human-machine collaboration skills.

Xavier Litt is chief executive of Skylads, an AI-driven, digital marketing research lab and technology provider

Read the original post:

Xavier Litt: Chess shows that humans and AI work better together - Irish Examiner

The Women's World Championship match between defending World Champion Ju Wenjun and her challenger Aleksanda Goryachkina is proving to be a tough struggle. The first three games ended in draws, but they were hard fought.Then the pair traded wins, before a sixth-game drawbrought the first half, played in Shanghai, to a dead-heat close. Let's get caught up:

Report on Games 1 & 2All stories on the Women's World Championship

After the first rest day, Goryachkina took the white pieces and once again played1.d4 as in game one, but this time asemi-Tarrasch defence came on board.The opening's popularity was revived severalyears ago by the likes of Vladimir Kramnik, and later picked up by Chinese starsWang Hao and HouYifan.

Semi-Tarrasch: A universal weapon against 1.d4

Even though the Semi-Tarrasch cannot offer a complete repertoire against 1.d4, being conditioned of Whites move order, it is an excellent complement to the Nimzoindian Defence. Throughout history, great players like Fischer, Kortschnoj and Kramnik have included the Semi-Tarrasch in their repertoire which strongly speaks about its safe character and Blacks possibilities for counterplay. GM Mihail Marin presents a complete Semi-Tarrasch repertoire for Black, explaining the main strategic ideas of the resulting structures.

More...

The structure resembles the Gruenfeld defence andusually continues as Ju played7...cxd4 8.cxd4 b4 9.d2. White has a strong pawn centre, against Black's queenside majority. After the opening, the game was roughly balanced with both sides looking for some way to gain an edge.

Der WM-Kampf der Frauen

On the 23rd move, Black decided againstwhat was in retrospect a good option.

After 23.d3, Black was able to play 23...e5 here. Since 24...xf3 is a huge threat, 24.dxe5 xd3 is practically forced and White's centre would have lost much of its dynamic potential. Instead, Black opted for 23...dc8.

A few moves later, the players reached this position:

After 31.c4, 31...c5 was the right reaction, but Ju played 31...exd5 and lost a pawn after the intermediate move 32.xb6!b7 33.xd5. Even so, it was not enough to win. After exchanging the remaining major pieces, Goryachkina went into a rook endgame with her extra pawn and pressed until move85, but to no avail.

The match was tied at 1:1.

Aleksandra Goryachkina stares down her opponent

Ju took the leadwith a win in the fourth game. At first, it looked as if this game would also end in a draw, but the world champion pull out the point in a pawn endgame.

Queen's Gambit Accepted Powerbook 2019

How do you play the Queen's Gambit Acceptedt? Does White have promising variations or can Black construct a water-tight repertoire? The Powerbook provides the answers based on 195 000 games, most of them played by engines.

More...

Ju returned to her regular opening move 1.d4 after surprising with 1.e4in game two. Her young Russian opponent chose a variation of the Queens Gambit Accepted via transposition.

Black did not play 5...f5 here, leading to a Slav, but instead 5...e6. After 6.e3 c5, Black lost a tempo compared to the main line (c7-c6-c5 instead of c7-c5 in one move), but having provokeda4, can aim to exploit the hole onb4. This idea came from Vladimir Alatortsev in the 1940s, was then forgotten before being picked up again by players from Vietnam in the early 2000s. In the past, this might have been called the "Vietnamese variation". This line became popular after Vladimir Kramnik used it in 2004 in a game of his World Championship match against Peter Leko and earned a quick draw. After that, other top players had confidence in this idea, not least of whom was Magnus Carlsen.

Ju Wenjun lines up her next move

After a few natural developing moves, the playersreached this position:

The main move here is 10.e2. Instead, Ju liquidated her isolated pawn with 10.d5, which is a common motif in this type of position, but often also releases the tension. That was the case here too, but White kept a slight initiative and reached an endingin which her own king was a little more secure.

Soon the last minor pieceswere exchangedand the drawing chances in the queen-onlyendgame apparently increased. However as has been a hallmark of this competition so far the players fought on.

White has advanced herpawn to a6, which gives the queen a base on b7. With 44.f3 she activatesthe king. The game is still objectively balanced, but Black is under pressure. A few moves later this position was on the board:

Chess Endgames 3 - major piece endgames

The third part of the endgame series tackles queen endings, rook against minor pieces, queen against rook and queen against two rooks. Queen endings are not nearly as mysterious as they appear at first sight. Knowing a few rules of thumb and principles will make things very much easier for you.Over 7 hours video training.

More...

Black covered her a-pawn with 50...e7, allowing the transition to the pawn endgame. However, this is lost.

She could have still defended with 50...e8. If 51.xa7 then 51...d5 with perpetual check.

Instead, after 51.xe7 xe7 52.g4 d6 White is winning.

(52...hxg4+ 53.xg4 e6 54.f4 f5+ 55.g5 f7 56.h5 gxh5 57.xh5 f6 58.h6 +-)

53.gxh5 gxh5 54.e4 c6 55.f4(55.f5? b5 56.xf6 b4 57.f4 xb3 58.f5 c4 is not enough.)

55...b5 56.d5 +- f5 57.d6 b6 (57...xa6 58.c6 leads to the game. [Not 58.xc5 a5 59.c4 b6 60.d4 a5 61.e5 b5 62.xf5 b4 63.g5 xb3 64.f5 a4 65.f6 a3 66.f7 a2 67.f8 a1 with draw.]58...a5 59.xc5 +-)

58.d7 a5 59.c7 xa6 60.c6 a5 61.xc5 a6 62.b4 b7 63.d5 1-0

A fierce fight arose as early as the opening:

4.e5 is by far the most common move but Goryachkina choose 4.cxd5.

12...e4 was the first new move, and it looks more ambitious that 12...e6 which came before (e.g. Nepomniachtchi vs Anand, Batumi 2018):

13.xb7 This looks like the only good move for White.13...c8 Black can handle the dangers on the a4-e8 diagonal and the pawn deficit is not yet a factor.14.g5(Here 14.g5 was the better move. Not only is there a mate threat on f7, but also e5-e6 or f2-f3 are in the cards. Perhaps the bishop retreat to e6 really is better.

Ju tooksome bold decisions for example when she decided to go into an endgame down the exchange:

21...cxd4!? The world champion gets a strong pawn in the middle of the board as compensation, but21...g6 was a more cautious alternative.

Thingsmight have worked out for the Chinese, but forone last mistake:

29...g6 only after this move is Black in truly dire straits.(After29...d5, White would have to be careful:30.g4?! [30.e8 is better]d3 31.d1 d2 32.h2 e5=).

30.f4! Goryachkina, still had some work to do, but was on the path to victory, restoring equality to the match score.

The Russian bouncing back in Game 5

The game offered an interesting insight into the interaction between bishops and pawns. A bishop which is hemmed in by its own pawns on the same colour squaresis generally considered "bad". On the other hand, these pawns are also defended by the bishop and thus protected from theopposing army. And pawns so anchoredhave the ability to constrict an opposing bishopof the same colour. The players had to deal with such questions, mindful of the associated opportunities and risks.

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

More...

Concentration before the "kick-off"

Iranian arbiter Shohreh Bayat is the first and only international category A arbiter in Asia. She is also the only female general secretary of a sports association in Iran. She is currently the chief arbiterin the Women's World Championship match. This should be cause for celebration inthe Iranian chess community.Yet now Bayat may be unable to return home!

Video interview with Bayat in 2019

As the German news media ARD Tagesschau reports,Iranian websites loyal to the hardline religious leadership were hostile towards Bayat, alleging that she did not properly wear a hijab or Islamic headscarf during the match as required for Iranian women, and implying that she was engaged in some sort of political protest.

In fact,Bayat dutifully worea headscarf, but in an elegant and unobtrusive way, commonfor many young Iranian women,especially when visiting countries where the custom is unusual and certainly not compulsory.

Bayat rejects the assumption that she was engaged in any sort of politicalprotest. Yet, the Iranian Chess Federation even went so far as to request a written apology from its official representative and instruct her to wear a particularly formal headscarf from now on.

Instead, Shohreh Bayat boldly took another approach: she omitted the headscarf completely.

Bayat, with long brown hair freely flowing

Speaking to ARD:

"I asked the Iranian Chess Federation to assure me in writing that I could return to Iran without worrying about my security," she says. "When I didn't get an answer to that, it was clear to me that it was not safe for me to return, and that it made no difference whether I wore the headscarf or not."

Nigel Short, as Vice President, FIDE's official representative at this World Cup, expressed concern for referee Shohreh Bayat and stressed that FIDE was very happy with her performance.

With the departure of Alireza Firouzja, the Iranian Chess Federation has just lost its greatest talent of all time and is now in the process of alienating another high-ranking chess personality. It's a dark time for this burgeoning chess power.

Click or tap any result to open directly viaLive.ChessBase.com

"Vladivostok" that means something even to people who are usually not geography buffs. The end point of the "Trans-Siberian Railway" lies in the far east of the Russian expanse, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, not far from the only 19 km long land border between Russia and North Korea. The second half of the World Championship match between Ju and Goryachkina will be played in Vladivostok starting Thursday.

As the Russian city is still further east than Shanghai, chess fans who want to watch the live broadcast of the games from Europe will have be up bright (or dark as it's January after all!) and early at6:30 in the morning. In New York, night owls can tune in a half past midnight!

Commentary by GM Nigel Short & WGM Zhang Xiaowen | FIDE chess on YouTube

Klaus Besenthal contributed reportingTranslation from German: Macauley Peterson

Originally posted here:

Ju vs Goryachkina all tied at the half - Chessbase News

Wesley So took time out to thank the Lord for an early winafter Vishy Anands bishop sacrifice backfired in Round 2 of the Tata SteelMasters. There were also wins for Vladislav Artemiev over Nikita Vitiugov,Daniil Dubov over Vladislav Kovalev and Jeffery Xiong over Day 1 hero Jordenvan Foreest, with those four winners catching Alireza Firouzja in the leadafter the 16-year-old missed a great chance to beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda. MagnusCarlsen remains on 50% after a 31-move draw against Yu Yangyi that left him justtwo games short of setting an undisputed unbeaten streak.

You can replay all the games and check out the pairings fromthe Tata Steel Masters using the selector below:

And heres the days commentary from Peter Svidler and JanGustafsson:

Remember there are two offers available when you Go Premiumduring Tata Steel Chess!

In Round 2 of the Tata Steel Masters the only complete non-eventwas the game of World Champion MagnusCarlsen, who played the Najdorf against Yu Yangyi but got absolutely nothing. He commented later that obviouslyits not inspiring:

I tried to be clever in the opening and I feel like I justended up tricking myself and he was a bit better, but he didnt play the mostambitious way and then it just petered out to a draw.

In a way the 31-move draw suited both players. Yu Yangyi gotback on track after losing in Round 1, while Magnus is now just one good resultagainst Jeffery Xiong away from matching Sergei Tiviakovs claim of a 110-gameunbeaten streak.

That draw left 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja with an opportunity to move a full point ahead ofthe World Champion, who seemed to catch Jan-KrzysztofDuda off-guard by playing the Queens Gambit Accepted. Duda offered anearly queen exchange only to end up worse with White by move 7 and lateradmitted the best that could be said of his performance was that hed survived:

Its kind of a miracle, isnt it? Today I was basicallymissing everything. I even missed 23Nc2!after 23.Kc4?, which is of coursekindergarten level, but I was lucky enough to draw.

For a second day in a row Duda was in deep trouble, with thetwin threats of Ne3+ and Na3+ hard to parry, but after 24.Rxd8+ Rxd8 25.Rf3 and a few inaccurate moves from Alireza thedanger had passed. It was even White who had any winning chances by the time adraw was agreed on move 39.

The longest game of the round saw Anish Giri pressing for a win against Fabiano Caruana in a sharp theoretical line of the Nimzo-IndianDefence thats covered in Jan Gustafssons ARepertoire against 1.d4: Part 3: The Nimzo-Indian Defence:

Here Jan suggests 13Bxc3 in his repertoire, while Caruanainstead went for 13gxf4. As isoften the case in modern chess, all the mayhem ultimately only led to aslightly better endgame for White, though when Giri picked up a pawn he wasabsolutely within his rights to press until a draw was agreed on move 63.Afterwards Anish mentioned a very interesting idea suggested by Fabi for move23:

23.f4! is a pawn sacrifice to gain complete control in thecentre, while after 23.hxg3 Bxe5 24.Rd7material was equal and White was better, but some of the tension had beenreleased.

In any case, that meant Anish Giri had started this yearsWijk aan Zee by getting the better of opening struggles against the world numbers 1 and 2. Anish commented:

Thats good, but its early to say. So far the tournamentjust started and I think the people in the lead are not the ones who are goingto eventually win, so basically the standings are irrelevant.

That brings us to the days four wins:

We mentioned in ourpreview that you could make a case for WesleySo being Magnus Carlsens most likely challenger in Wijk aan Zee, given theUS star has won the event before and doesnt have the distraction some of hisrivals have of preparing for the Candidates. That case has been strengthened byWesley revealing in the post-game interview that he now has a second workingfor him again, since Wesleys previous peak coincided with his work withVladimir Tukmakov. The unnamed second wasnt the first person Wesley thanked,however:

Id like to thank the Lord for an early win Hopefully thiswill be a better year than last year, because last year around the middle ofthe year I wasnt playing very well, but then in December I was playing a bitbetter, also online I was playing a bit better, and then today I won, sohopefully its a good sign that good things are coming to my chess. Also Idlike to thank my second who works with me online, but I cant name him yetbecause we didnt agree on that, but actually this was his idea, this 7.h3, 8.Bb3.

Our commentary team noted that it was an uncommon way tohandle the Giuoco Piano position in the game nowadays, and a crisis arose onmove 12:

Vishy Anand herethought for almost 12 minutes before going for what Wesley called the totallyunexpected sacrifice 12Bxf2+!?.Afterwards Wesley said 12Qe8 was the best, when its almost totally equal,while he said that Vishy mentioned the interesting 12Nd5!? after the game.

Wesley had looked at the sacrifice in advance until 13.Kxf2 Ng4+ 14.Kg1 Ne3 15.Qe2 Nxc2 16.Rb1,but he said he didnt look deeply, and this may be one of those cases wheredeeper analysis was required to accurately assess the position. Wesley knewthe computer liked his position a lot, but in fact the advantage drains away asyou continue the lines, and it was with some justification that he feared arepeat of the 2004 Kramnik-Leko World Championship match. Back then Peter Leko founda hole in Vladimir Kramniks preparation at the board and went on to score awin that could have altered chess history. In this case, however, the hole wasonly that the position seems still to have been completely equal until 22.Qxe5:

Here Black can hold with 22Nxg2! and is only in troubleafter 22Raf8?!, which Wesley metwith 23.Qg3 rather than the computerssuggested killer, 23Qg5! Peter Svidler took that as a cue to reflect on theinfluence of engines on modern chess:

Challenge accepted! In this case the difference seems to bethat in the game after 23.Qg3 Blacksbest defence is 23R8f6 with Rg6 next, but after 23.Qg5 h6 24.Qg3 Black nolonger has that option, since without a pawn on h7 the rook would be en priseon g6.

That was ultimately academic, since Vishy played 23Qe2?!, missing Wesleys devastatingreply:

Black would have good chances of survival if not for 24.b4!!, threatening both Rb3 and Bb2.Vishy thought for almost 17 minutes but there was nothing to find, and after 24Rxg2+ 25.Rxg2 Nxg2 26.Qg4 Black resigned rather than trying to play on in what would have been ahopeless ending.

There was a pattern in Round 2, with the other three winsfor the players with the white pieces also owing a lot to successful openingplay. Daniil Dubov played a nearnovelty with 7.Qf4 and felt he wasmore or less winning when VladislavKovalev played 10Qxd6!? insteadof 10Bxd6:

Daniil had a 50-minute advantage on the clock by this stage,and although he was kicking himself I think in general I played like anidiot! he begins his post-game interview the plan he followed gets the computersstamp of approval. Kovalev was playing on increments by move 22 while Dubovstill had 50 minutes, and the Belarusian duly collapsed under the pressure. Vladislav hastherefore started with 0/2.

There was a similar pattern in Xiong-Van Foreest. Jorden, who started the day as co-leader, hadblitzed out most of his moves in a 3.Bb5+Sicilian, but 19Rc3? was a mistakethat saw him respond to 20.Bf2! withan epic 54-minute think.

That meant that even when he got back in the gamelater on he was doomed by the clock situation:

30Kf8! and Black has a playable position, but good luckfinding such only moves with under two minutes on your clock. Jorden insteadplayed 30Bh4? and Jeffery, whostill had almost half an hour, replied 31.g3!,when it was game over. Heres Jeffery talking about the game and his upcoming clash withMagnus Carlsen in Round 3:

Weve arguably left the days most impressive game to last,as 21-year-old Russian VladislavArtemiev scored a remarkably smooth win over his compatriot Nikita Vitiugov. Artemiev identifiedthe innocuous-looking 12a5?! as a bigmistake:

He set about proving that immediately with 13.Nb3! and the later plan of 16.Be3! and 17.Bb6! to target the weakness. It was fitting that the game endedwith Vladislav finally putting the pawn out of its misery with 50.Nxa5:

Artemiev had more trouble with everyday matters!

Yes, its my first visit in Wijk aan Zee and its a newexperience for me. Ok, the weather is cold, but Im from Russia and its usualfor me. Ok, and one problem is many shops close early, so I cannot go after theround, but still its not a big problem. I will have a few free days and I doit here Shopping, maybe souvenirs forfamily and maybe some milks or drinks.

That leaves a 5-way tie for first between Xiong, Dubov, So,Artemiev and Firouzja, though with 11 rounds to go that means almost nothingyet!

Once again there were only wins for veterans in theChallengers, if you can call 31-year-old RaufMamedov and 34-year-old Jan Smeetsveterans and in this field, you probably can!

The win by Smeets over 15-year-old rising star Nodirbek Abdusattorov was particularlyimpressive given that Jan has essentially quit top-level chess since he lastplayed in Wijk aan Zee in 2013. Im glad to be back, he said, adding, Ofcourse I want to qualify for the Masters now! How would he expect playing inthe top group to go? To be frank, I think I would suffer like hell in the Mastersgroup!

Games to look forward to in Round 3 includeCarlsen-Xiong (Magnus won their previousgame in the 2017 Isle of Man Open), Anand-Giri and Firouzja-Artemiev.Follow all the action live here on chess24 from 13:30 CET: Tata Steel Masters | Tata Steel Challengers

See also:

Read the original here:

Tata Steel 2: Wesley So beats Anand as five lead - chess24