Posted on January 20, 2022
Posted in Articles
The world of chess is constantly expanding. In recent years, several hot issues have rocked the game, including a cheating scandal involving Magnus Carlsen and 19-year-old Hans Niemann, a massive chess bot that crushed a grandmaster, and the discovery of one of the greatest chess puzzles of all time.
Not long ago, chess-playing computers were intimidating, bulky physical monoliths christened with sci-fi names like Deep Blue and Mac Hack. These supercomputers dominated chess tournaments and wreaked havoc in the lives of human grandmasters.
Now, a tiny virtual robot has emerged to rewrite the chess universe. This time it’s not a supervillain. It’s a 1-point-ranked kitten named Mittens. Its debut threw the chess community into pandemonium, but it also highlighted an important aspect of the game: the joy of playing with a bot. Unlike the coding marvels that have previously crushed chess grandmasters, Mittens is designed to be fun and enjoyable.
