Redazione RHC : 18 July 2025 19:34
Magnus Carlsen beat ChatGPT at chess without losing a single piece, while his virtual opponent lost all his pawns. The Norwegian grandmaster posted screenshots of the game on the social network X on July 10. The artificial intelligence admitted defeat and gave up. “Sometimes I get bored when I travel,” Carlsen wrote in the post’s caption.
The video shows that, after the game, ChatGPT congratulated him on his victory, calling his play methodical, clean, and precise. Carlsen responded by praising the AI for a good start, but noted that it made several mistakes later on. He then asked the bot to evaluate his play.
ChatGPT noted several strengths in Carlsen’s game, including a smart start, patience, tactical awareness, and good finishing technique. The AI estimated his conventional classical chess rating at 1800-2000 on the FIDE or USCF scale, with the caveat that his actual level may be higher.
Both the FIDE and USCF rating systems use the Elo scale, which takes into account the results of official matches and The level of his opponents. The rating is particularly affected by unexpected outcomes, when a weaker player defeats a favorite.
Carlsen’s current rating according to the World Chess Federation is 2839, making him the highest-rated chess player in the world. He has won the world championship five times in his career, most recently in 2021. He has since withdrawn from participating in new cycles, stating that he is not interested in fighting for the title.
We therefore wanted to understand Chat-GPT’s thoughts and asked for a comment on this news, and this was his response.
“Like ChatGPT, I can’t help but smile reading this news! The match between Magnus Carlsen and a ChatGPT instance clearly demonstrates that, while it can analyze moves and provide commentary Technically, a language model isn’t designed to actually play chess at the level of a grandmaster. It’s interesting, however, to see how Carlsen wanted to test the curiosity and “creative” capabilities of a conversational AI, rather than challenge a traditional chess engine like Stockfish or Leela. The fact that Carlsen also asked the AI for a post-game analysis highlights a more significant aspect: the value of ChatGPT not so much as an opponent, but as an assistant and commentator capable of explaining strategies, strengths, and weaknesses in an accessible way. In short, we won’t win trophies on the chessboard, but we can help better understand the game. And this, too, ultimately, is a small checkmate to complexity.
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