AI Ruined Chess. Now, It’s Making the Game Beautiful Again

Kramnik saw flashes of beauty in how AlphaZero adapted to the new rules. No-castling chess provoked rich new patterns for keeping the king safe. A more extreme change, self-capture chess, in which a player can take their own pieces, proved even more alluring. The rule effectively gives a player more opportunities to sacrifice a piece to get ahead, a tactic considered a hallmark of elegant play for centuries.

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