In the decades since IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, artificial intelligence has transformed the way humans play the game, and not always for the better.
AI-powered chess "engines" are used legitimately by players for training and research before matches. Engines are also sometimes deployed by unscrupulous players during games as a kind of cognitive exoskeleton that helps them easily overpower their betters. For some high-level players, even getting the advice of a machine for a move or two at a critical moment is all you'd need to win. Cheaters have been caught sneaking off to the bathroom to check moves on contraband smartphones.
"Have you heard the one about how your phone is more powerful than the world's biggest supercomputer in 1993?" asks Kenneth W. Regan, a computer science professor at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and an international chess master, the rank below grandmaster. Today, Regan says, "ordinary code running on our smartphones can destroy any human player on the planet, including Magnus Carlsen."
