GURUGRAM: Chess is the flavour of the month. But while all eyes are on Chennai, where the Olympiad is taking place, Gurugram stole just a little of the limelight on Tuesday by hosting Asia’s first ever ‘No Castling’ match.
The brainchild of former champion Vladimir Kramnik and DeepMind (the people behind AlphaZero, an AI-powered program developed to master the Game of Kings), this format seeks to relieve the tedium of over-theorised and over-analysed opening moves, by infusing a bit of imagination into contests, as much as to challenge the players as to rekindle interest among spectators tired of one too many draws at the elite level.
