Mastering Chess with AI

Chess-playing computers have been better than human World Chess Champions for more than 20 years now. But when DeepMind published a preprint in December 2017 about AlphaZero, a computer program based on neural networks and mastering the games of chess, Shogi and Go, the entire world paid attention.

Today’s episode, moderated by Kenneth Cukier of The Economist at AI for Good, a global summit hosted by ITU and XPRIZE, explores recent AI developments in chess and how these developments have impacted chess played by humans. Join Peter Heine Nielsen, Chess Grandmaster and coach of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, and Sebastian J. Kuhnert, CEO of chess24, as they share their experiences using AI in chess and illustrate various innovations in sports during COVID-19 and beyond. 

Kenneth Cukier is a Senior Editor at The Economist, and host of its weekly podcast on technology. He is also an associate fellow at Said Business School at Oxford, researching artificial intelligence. Kenn is the co-author of “Big Data: A Revolution That Transforms How We Live, Work, and Think” with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. It was a NYT Bestseller translated in over 20 languages, and sold over 1 million copies worldwide. It won the National Library of China’s Wenjin Book Award and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year. Kenn also co-authored a follow-on book, “Learning with Big Data: The Future of Education.” Previously, Kenn was a foreign correspondent for two decades in Europe, Asia and America. From 2002-2004, he was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Kenn’s writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times and Foreign Affairs, among others. He has been a frequent commentator on CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s global council on data-driven development.

Peter Heine Nielsen is a Danish chess trainer. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. Nielsen became an International Grandmaster in 1994. He won the Danish Chess Championship five times: in 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2008. He played for Denmark in seven Chess Olympiads, three times on top board. Nielsen coached World Champion Viswanathan Anand from 2002 until 2012. Anand won the World Championship title in Mexico 2007, and defended it in Bonn 2008, Sofia 2010 and Moscow 2012. Nielsen has been coaching world number one, Magnus Carlsen, since 2013. Carlsen won the Candidates Tournament 2013, which gave him the right to challenge Anand for the world championship. He defeated Anand, and has since defended the title three times. Nielsen has previously coached Carlsen in Khanty-Mansiysk 2005, where Carlsen became the youngest player ever to qualify for the candidate matches.

Sebastian J. Kuhnert is an internet executive with over 12 years of experience, including general management of startups and small to midsize organizations, corporate development, product development, multinational business operations, strategy, sales, partnerships, fundraising, investor relations, communication, and M&A.; Currently, Sebastian serves as the COO at the Play Magnus Group, the web’s most powerful chess ecosystem and CEO of several of its subsidiaries, including chess24, the number one chess broadcasting site and digital home to World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Prior to Play Magnus, he served as CEO at Tradimo Interactive, one of the web’s highest quality education sites for active financial trading, which he co-founded originally on behalf of Etruvian and later moved to Denmark following an investment by the CFH Group. Sebastian learned from a number of leaders in diverse industries such as online education, marketing, price management, management consulting and HR consulting prior to his recent ventures.

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