Chess: why man can never defeat AI — history, epochs and the dead end for the grandmaster From Deep Blue to AlphaZero: how neural networks destroyed human superiority and what remains for chess players The question of who is stronger in chess — man or computer — has troubled minds for half a century. Today the answer is clear: artificial intelligence surpasses any grandmaster to such an extent that an equal match between man and a top neural network has lost its meaning since the mid-2010s. However, the path to total dominance was long, dramatic, and full of legendary battles. We analyze the fall of humanity and reflect on what remains for living chess players. The race began long before Deep Blue: programs of the 1950s–1990s The first chess programs appeared in the 1950s with the advent of computers. Scientists regarded chess as an ideal polygon for testing artificial intelligence — strict rules, a finite number of moves, a clear goal. In 1951, Alan Turing wrote the first chess program in history on paper, performing calculations with a pencil. In 1957, Alex Bernstein created the first full-fledged program for a mainframe IBM, which took 3–6 minutes per move. These pioneers played openly weakly — the level of an amateur beginner, but the pace of progress was impressive. In the 1980s, commercial chess computers appeared: Chessmaster (1986) and products from the Novag company. In 1988, the program Deep Thought (predecessor of Deep Blue) won a tournament game against grandmaster Bent Larsen for the first time. The breath of the computer could be felt in the back of the neck. 1997: the match of the century — Kasparov vs. Deep Blue In 1996, Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion and the best player in history, met with the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Kasparov won the match 4–2, but lost the first game — a historic moment when a computer won a world champion in a classical control. However, Deep Blue 1996 still made gross positional mistakes, and Kasparov took ... Read more