ChatGPT rates 'Chess King' Magnus Carlsen as just an amateur player

Carlsen - Ảnh 1. — Carlsen had an easy victory over ChatGPT without even looking at the chessboard - Photo: ChessBase India

Despite easily defeating this chatbot without losing a single piece, Carlsen was rated by AI as having an Elo rating of only 1,800 – a number that is outside the top 50,000 players in the world .

Carlsen came up with the unique idea while playing chess with OpenAI's ChatGPT during a long commute. The game was played by both players typing their moves into the chat box.

Accordingly, Carlsen does not need a chess board, the AI does not display images and the "Chess King" starts the game while hiding his true identity.

Carlsen played black and chose the Philidor Defense opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6) – a position named after the great French composer and chess player Philidor.

ChatGPT even praised Carlsen, commenting that he handled this opening "easily and effectively".

Carlsen - Ảnh 2. — The funny story was shared by Carlsen on social networking site - Photo: social network X

After 53 moves, with Carlsen's bishop capturing the h5 piece (Bxh5), White (ChatGPT) resigned, saying he had lost all his pawns. Meanwhile, Carlsen kept all his pieces on the board intact.

"A very methodical and sharp play. Well played," commented the AI in admiration. Carlsen then responded that the AI played very well in the opening phase, even making some impressive sacrifices. However, ChatGPT appeared confused and did not know how to handle those sacrifices properly.

The peak of surprise was in ChatGPT's "scoring" of his level. When Carlsen asked: What do you think of my chess level?

The AI gave a pretty detailed review, Carlsen had good opening understanding, patience with persistence, good endgame and tactical awareness. ChatGPT even "bragged" that Carlsen recognized some of its illegal moves and allowed it to move again.

But then, ChatGPT came up with a number that made the entire chess world laugh: "If Carlsen played standard chess regularly, he could reach an Elo rating of 1,800 to 2,000."

For a player who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world with an Elo of 2,839, and a rating of 1,800 that only corresponds to players outside the Top 50,000, this is indeed a confusing evaluation from the AI. This interesting conversation was shared by Carlsen on the social network X, attracting more than a million views.

Many fans are looking forward to the "King of Chess" continuing to test his skills against other chatbots like Grok from xAI. The Chess.com platform also did not miss the opportunity to tease: "Elo 1,800 is really strong. So happy for you."

While AI chatbots have made significant strides in the past few years, they are generally still only strong in the opening game. In the middle game, AI often shows weaknesses, sometimes making "silly" or even illegal moves, confusing the positions of pieces.

ChatGPT's chess level, although improved, is still not an opponent of grandmasters, let alone a genius like Carlsen. The fact that ChatGPT rates Carlsen as having an Elo of 1,800-2,000 also means that the chatbot's actual level is much lower than that number.

Despite completely dominating ChatGPT, Carlsen is still no match for specialized chess software developed specifically for this purpose such as Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) or Stockfish.

With Elo exceeding 3,700 for Stockfish and above 3,600 for Lc0, these AI "monsters" are still on a whole other level.

The proof is that in the friendly match in early July, Lc0 even "gained a handicap" but still easily defeated world number 2 player Hikaru Nakamura (Elo 2,807) with an overwhelming score of 9.5-4.5.

TUAN LONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chatgpt-danh-gia-vua-co-magnus-carlsen-chi-la-tuyen-thu-nghiep-du-20250719075032337.htm