The AI-Improved CX

In 1990, a fellow chess player and I attended one of Gary Kasparov's several matches in New York City. Kasparov had become the youngest ever World Chess Champion in 1985, at the age of 22. In 1997, Kasparov also became the first World Chess Champion to be defeated by a computer, losing to IBM's Deep Blue in a stunning six-game match. Computers have become so good at chess that phones are now banned at chess tournaments, and players are very carefully monitored for any sort of digital activity or connection. Today, however, there is a new kind of chess becoming competitively dominant. Called "Advanced Chess," or more colloquially "Centaur Chess," it involves teaming human beings with computers, and it has been actively supported by Kasparov.