SenseRobot, a physical artificial intelligence-powered robot, made Chinese chess history recently when it beat two professional human rivals, during a livestreamed event to an audience of 850,000. The SenseRobot AI Xiangqi Championship, which was held in Shanghai, was the first Chinese chess competition that has featured an AI-powered robot that plays Chinese chess face to face with human grandmasters. Co-hosted by leading artificial intelligence software company SenseTime, developer of SenseRobot, and Shanghai Chess Academy, the championship had the robot play against Xie Jing, a world champion, and Gu Bowen, a national youth champion. SenseRobot beat Gu at a level-16 game, while Xie failed in his challenge against the robot in a game at level 26, the most difficult level of the game. "Unlike traditional AI Chinese chess software, I was most impressed with SenseRobot's agility and steady operation, as well as its ability to calmly play the game, just like a real player," said Xie, who is an apprentice of legendary grandmaster Hu Ronghua and currently serves as a coach and player for the Shanghai Chinese Chess Team.