# 🐟 Effect of modern chess engines on professional chess players
As the technology is impacting world in every field possible that
mankind can think of the game of chess is no exception. Chess has
evolved a lot and developed lot of theory with the help of chess engines
and Artificial Intelligence. Chess engines are there for a while, the
first chess playing program was by Bernstein (1957) and ran on an IBM
704 computer, capable of performing approximately 42,000 operations per
second but it only selected the best seven moves for consideration using
heuristics based on chess lore. As the time passed more powerful engines
started to develop and today, we see engines like Stockfish, Alpha-Zero,
Komodo, Leela0, etc. and new terms like Neural network, Artificial
Intelligence, etc. has kept making these engines more and more strong.
These modern unbelievably strong engines have become the tool in the
hands of new generations professional chess players which made the human
chess more exciting, brilliant and sophisticated. As Vladimir Tukmakov
says "The engine has become the "Holy Cow" to which all chess players
now pray regardless of their religious convictions or rating. Far from
being a foe or rival it has become an invaluable helper, consultant and
the highest of authorities. Since the highest of all oracles is soulless
and cynical it is ready to help anyone ignoring opinions and
preferences."
> Stockfish 14.1 (Strongest chess engine with rated elo of 3566)8^th^ Feb,2022
With the assistance of modern chess engines top professionals got the
element to surprise their opponents in the opening by playing odd
looking moves which is objectively good and has the potential ability
that opponent blunders or misplays position giving edge to surpriser.
The preparation has become so important in chess that sometimes we
witness a preparation by both players which goes 35-40 moves deep
preparation with both the players blitzing out there moves in a
classical time control game which was never witnessed before the
introduction of engines. Modern engines revolutionized how the game is
played in all three phases of game that is opening, middlegame and
endgame.
The benefits that modern chess engines give to chess world are immense
but there comes the factor of cheating in online tournaments. Any layman
with no knowledge of chess can beat the top-rated players of chess with
the help of engines. But there are advances in detection technology of
different chess platforms which with their AI powered system and huge
database of games track the cheaters and take necessary action on them.
FIDE has already approved a complex cheat detection system with a
behavior-tracking module for FIDE Online Arena games.
> Former world champion Garry Kasparov playing against Deep Blue. CREDIT:
> Sovfoto / Universal Images Group Rights Managed / For Education Use Only
This modern chess engines have given new prospective to look at chess.
Deep Blue's victory over Kasparov in 1997 declared a new era of chess.
Even though problem exists in the form of cheating, but the advantages
chess engines and AI programs provides to the Chess world definitely
outweighs it. With the people locked inside their home due to global
pandemic chess saw a huge boom in 2020 with millions of people getting
newly interested in chess and needless to say Netflix series 'The Queens
Gambit' was one of the reasons for chess boom. With all these things
happening all at once we can say without hesitation the good days for
chess have come.
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## About the Author
Jashwaneel Patil is a student pursuing Bachelor of Engineering in
Electrical and a young mind who likes to explore and research in
different areas. His vision lies in making Earth to make a better place
to live with taking small steps towards sustainability and making best
use of technology available to make easier life for mankind.