What do people really find attractive in chess problems? – Chessbase News
Posted: February 16, 2020 at 6:45 am
2/10/2020 Chess compositions have been around for over a thousand years, and composers aim to tap not only the practical but also the aesthetic sense of solvers. Recently AZLAN IQBAL has investigated the potential of fully-computer-generated chess problems, and here he presents some conclusions about what passes the threshold of beauty.
ChessBase 15 - Mega package
Find the right combination! ChessBase 15 program + new Mega Database 2020 with 8 million games and more than 80,000 master analyses. Plus ChessBase Magazine (DVD + magazine) and CB Premium membership for 1 year!
More...
Perhaps the earliest recorded chess problems were by al-Adli who was reputedly the author of the first book about chess (or rather, an earlier but still recognizable form of the game) and lived in the 9th century CE. He is also said to have played it in the presence of one named, al-Mutawakkil, and therefore was not likely just or even primarily a composer of problems [1]. In the 21st century, however, composing original chess problems is no longer something that only humans can do autonomously. Chesthetica, a program I developed, has been doing so for years now with no end in sight. It composes, quite literally, like a machine. Also, it does not use any kind of machine learning but a totally different approach I call the Digital Synaptic Neural Substrate or DSNS, for short. There is, in fact, no learning going on at all despite having the word neural in it (related books on the subject can be found here).
The feedback I have received over the years about these compositions from the general chess-playing community has been largely positive. However, among master or even grandmaster composers, less so. This is despite some of Chestheticas compositions being intriguing enough for publication in a chess problem magazine [2]. Perhaps the first ever to publish compositions composed entirely and autonomously by a computer program.
Personally, I lack the necessary experience (and frankly interest or inclination) to be able to appreciate all the intricacies of traditional chess problems, which apparently put them on a higher aesthetic level than anything Chesthetica has produced so far. I suppose the same could be said for other artificial intelligence (AI) systems even with far more resources behind them that generate things like paintings and music. The best human painters and musicians are still better. Perhaps they always will be as far as humans are concerned.
Regardless, in this article I wanted to share with readers what the general global chess community, not just master players and composers, apparently find appealing when it comes to chess problems. For that purpose, I exported the post data from the Chesthetica Facebook page between May 26th and November 21st 2019 (Facebook only allows up to the last 180 days). This showed various statistics regarding all the chess problems published there within that period. Pundits may prefer to just call them constructs, a type of chess problem, since the expression of themes (in particular) is not a critical component. I had been sharing these problems composed by Chesthetica to a selection of large chess problem/puzzle communities that are also on Facebook. Each post there can potentially reach tens of thousands of people. None of these posts were ever boosted by me, by the way (e.g. with money to Facebook or requested assistance from anyone).
Since every few weeks Chesthetica composes far too many problems for any one person to go through in detail individually, for the purpose of online publication (and with the help of more filtering tools I have programmed into Chesthetica), I am able to choose some and reject others based on certain criteria. The process undoubtedly means I would have rejected some problems that others would likely have found appealing and this cannot be helped. To be fair, some problems are also just bad, weak, too weird or make no sense in my view and rejected for those reasons too. The information of primary interest to me in the exported data was what Facebook calls lifetime engaged users which they define as, the number of unique people who engaged in certain ways with your page post, for example by commenting on, liking, sharing, or clicking upon particular elements of the post.
For the given period mentioned earlier there were 87 posts that included mates in 3, 4, 5, and study-like constructs. Even the main line of the solution was selected by Chesthetica. After ranking them in terms of lifetime engaged users, I could contrast the top 5 compositions by Chesthetica versus the bottom 5 which presumably reflects what most people like (and dislike) about these compositions. Here they are (with the Chesthetica version number that produced them):
Tip: You can play against each diagram to checkmate!
It should be noted that aesthetics is a significant but not the only aspect that attracts people to chess problems. My experience working in this area for over a decade (with chess as the primary domain of investigation) suggests that, rather obviously, different people tend to like different things. Even so, there are still clearly bad compositions and clearly good ones that most of us (i.e. with a working knowledge of the game or better) would generally agree on if we are not told in advance what to look for. Perhaps in a thousand years some of Chestheticas compositions would also have survived and be marvelled upon, if not for their aesthetics then maybe due to the fact that a computer program back then could compose original chess problems autonomously at all.
Having said all that, do you, dear reader, agree with the ranking of a sampling of the general global chess community as shown above or would you arrange the compositions in a different order?
Let us know in the comments!
Want to learn more?
The top 5 and bottom 5 problems shown above (click or tap a game in the list to switch)
More:
What do people really find attractive in chess problems? - Chessbase News
- What Is The Best Online Chess Time Control? - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- On Chess: Chess And The Arts - St. Louis Public Radio - January 23rd, 2021
- Daily Chess Ratings And Daily960 Ratings Adjusted - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess Looks Wild In 2021 - Kotaku - January 23rd, 2021
- Grand Chess Tour Returning in Summer 2021 | US Chess.org - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess: Carlsen starts well but slows as Swedish outsider impresses at Wijk - The Guardian - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess: Two cases of cancel culture - TheArticle - January 23rd, 2021
- Mamedyarov Grabs Another Titled Tuesday - Chess.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Updates: Scholastic National Invitational Event and Award Requirements - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Thunder players passing time with chess, video games on long road trip: 'Still a lot to be grateful for' - Oklahoman.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Texas' Botez sisters are at the forefront of an unlikely, and booming, partnership: Chess and esports - The Dallas Morning News - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess is having a moment on Twitch - Eurogamer.net - January 23rd, 2021
- Auto Chess, the Dota 2 spin-off, is getting its own MOBA - PCGamesN - January 23rd, 2021
- Chess Corner: Over and over - Muskogee Daily Phoenix - January 23rd, 2021
- Mike Evans: At this point in his career, Tom Brady is playing chess - NBC Sports - January 23rd, 2021
- First ever Barak Valley Open Chess Tournament kickstarts in Silchar - Barak Bulletin - January 23rd, 2021
- The Embiid-Theis chess match - Celtics Blog - January 23rd, 2021
- Best mobile chess games for iOS and Android - Gamepur - January 23rd, 2021
- Lenderman Wins Playoff, Will Appear in 2021 National Championship - uschess.org - January 23rd, 2021
- Daily Deal: The Complete Chess Bundle - Techdirt - January 23rd, 2021
- Reece James and I played chess for four hours on the way back from Russia! - Chelsea's Chilwell - Goal.com - January 23rd, 2021
- Who are the Botez Sisters, one of chess's most popular streamers? - Sports Interactive Network Philippines - January 23rd, 2021
- Auto Chess MOBA is a new MOBA based on Auto Chess - PC Invasion - January 23rd, 2021
- Here's How to Play Chess by Mail, and What Movies to Watch to Get Your Game Going - Willamette Week - November 22nd, 2020
- So Defeats Duda With Incredible 3|1 Performance In Speed Chess - Chess.com - November 22nd, 2020
- The art of chess: a brief history of the World Championship - TheArticle - November 22nd, 2020
- Humpys Gambit: How Koneru disturbed the male-dominated status quo in chess - The Indian Express - November 22nd, 2020
- Cardinals QB Kyler Murray might be the best chess player in the NFL - Sporting News - November 22nd, 2020
- The Queen's Gambit On Netflix - All The Info - Chess.com - November 22nd, 2020
- Washington state team crowned national chess champions - KING5.com - November 22nd, 2020
- On Chess: Mizzou's Chess Team Proves Capable Of Winning Even In A Virtual Space - St. Louis Public Radio - November 22nd, 2020
- Outlawing heading would turn football into chess but game has to act to break dementia link - The Times - November 22nd, 2020
- Understanding before Moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces - Chessbase News - November 22nd, 2020
- Local Event: Thanksgiving Chess Camp For The Little Ones ~ Keep Em Active 😉 - Patch.com - November 22nd, 2020
- How Dama's Gambito nailed the chess world re:Jerusalem - re:Jerusalem - November 22nd, 2020
- Packers will have an interesting chess match against the Colts defense - Acme Packing Company - November 22nd, 2020
- Chess Online: How to Play and Win Chess | Chess Tips & Strategies - Popular Mechanics - October 6th, 2020
- On Chess: Returning To Over The Board Chess Tournaments - St. Louis Public Radio - October 6th, 2020
- October Cover Stories with Chess Life: GM Maurice Ashley - uschess.org - October 6th, 2020
- 'Audiences wont have seen anything like this': how Iranian film Chess of the Wind was reborn - The Guardian - October 6th, 2020
- Why Utah's new Teacher of the Year wants his students of color to play chess - Salt Lake Tribune - October 6th, 2020
- CCPS hosting in-person chess tournament, limited to students in Grades 4-12 - The Southern Maryland Chronicle - October 6th, 2020
- Its more natural for men to pick chess as an interest or women to pick arranging flowers - Mint - October 6th, 2020
- Gone too soon: Brimfield teen remembered as jokester and expert chess player - Pekin Daily Times - October 6th, 2020
- Meet these mini-grandmasters of chess - two brothers from Cork - EchoLive.ie - October 6th, 2020
- Carlsen and So tie in Chess 9LX tournament - Stabroek News - October 6th, 2020
- Sacred squares and foolish horses - Chessbase News - October 6th, 2020
- More than 100 players start at the Fagernes Open - Chessbase News - October 6th, 2020
- Russias Post-Covid Economic Policies Will Be a Game of Chess - ETF Trends - September 23rd, 2020
- The Only Problem In Fischer Random Chess - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- AlphaZero (And Other!) Chess Variants Now Available For Everyone - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- On the origins of chess (7/7) - Chessbase News - September 23rd, 2020
- Ten Years of Chess Innovation. How Lichess grew from a simple tech | by Samuel Sullivan | SUPERJUMP | Sep, 2020 - Medium - September 23rd, 2020
- Mechanics' to Host U.S. Cadet National Championship this Weekend - uschess.org - September 23rd, 2020
- Guess the child prodigy - Chessbase News - September 23rd, 2020
- Blitz Tournament of the Americas: Bringing Cultures and Communities Together Through Chess - uschess.org - September 23rd, 2020
- Int'l online chess event to mark 74th birthday of PM Hasina - Dhaka Tribune - September 23rd, 2020
- Road To The PCL Finals: China Pandas - Chess.com - September 23rd, 2020
- CHESS Health Selected by Next Step Community, an Addiction Recovery Program Located in Terre Haute, Indiana - PR Web - September 23rd, 2020
- The True Story Behind Critical Thinking, Movie Based in Miami - Miami New Times - September 23rd, 2020
- DeepMind's AI is helping to re-write the rules of chess - ZDNet - September 15th, 2020
- The 10 Best Chess Moves Of All Time - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- The classic game of chess has found a new home: Twitch - The Next Web - September 15th, 2020
- John Leguizamo on bringing the 'intellectual hustle' of chess to life - Page Six - September 15th, 2020
- On Chess: St. Louis Chess Club To Host Two Upcoming Online Chess Tournaments Featuring The World's Top Grandmasters - St. Louis Public Radio - September 15th, 2020
- Chess.com Teams Up With CLG For First CLG Arena With $2,100 In Prizes - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- Indian chess team celebrates its Olympiad victory with a special Twitter Chat - WION - September 15th, 2020
- Nihal Beats Tang In Junior Speed Chess Championship - Chess.com - September 15th, 2020
- An interview with Ben Johnson, the perpetual podcaster - Chessbase News - September 15th, 2020
- Auto Brawl Chess from Panoramik Games is available now for iOS following its Android launch earlier this year - Pocket Gamer - September 15th, 2020
- A game of chess in the Himalayas - The Hindu - September 15th, 2020
- Reward Olympiad-winning Indian team: Chess Forum appeals to Kiren Rijiju - Moneycontrol.com - September 15th, 2020
- Retired Chess Grandmaster, AlphaZero AI Reinvent Chess - Science Times - September 15th, 2020
- Sign Of The Times - Sparta Chess Online - TAPinto.net - September 15th, 2020
- Chinas check on Indias chess board: New Delhi will have to fall back on its own resources - The Times of India Blog - September 15th, 2020
- Chess masters make all the smart moves - IOL - September 15th, 2020
- Hennessy Spotlights Living Legend and International Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley In Latest Chapter of Award-Winning "Wild Rabbit"... - September 15th, 2020
- 'He is a chess player on a tennis court' - ATP star tipped to beat anyone - Tennishead - September 15th, 2020
- Just the Rules: New Internet Chess RulesEssential Player Tips - uschess.org - August 20th, 2020
- Norway Chess Oct. 5-16 With Reduced Field Of Participants - Chess.com - August 20th, 2020