Google published a new chess site This brings a fun twist to the game: it uses custom pieces that are created each time by generative AI. The game begins by allowing you to enter a brief description of what the white pieces should look like; it will generate the whole thing using its Imagen 3 AI model, then automatically suggest a related idea for black. When I requested sci-fi themed pieces for myself, it created fantasy themed pieces for the opponent.
From there, you can play the game. It’s functional, but it’s far from a complete chess app. You can choose three difficulty levels and two time controls, but you can’t review past moves or see which pieces were captured. The game also defaults to an isometric view of the board, which is nice to look at but disorienting, as most chess applications are viewed from a top-down perspective. You can switch to a top-down view in the game settings.
The game was released this week, marking the start of the 2024 World Chess Championship, where reigning champion Ding Liren defends his title against 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju. Google is the main sponsor of the event and appears to be taking advantage of the opportunity to announce a bunch of new things chess products and initiatives.
Google’s other big chess announcement this week is the promise of an upcoming chess robot within Gemini. You’ll be able to play by tapping your moves, and Gemini will display an updated chessboard as the game progresses. Google isn’t saying whether Gemini will learn any other chess knowledge – at present, the AI chatbot consistently fails to accurately judge position on a chessboard when you upload an image of it. The new feature will be available in December for Gemini Advanced subscribers.