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Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more intelligent and more and more human-like.

A lot of things have changed in modern chess compared to the past, but the most important change is the hegemony of computers. Take Magnus Carlsen who, over the past decade, has been the uncontested world chess champion he cant really claim to be the best chess player, only the best human player.

Chess algorithms have long surpassed the human ability to play the game, for a very simple reason: they can memorize and calculate simple tasks far better than we can. But when AIs started entering the scene, chess algos were also in for a revolution.

Traditionally, chess algorithms were trained in a very straightforward way: they were taught the rules of the game, fed a huge database of games, taught how to calculate, and off they went. But Googles AlphaZero, for instance, takes a very different approach.AlphaZero has become, arguably, the best chess-playing entity in the world without studying a single human game. Instead, it was only taught the rules of the game and allowed to play against itself over and over. Intriguingly, this not only enabled it to achieve remarkable prowess, but also to develop a style of its own. Unlike traditional algorithms which play very concrete, grinding type of games, AlphaZero tends to play in a very conceptual and creative way (though the word creative will surely annoy some readers). For instance, AlphaZero would often sacrifice a piece with no immediate reward in sight it itself doesnt necessarily calculate all the outcomes. Instead of playing moves that it can fully calculate to be better, which is what most algorithms do, AlphaZero plays moves that seem better.

Its a surprisingly human way to approach the game, although many of AlphaZeros moves seem distinctly inhuman.

Now, Googles researchers have taken things to the next level with MuZero.

Unlike AlphaZero, MuZero wasnt even told the rules of chess. It wasnt allowed to make any illegal moves, but it was allowed to ponder them. This allows the algorithm to think in a more human way, considering threats and possibilities even when they might not be apparent or possible at a given time. For instance, the threat of losing an exposed piece might always be present in the back of a human players mind, even though it is not threatened at the moment.

Researchers say that this also allows MuZero to develop an internal intuition regarding the rules of the game.

This led to remarkably good performances. Although the details that researchers presented are sparse, they claim that MuZero achieved the same performance as AlphaZero. But it gets even better.

Researchers didnt only train the engine in chess, they also trained it in go, shogi, and 57 Atari games commonly used in this sort of study.

The most impressive results came from Go, a game that is unfathomably more complex than chess. MuZero slightly exceeded the performance of AlphaZero despite using less overall computation, which seems to indicate that MuZero has a deeper understanding of the game and the positions it was playing. Similar performances were reported in the Atari games, where MuZero outperformed state-of-the-art engines in 42 out of 57 games.

Of course, there is much more to this than just chess, Go, or PacMan. There are very concrete lessons that can be applied in artificial intelligence in a very practical setting.

Many of the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have been based on either high-performance planning, wrote the researchers. In this paper we have introduced a method that combines the benefits of both approaches. Our algorithm, MuZero, has both matched the superhuman performance of high-performance planning algorithms in their favored domains logically complex board games such as chess and Go and outperformed state-of-the-art model-free [reinforcement learning] algorithms in their favored domains visually complex Atari games.

The study can be read in a preprint on ArXiv.

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Googles MuZero chess AI reached superhuman performance without even knowing the rules - ZME Science

Tanitoluwa Tani Adewumi has battled a challenging immigrant experience on his way to becoming one of chess best young players.

Black people eventually come for every sport in which were not traditionally known to engage. Now you can add chess to that list.

At just 11-years-old, Tanitoluwa Tani Adewumi is on deck to become the youngest-ever chess grandmaster, the highest title a player can attain after becoming a national master earlier this year. There are currently just over 1,700 grandmasters in the world. After turning 11 in September, Adewumi, has just under a year to break the record of 12-year-old grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra.

In order to earn the title of grandmaster, Adewumi will have to achieve three grandmaster norms in a chess tournament and earn a FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) rating of 2,500.

National Chess Master Tanitoluwa Adewumi, 10, is shown on the cover of his April 2020 book, My Name Is Tani and I Believe in Miracles.

Im aggressive, I like to attack, Adewumi told CNN of his style of play. Its just the way I think in general: I want to checkmate my opponent as fast as I can.

Adewumis fortunes are a sharp reversal for he and his family, who fled northern Nigeria for New York City in 2017 due to fear of extremist group Boko Haram. They were living in a homeless shelter when Adewumi joined a chess club at his local public school, something he wouldnt have been able to afford had the registration fee not been waived.

When hes done with school, hes home practicing for seven hours. On his off days, he pores over chess for up to 10 hours. His parents do what they can to cultivate Temis chess skills, including driving him to tournaments and providing him whatever resources they can to help him sharpen his skills.

Adewumis wins are racking up, but its the New York State Scholastic Primary Championship he won in 2019 at age eight that provoked a New York Times column that brought attention to Adewumi and motivated people to donate to his struggling family.

Tanitoluwa Tani Adewumi (Go Fund Me)

One family, they paid for a years rent in Manhattan, one family gave us in 2019 a brand-new Honda, and the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri invited the family and the coaches to come and pay a visit, Adewumis father, real estate agent Kayode Adewumi, told CNN Sport. A lot of people really helped us, a lot of people gave us financial (support) and money they donated money for us to get out from the shelter.

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Kayode started a GoFundMe page for his son in April 2019 following his championship win to help the family get on their feet. The page is still live and now collects money for the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation, which helps support underprivileged children the world over.

The page has garnered more than $256K, thousands more than his original $50K goal, with donations still trickling in.

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An 11-year-old Black boy on his way to becoming chess youngest grandmaster - Yahoo News

The annual Budapest Chess Festival took place this weekend in the presence of Judith Polgar, considered the best player of all time.

For several years, this Hungarian who became a chess master at just fifteen, put her passion at the service of education. She sees this strategy game as a great tool to help children learn in school.

Children love to play, it is good if they love to play until adulthood, it can be very useful for them. With chess, they not only play, but also develop. Solen Judit Polgar.

This festival is an opportunity for children to discover the game in different forms: original chess or life-size chessboard, where everyone can enjoy playing the role of a pawn, queen or rook. Fun way to learn the rules of the game:

Here, we jump into the boxes, then walk along the corridor and come back. We remain balanced, walk diagonally and leave the chessboard, explains Katalin Nagy, who teaches chess to children.

This festival has been organized for seven years in Budapest. In addition to the entertaining and educational workshops, it was also clear that it was a matter of focus and competition. Thus the emphatic players were able to measure themselves against the great masters. Everyone focused on one goal: checkmate.

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Education, entertainment and competition ... In Budapest, the game of chess reveals its many sides - Tech News Inc

As a reality dating series that takes the concept of personality-over-looks to another level, Netflixs Sexy Beasts revolves around willing individuals as they go on dates with three potential suitors to find a connection while theyre all disguised as bugs, animals, or mythical beings. Its as strange as it sounds, but its also quite interesting to see how the different bonds pan out. So, now that season 2s release has given us another assortment of possible romances, lets delve into how the concluding pair, Robbie the Rabbit and Chess the Snake, is fairing today, shall we?

During the introduction, Robbie acknowledged that his appearance usually plays a role in how people view him, especially due to his haircut and tattoos. Thus, he gladly entered this show because it allowed him to go on actual blind dates with nothing but his character and conversational skills to back him up. While he described himself as a true gentleman who follows the traditional methods in order to win over a companion, his ideal lady, he said, has to match him in terms of energy. Most importantly, she has to be someone Robbie can introduce to his mother.

With that, out of Dora, Rhia, and Chess, Robbie found eliminating his first date Dora comparatively easy, owing to her love for traveling and her profession. The fact that Robbie also felt a spark with both Rhia and Chess did factor into this decision. After all, he and Rhia gained common ground with their beliefs and family values, whereas he and Chess bonded over music. On their second dates, both women brought their A-game, but the latter won Robbies heart. That was despite Rhias ability to make him laugh, his fear of snakes, and Chess allergy to rabbits, which is ironic.

Robbie couldnt help but be drawn to Chess grace and honesty. He realized this as he spent time with her on their archery date, which was followed by them downing pure tequila shots. Even their comfort level with each other was evident. Once Robbie announced his decision, he admitted that he was cheesing ear to ear. And before seeing what he really looked like, Chess claimed that if he didnt turn out to be her usual physical type, the whole experience would probably shift her outlook on how she dates. This natural chemistry between them didnt change when they met face-to-face either, as proved by their long embrace, speechlessness, and massive smiles.

Regrettably, it does not seem like Robbie and Chess connection lasted. We couldnt find Robbie on any social media platforms, but Chess Instagram indicates that she is single and happy to be that way. As for where they are today, from what we can tell, Robbie is a DJ and student from New Jersey. On the other hand, Chess, a New York native, is a customer service specialist and singer-songwriter currently living in Los Angeles, California. Right now, it appears as if she wants nothing more than to spread her wings and be a significant part of the music industry.

Read More: Are Mick and Angella KatherineStill Together?

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Are Robbie and Chess From Sexy Beasts Still Together? - The Cinemaholic

The idea behind the Faith in Arts Institute has been years in the making.

Richard Chess, a professor emeritus of English at UNC Asheville, organized its precursor, the Faith in Literature Festival, at the university in 2016. At the time, Chess was also the director of the Center for Jewish Studies, which co-sponsored the event and held a Literary Sabbath during the gathering.

I invited all the writers to pick something to read that spoke to what they feel when they think about a Sabbath, Chess remembers. We did that, and 60 people came to that on a Saturday morning.

Expanding upon the 2016 event, the inaugural Faith in Arts Institute will include other artistic disciplines. The four-day intensive to be held at UNCAs Highsmith Student Union, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center and online via Zoom will take place Wednesday, Oct. 13-Saturday, Oct. 16.

Originally scheduled for May 2020, then back-burnered due to COVID-19, much changed over the intervening year. The death of George Floyd, notes Chess, led us to think about the necessity of making it a diverse project.

As postponements continued, We came up with the idea to do a conversation series, Chess says. We did it with six or seven artists and writers, [talking] to them about their work and what role, if any, their faith tradition or spiritual practice played in their art. Those videos were posted on BMCM+ACs website, a partner in the Faith in Arts Institute. BMCM+AC Executive Director Jeff Arnal planned the institute with Chess.

Now with the events dates set, Chess is thrilled to see some of the earlier virtual participants join for the in-person gathering. Among the group is artistMarie T. Cochran, who will screen her film Testify, Beyond Place at BMCM+AC onThursday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. The film examines the removal of the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, along with 100 graves, to make room for the expansion of the Western Carolina University campus.

Im hoping that turning a light on religious or spiritual qualities of art will open the possibility that people will talk about things they dont want to talk about, Chess says.

Another realization that came to Chess during 2020 was that many working artists not only had Masters of Fine Arts degrees, but Masters of Divinity. And theyre seriously thinking about [spirituality] and at the same time creating some edgy, creative, experimental art, he says. I thought, Thats an interesting subset of people out there writing, dancing, painting and composing music.

One such artist is Curt Cloninger, associate professor of new media at UNCA. Cloninger will present the talk Making Nothing Out of Something: Art as a Means of Clearing Ground on Friday, Oct. 15, at 3:30 p.m. at UNCAs Highsmith Student Union.

I figured art might be good for just sort of wrecking peoples faith in the reductive, summative capacity of language, he says with a laugh. The goal of my art isnt to make someone a believer, but to put them in a place where they might more readily encounter whatever living god might be there or whatever scary demons might be there. Whatevers really there.

During his lecture, Cloninger will show examples of his work, which uses media to undermine and destabilize faith in language. I know other people are coming at it from different angles, but thats the only angle that made sense to me, he says. Not to be the Christian artist but almost to be the punk-rock artist who broke everything you thought you knew so actually youd encounter the living god.

Another such artist is Christopher-Rasheem McMillan, who will give the talk You Cant Tell It/ Like I Tell It: Danced Spirituals as Liturgy on Saturday, Oct. 16, at Highsmith Student Union.

According to a description of the presentation, McMillan will look at several dances, includingHelen TamirisNegro Spirituals, Ted Shawns Nobody Knows the Trouble Ive Seen and Ronald K. Browns Order My Stepsas case studies that speak to the public organization of a body in space as a liturgical and artistic act, grounding the choreography as a meaning-making in and through live religious experience.

Julie Levin Caro, a professor of art history at Warren Wilson College, also has a unique take on faith in art: Going to museums is my synagogue. Its a very grounding and meditative way to connect with artwork. She continues, A big part of my research has been looking at images of Black Christianity in African American art. As a white Jewish woman, its been an interesting journey to [explore] Black experience through religion and through artistic expression.

At the institute, Caro will lead the workshop Telling Interfaith Stories with Objects, which she says will serve as an icebreaker and way for participants to introduce themselves. The event takes place Thursday, Oct. 14, at 9 a.m. at Highsmith Student Union.

Objects are so important to spirituality and practice, she notes. Im interested in the idea of how objects can be evocative beyond their own visual and aesthetic value. The narratives we [attach] can make even a pencil really profound. The other idea is to get participants thinking about how their stories go together in overlapping ideas and interesting juxtapositions that lead to contemplation of how faith practices may also intersect.

Chess hopes that an event such as Faith in Arts Institute will create an opportunity where those skeptical about spirituality will realize its more complicated than you think, its not monolithic, its more nuanced, and it doesnt necessarily limit ones ability to think openly and creativity, he says. For those who do have faith, Chess hopes the institute will inspire them to yearn for more types of art in their personal or communal religious practice.

And, ultimately, he says, I hope some people will be blown away by some of the work.

WHAT: Faith in Arts Institute, faithinarts.unca.eduWHERE: UNC Ashevilles Highsmith Student Union; Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center; and online via ZoomWHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 13-Saturday, Oct. 16. $60 for all events. Some events are free to the public, see website for details.

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Faith in Arts Institute explores religious thought in creative work - Mountain Xpress