Correspondence Chess and the Impact of AI - A Conversation with ICCF GM Jon Edwards

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. ICCF Grandmaster Jon Edwards talks about chess and Artificial Intelligence, reviewing some fun games from the pre-AI era as well as some others from the new, more serious AI era.

With the rise of high-performance computing and AI tools, many chess players wonder about the future of the royal game. Chess has also been at the forefront of many AI investigations, and its impact on correspondence and over-the-board chess is becoming clearer. Following the ICCF 32nd World Championship, chess players worldwide are interested in knowing if chess has been solved, and what humans can still bring to the game.

International Correspondence Chess Federation Grandmaster (ICCF GM) Jon Edwards will provide background on Chess and AI, as well as a range of his games, from some early fun ones with spectacular sacrifices and challenging novelties in the pre-AI era to the new and more serious AI era, when top practitioners have dramatically changed their approach, including in his recent wins over Evgeny Lobanov, the then reigning Russian Correspondence Chess Champion, and Angel Acedevo-Villalba, a Spanish GM.

About Jon Edwards:

Jon Edwards recently finished first in the 32nd ICCF World Correspondence Chess Championship final round. He has become the 3rd US player to win the World Correspondence Chess Championship (behind Hans Berliner and Victor Palciauskas) and the 14th US player to become a Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. Jon won the 10th United States Correspondence Championship in 1997 and the 8th North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship in 1999. In 2016, he won the prestigious ICCF Spanish Masters including a spectacular win against Evgeny Lobanov, the reigning Russian correspondence chess champion. He has twice competed on the United States Correspondence Chess Olympiad team, both times reaching the final round. His USA team has just clinched an Olympiad medal.

Jon has an AB from Princeton University (1975) and a PhD in African Economic History from Michigan State University (1988). He worked as AVP for Computing and Information Technology and later as Coordinator of Institutional Communication at Princeton University.

He has written more than a dozen chess books, notably including "The Chess Analyst" (Thinkers Press, 1999) which chronicles the success in the US championship, "Teach Yourself Visually: Chess" (Wiley, 2006), a photographically based chess primer, and "Sacking the Citadel: The History, Theory, and Practice of the Classic Bishop Sacrifice" (Russell Enterprises, 2011).

Jon provides chess instruction in the Princeton area. He has taught chess to more than 4,000 students over 30 years.

Here is a link to his slides:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7gV...

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on November 11, 2023.