[shmageggy]

I think it's an imprecise way of saying that AlphaZero isn't given the game rules, so it doesn't know the difference between legal and illegal moves, and also that before any training it would evaluate a caputure no differently than any other move.

[floe]

> isn't given the game rules, so it doesn't know the difference between legal and illegal moves

But it does have some way to determine a list of legal moves from any given state, and a way to determine whether a state is winning. To me, that's being 'given the game rules'.

> before any training it would evaluate a capture no differently than any other move.

That's a good way to say it!

[shmageggy]

> But it does have some way to determine a list of legal moves from any given state

No it doesn't. That's the Zero part.