| The story of what happened with chess deserves a lot more elaboration, because it's fun and interesting (and may also foretell outcomes in other scenarios)! In chess the first "new" (unplayed in a high level game) move in a game is called the novelty, or theoretic novelty. In times before computers this would not infrequently be an objectively strong move that simply had not been played in a given position before. And this continued for time after computers became quite strong with players using computers to find interesting strong ideas in all sorts of positions. Each time these sort of novelties would be sprung, positions would become redefined and our broader knowledge of the game continued to stretch on outward. But then something fun happened - the metagame shifted. Now it's no longer really about founding some really strong move as your novelty - but often about finding a technically mediocre, if not simply bad, move that gives you good practical chances. So you're looking for moves that your opponent probably has not considered because they look bad (and the computer would agree that they're bad) but you're much more prepared and comfortable in than he is. The big difference now also is that instead of a novelty redefining a position in a positive way, it's often something you spring once or maybe twice - and then never touch again. And this is now happening regularly at the absolute highest levels of chess. So rather than having humans just desperately trying to emulate machines, those machines became yet another tool to exploit and improve our practical results with. It's kind of funny watching a game when this happens and less experienced players will immediately begin shouting "BLUNDER!" when the computer evaluation of a position suddenly drops, without realizing the player who just "blundered" is still well within his preparation. But the other guy is now probably out of his. Even the players themselves, there's often a sort of "u srs?" type response. This [1] is a fun one from the always emotive Ian Nepomniachtchi during the most recent world champions candidates event. He is now playing for the world championship. In any case, it's at that point that the game begins! [1] - https://youtu.be/AwgIksw1go0?t=30 |