ChatGPT 'got absolutely wrecked' by Atari 2600 in beginner's chess match

Channel:

Nev's Tech Playground & Archives

Subscribers:

45,400

Published on June 9, 2025 4:53:19 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDN7_yvGyNs

Duration: 0:00

774 views

10

ChatGPT 'got absolutely wrecked' by Atari 2600 in beginner's chess match — OpenAI's newest model bamboozled by 1970s logic


OpenAI's latest and greatest AI model was outclassed by the 1.19 MHz near 50-year-old console gaming legend.


In a quite unexpected turn of events, it is claimed that OpenAI’s ChatGPT “got absolutely wrecked on the beginner level” while playing Atari Chess. Citrix Architecture and Delivery specialist, Robert Jr. Caruso, discovered this gameplay skill anomaly over the weekend. Caruso pitted the 1979 Atari Chess title, played within an emulator for the 1977 Atari 2600 console gaming system, against the might of ChatGPT 4o.

A little computer vs Chess history
The concept of computing performance being graded by chess-playing ability is one firmly embedded in nerd lore. Chess computer games were popular from the early days of consoles and home computing, with computing and chess enthusiasts going to great lengths to grade available chess-engine abilities versus a Grandmaster of ‘the game of kings.’

IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer made history in 1997 when it defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion at the time. Instrumental to its victory, Deep Blue leveraged brute force techniques and evaluated 200 million possible chess moves per second. However, Kasparov struck back after losing the first of the scheduled six chess matches, with the eventual score of 4-2 in his favor.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-got-absolutely-wrecked-by-atari-2600-in-beginners-chess-match-openais-newest-model-bamboozled-by-1970s-logic