Google adds whimsy to chess with GenChess

GenChess, a new AI tool from Google Labs, lets players generate chess sets inspired by everything from ice cream to Roman mosaics – just leave politics and tech moguls out of the mix.

It was clear that I wouldn't be witnessing the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg duel that never was, not even as a chess match. Upon entering the former’s name into the prompt field, an error message appeared, urging me to try something else.

I typed in Zuckerberg’s name next, already knowing that I would get the same response. Real-life people, even historical figures like Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette, appear to be strictly off-limits in this new experiment from Google Labs, the search giant’s test ground for new features.

Called GenChess, the software runs on Imagen 3, Google’s most advanced text-to-image model. According to the company, it “turns your ideas into playable art pieces."

To generate the set, players will first need to choose between a classic or creative style. For example, selecting a classic style inspired by ice cream will generate traditionally shaped chess pieces that mimic ice cream in colors and patterns.

In contrast, opting for a creative style will offer a more imaginative interpretation of the theme, breaking away from traditional forms and shapes. In this case, it means extravagant chess pieces resembling actual ice cream.

Opting for a creative style also means that sets inspired by the same theme will vary with each attempt, while pieces in the classic version will remain largely the same.

Once that’s sorted, players are prompted to generate an opponent set. There is no option to pick a theme at this stage; the algorithm automatically selects one. “Hot chocolate” was chosen as the opponent for the ice cream, while another attempt paired cheese against wine.

From there, the actual match begins. Players compete against the computer, but unlike chess master Garry Kasparov in 1996, when IBM’s Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a reigning world champion, they can select a difficulty level ranging from easy to hard.

The game can last either five or ten minutes. My five-minute game on easy ended in a draw – it’s been a while and I’m here to play with the design, anyway.

With real people off-limits, I naturally tried generating a set inspired by different countries. Japan? The United Kingdom? Germany? All my attempts, save for one, were rejected. The generator would produce a chess set inspired by the United States of America but nothing else.

Even when the algorithm suggested “Russia” as an opponent (you can read more about AI bias here, here, and here), it refused to generate a set for it, greeting me with the error message again. This means you can only view the set inspired by the United States but not actually play with it.

Regions and states, however, seem to be fair game, as are cities. GenChess pitted my California-inspired set against one inspired by Florida, and I could also play as London against the computer’s Tokyo. It even allowed sets inspired by England or Scotland, which are countries within the United Kingdom.

To be fair, a disclaimer did warn me that AI outputs “may be offensive or inaccurate” beforehand and GenChess appears to have a wide variety of themes it blocks. These range from the obvious, such as pornography and political ideologies, to those harder to explain, like The Lord of the Rings or Alice in Wonderland, although Harry Potter and Captain America are fine.

In the end, this did not appear to bother users, with mostly positive reactions shared on social media. Many showed off their own fantastical chess creations, including a Tesla vs. Ford game and Google vs. Bing.

Users described it as “pretty cool” and “a little glitchy but worth the experience,” with someone observing that “it works.”