Chap Claims Atari 2600 'absolutely Wrecked' ChatGPT At Chess

The Atari 2600 gaming console came into the world in 1977 with an eight-bit processor that ran at 1.19MhZ, and just 128 bytes of RAM – but that’s apparently enough power to beat ChatGPT at chess.

So says infrastructure architect Robert Caruso, who over the weekend posted the results of an experiment he conducted to “pit ChatGPT against the Atari 2600’s chess engine (via Stella emulator) and see what happens.”

ChatGPT confused rooks for bishops, and repeatedly lost track of pieces

Caruso decided to run the experiment after conversing with ChatGPT about the history of chess. At some point in that chat, the bot volunteered to play against the Atari – a reasonable suggestion as “Video Chess” was one of the games Atari commissioned for its console.

Online chat in which chess wonks discuss the merits of Video Chess suggest it may have played at a level beginners may have found challenging, and perhaps gave regular recreational players of intermediate skill a little to worry about.

Caruso thought his experiment would be “a lighthearted stroll down retro memory lane.”

Instead, he watched as the Atari humiliated ChatGPT.

“ChatGPT got absolutely wrecked on the beginner level,” he wrote.

“Despite being given a baseline board layout to identify pieces, ChatGPT confused rooks for bishops, missed pawn forks, and repeatedly lost track of where pieces were.”

• Atari 400 makes a comeback in miniature form
• Christmas 1984: The last hurrah for 8-bit home computers
• Weeks with a BBC Micro? Good enough to fix a mainframe, apparently
• The New ROM Antics – building the ZX Spectrum 128

Caruso said ChatGPT blamed the icons Atari chess uses “as too abstract to recognize”. But even after changing to standard chess notation, the chatbot “made enough blunders to get laughed out of a 3rd grade chess club.”

“For 90 minutes, I had to stop it [ChatGPT] from making awful moves and correct its board awareness multiple times per turn,” he wrote. The chatbot “kept promising it would improve ‘if we just started over’.”

Eventually the bot conceded the game.

“Have you played Atari today?” Caruso asked, invoking the company’s advertising slogan.

“ChatGPT wishes it hadn't,” he concluded.

A challenge to readers

The Register knows many readers enjoy and operate retro-tech devices.

We challenge you to make them fight AI and let us know the results.

Send news of the results to us here. ®