Centaurs

Centaurs are the combination of human and machine intelligence.

New York City, May 1997

Sixth and final game in the rematch between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM supercomputer Deep Blue.

Deep Blue famously wins the game, the first time where a computer outplays a chess grandmaster.

Leon, June 1998

The world's first championship of advanced chess organized by Kasparov.

In advanced (alt: freestyle or centaur) chess, humans of any expert level play assisted by technology such as hardware, software and databases.

Over the following year, a community of advanced chess players develops, designing various approaches of combining intelligence for chess playing mastery.

“as disturbing as it was exciting”

Garry Kasparov describing the experience

Having evolved their methods, centaur players regularly start out-playing both chess grandmasters and supercomputers in 2005.

Teams today win by combining average skill players, mid-range technology and strong interfaces. By optimizing for an efficient connection between human and machine, teams can better leverage the characteristics of either.

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