A chess match between Algorand founder Silvio Micali and the grandmaster Sergey Karjakin was recorded on the blockchain, as this marked a historic moment for the fifteen hundred-year-old game.
It has been reported that the match, which was the inaugural game for FIDE Online Arena, was broadcast via World Chess. Though chess is considered a gentleman’s game, cheating presents a real challenge to its integrity.
However, the hope is that recording games transparently and immutably using blockchain technology will help curtail existing problems.
Chess has not been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as much as other sports. In fact, the timing was rather apt, as the competition had moved entirely online over the preceding months.
It has been analyzed that the game pitted two heavyweights (though from admittedly different arenas) against each other.
Micali is a Turing Award recipient whose work greatly contributed to the field of cryptography. And on the other hand, Karjakin is one of the world’s best chess players, and also holds the distinction of achieving the grandmaster title at the age of 12. Possibly, this was the most historic game since Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997.
As per the report, Karjakin had the white pieces, and though Micali put up a gallant fight, in the end, he was checkmated by the grandmaster.
Algorand founder plays a chess game recorded on blockchain against Grand Master Sergey Karjakin https://t.co/BYnrv8ePRJ — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 18, 2020
Both competitors opined that after the game, they see great potential synergies between chess and blockchain.
Likewise, Karjakin confirmed that many grandmasters are interested in crypto and blockchain, and he personally owns some cryptocurrency, although not much. Micali suggested that perhaps in the future, Algorand will create a grant aimed at the popularization of chess around the world.
Thus, Micali observed that both chess and blockchain have things in common — they bring people together regardless of their background.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Pixabay