LLMs are not designed to play chess but have gotten so smart that they can play a decent game when prompted the right way. GPT 5.5 Pro is already topping the ratings when it comes to playing this game. We decided to test GPT 5.5 Thinking Extended against Chessnut Move running Lc0 to see how well it can play. In the past, we have had issues with LLMs losing track of their position and making illegal moves all the time. That seems to be a thing of the past. We played 5 games against different engines and only got 2 illegal moves.
The Chessnut Move is a very versatile robot. It connects to your phone and lets you play against Stockfish, Maia, and LC0. You can also connect it to ChessBase and other platforms. It has an offline engine that is rated around 2200 ELO but when connected to a phone or tablet, this chess robot can play like Stockfish. Not surprisingly, GPT 5.5 is not strong enough to beat LC0. It did manage to play a decent game until it dropped a piece and missed mate when it went for pawn grabbing. It reminded us of chess engines of the past that chose to grab pawns instead of protecting their king.
[HT]
