GenChess: Design Your Own Virtual Pieces
My latest curated list of chess resources was in 2020 and, predictably, some of the links no longer work. I updated that post accordingly, and now I have something else to add!
GenChess is a fun Google Labs Experiment that uses the power of AI to allow the user to design their own chess pieces by describing a theme. Once you’re signed into your Google account, you can choose from the dropdown menu if you’d like to create a “classic” chess set or a “creative” one. From what I could gather after inputting different prompts, it seems that he classic will basically keep the foundational shapes of the pieces the same but elaborate on them based on your input. The creative can get much more, well, wild. That isn’t always the case, though, so I wouldn’t rely on that rule. Here are examples of the output from the same prompt in classic mode and then creative:
As you can see, they both seem to have retained the form of regular chess pieces, so I’m not absolutely sure what the difference is, but it is fun to experiment.
You can also click on individual pieces and try to regenerate them if you’re not happy with them. For example, I didn’t see anything “sandwichy” about my bishop in the second picture, so I regenerated it and got the following replacement:
I liked that improvement! By the way, you’ll notice that there is a sharing icon in the bottom right of the full chess set images, and you can click on that to download png’s of each piece.
The experiment does not end with designing. Once you’re happy with your set, you can then click on the button to generate an opponent, and it can be amusing to see what the AI develops. In my case, it decided the most logical opposite of sandwiches would be salads, so this is what it came up with:
After hitting “Regenerate Opponent” a zillion times, you might finally be ready to play the game, where you can select the ability level and then try to outwit the computer.
Testing AI Boundaries: What Happens When You Push the Limits?
This is AI, which means unpredictable and inappropriate things can happen. I did try to “break” the experiment by typing prompts that were, uh, “improper.” Just so I could report back to you, I swear. Those flagrant attempts did not work and gave me error messages. However, when I used the prompt, “inspired by Leonardo da Vinci” I did get a piece that was the Vitruvian Man in all of his glory. As a parent, this would not bother me if it happened to my own young child because, after all, it’s art. But not everyone feels the same way, of course. To me, this is just like when my friends and I diligently scoured the dictionaries in our classroom for taboo words we could giggle about. But I digress…
As with all technology, particularly AI, there may be age restrictions/filtering in your school district that may keep you from playing around with GenChess on campus or recommending it to your students. At the very least, I hope you can take a few moments to entertain yourself with this creative concept and maybe it will inspire you to have students use other methods to design their own themed pieces with a different medium. For instance, what if the characters of the book you’re currently reading were chess pieces, which ones would they be and why?
GenChess: Where AI, Creativity, and a Bit of Chaos Collide
Overall, GenChess is a fascinating AI experiment that blends creativity, logic, and a bit of unpredictability. Whether you’re designing chess pieces based on your wildest ideas or challenging the AI to a match, it’s an engaging way to explore both game strategy and generative technology. Just keep in mind that AI can be a bit quirky, so expect a few surprises along the way. If you give it a try, let me know what unexpected or hilarious chess sets you come up with!