Who says you can’t dust off such an old board game? Indeed, historians generally agree that chess has its roots in ancient India, 1,500 years ago. No problem for Google, which has just launched a website dedicated to this game, called Genchess. A somewhat special platform, because it is possible to generate the visual of your own parts thanks to artificial intelligence.
Unfortunately, this one does not seem to be available at the moment not available in France and seems restricted to certain regions of the world. Despite the use of a VPN, the editorial staff of Lemon Squeezer could not access it; we therefore hope that France will one day be one of the countries concerned.
Custom pieces
The concept is simple: before each game, just describe in a few words the desired appearance for white rooms. It is the Imagen 3 model, integrated into Gemini, which is then responsible for materializing them, while automatically designing a coherent design for the black parts.
Thus, as the journalists of The Vergea demand for science fiction pieces triggered the generation of opposite fantasy-inspired pieces, creating a nice contrast on the chessboard. Pieces inspired by the wind will be pitted against pieces inspired by the ocean, or those sporting a Bauhaus style (artistic and architectural movement of the 20th century which advocated the union of art and industry) will face Art Deco pieces .
A refined gaming experience
The interface offers three difficulty levels and two time control modes. The default isometric visualization, although aesthetically successful, can confuse those used to online chess. A classic top view nevertheless remains available in the settings. The site does, however, have some limitations. : impossible to review previous moves or view captured pieces. Yet very important features in the game of chess.
The release of Genchess strangely coincides with the 2024 World Chess Championship, which has been held for three days in Singapore, of which Google is the main sponsor. The Mountain View firm is taking advantage of this showcase to announce other chess innovations, notably the upcoming integration of a bot capable of playing chess in Gemini. It will be enough to describe verbatim the moves that you plan to make, and the chessboard will display the pieces in real time. This will normally arrive in December, but will only be reserved for Gemini Advanced subscribers.
- Google launches Genchess, a chess platform where AI generates personalized pieces from descriptions.
- The site offers several difficulty options and creative visuals, but remains limited in functionality.
- Genchess is unfortunately not yet available in France.
