Google Labs, the experimental branch of the tech giant, has come up with an exciting new online project that puts a unique twist on the classic game of chess. Known as GenChess, this web experiment utilizes Gemini Imagen 3, Google’s image generation model, to let players personalize their own chess pieces by using text prompts.
To get started with the game, users need to log in with their Gmail account. Once logged in, they can click on the “Generate” button and input their desired theme for the chess set, whether it’s inspired by sushi, pizza, or any other idea they can think of.
GenChess offers two different styles for players to choose from: classic and creative. The classic style resembles a traditional chess set, while the creative style is more abstract and modern. After the model generates a complete set, players have the option to tweak individual pieces. For example, if the appearance of the king piece doesn’t meet expectations, users can provide additional text prompts to refine its look.
Once players are happy with their customized chess set, they can generate an opponent to play against. During testing, Google paired our sushi-themed set with a bot’s taco-inspired chess set. Players can select from three difficulty levels (easy, medium, and hard) and two timer options (5/3 or 10/0) to challenge themselves.
Google’s latest web experiment is not only easy to use but also quite functional. A spokesperson mentioned that it aims to showcase the intersection of AI, design, and chess, making it accessible for everyone to engage with image generation.
In conjunction with the launch of GenChess, Google unveiled four other chess-related initiatives to coincide with the start of the World Chess Championship. This includes a collaboration with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to encourage individuals to participate in a coding challenge on Kaggle, a platform owned by Google that caters to data scientists and machine learning engineers who are interested in creating AI chess engines.
Furthermore, a new feature called Chess Gem game for Gemini is set to debut next month. This conversational offering allows players to play chess games within the Gemini app, where they can test their strategic skills against a language model and even indulge in some light-hearted banter. However, this feature will only be accessible to Gemini Advanced subscribers.
