Hikaru Nakamura discussed the impact of neural networks on chess preparation in an interview with Anna Cramling. Hikaru pointed to 2017 and 2018 as a turning point and gave an example of the amount of time required for preparation then versus now.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World No. 2, streamer

“It’s much easier to prepare now than it used to be. I think back to like 2017 or 2018 — it’s probably the rise of neural networks. Chess changed a lot, you had to put in a lot of time, and it wasn’t like everything was just spoon-fed to you. You can get information very-very easily now, with the computer engines, whether it’s Stockfish, Leela, you know, etc.

I would say you can probably in about an hour do the same amount of work it would take you three or four hours in the past, just because there’s so much out there now. And again, that’s not, you know, specific details, but it’s very-very different.”

Stockfish is a free, open-source chess engine first released on November 2, 2008, which is widely considered one of the strongest chess programs in the world. Developers released a new version of the engine — Stockfish 18 — on January 31. The estimated Elo rating of this version is approximately 4000.

Credit: Lennart Ootes