After the engines won: how chess and poker pros changed their game
October 6, 2026 · 19 min read
Magnus Carlsen, Levy Rozman and Daniel Negreanu describe how superhuman engines and solvers reshaped preparation, style and cheating in their games without ending human competition. Their experience is a preview for every field where AI becomes better than the best people.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- The machines are better and that is settled; human competition continues by other means.
- Carlsen: cloud engines brought preparation to parity; a laptop and two weeks can prepare a title match.
- Carlsen: steer games off the known lines so the opponent must think alone.
- Carlsen: let the team use engines; at the board you have to think as a human.
- Carlsen: his 2019 edge from neural network ideas faded as rivals caught up.
- Carlsen: shuffled-start chess and faster games make stored preparation worth less.
- Rozman: a cheater in chess controls everything and can lose on purpose to avoid detection.
- Carlsen: one signal at a critical moment could make a top player practically unbeatable.
- Rozman: be careful with accusations; great play now attracts suspicion.
- Negreanu: solvers are the perfect study tool; ask why the solver says what it says.
- Negreanu: do not become a slave to the simulation; exploit the person in front of you.
- Negreanu: optimal play cannot be beaten and cannot beat anybody.
- Negreanu: the moment you feel you have mastered it, others start to pass you.
- Waitzkin: practice reinventing yourself and measure yourself where results cannot be argued with.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.