The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Technologies on the Russian Chess Community: an Empirical Study

The article examines key trends and social changes in the Russian chess community caused by the widespread and dominant artificial intelligence (AI) in the relevant field. Based on the analysis of domestic scientific papers, a lack of empirical research and, as a result, many controversial and unfounded conclusions on this topic are noted. The results of the author’s empirical study, conducted in 2025 using the formalized interview method, are presented. The respondents were chess players of almost all levels of play — from amateurs to international grandmasters — from 3 regions of Russia. The analysis of the research results allowed us to identify both general trends for the chess community in the context of widespread use of algorithms (high level of trust in AI assessments and recommendations, correlation between the intensity of AI use in training, coaching, analysis of individual games and the growth of the level of play, popularization of online chess, intolerance to intentional violation of the rules of the game to gain an advantage — cheating), and the specifics of the influence of AI on certain groups of chess players: beginner, intermediate and highest level players, young people and older people, men and women. Various aspects of the transformation of social interactions between chess players in the context of the spread of AI are considered, related to the level of interpersonal trust, the formation and maintenance of informal connections with other community members, increased openness in knowledge sharing and the intensification of mediated communications. The conclusion notes the need to overcome «one-sided» approaches to assessing the impact of AI on the chess community and the relevance of further empirical research in this area.

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