Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he stopped playing chess as a kid, but agrees it has become ‘more popular and bigger’

Elon Musk discontinued playing chess as a child, anticipating computers’ eventual superiority due to the game’s limited degrees of freedom. Despite AI’s dominance, exemplified by Deep Blue’s victory over Garry Kasparov and advanced engines like AlphaZero, chess has experienced a resurgence. Online platforms and cultural moments like ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ have fueled a global increase in chess participation.