Chess, Music and AI
By Jonathan Levitt
It was about 30 years that AI overtook the best human chess players in the world. It was an emotional moment for both Garry Kasparov and all of humanity when the Russian genius resigned, knowing that fighting on against Deep Blue was futile.
Since then, computers have only got better and the gap has widened even though the game is still not entirely ‘solved’ (as in played perfectly).
It is only recently that machines have reached the level of top humans in music, both at singing and creating the music to accompany lyrics. There is a great deal of awful human music out there and a fair amount of not very good ‘AI slop’ too, but that is not under consideration. When AI music is done well it is already at the highest level and the direction of travel is clear. Only the best humans can still compete now and AI music is still evolving and improving, so it is only a matter of time before machines are seen as the best music makers.
Is human music still evolving? Yes maybe, but ‘progress’ is slow and debatable. The Beatles first published song was actually closer in time to the end of the nineteenth century than it is to today. A few years later A Day in the Life was released. Some would argue that there are not many songs today that show much improvement on that. Bob Dylan too was already releasing some great tracks 60 years ago.
I released a song on on June 14th 2026 called To the Fairest. The lyrics are by an award-winning poet named John F Keane, who has done a whole album of music in connection with GM Jon (entitled Songs For a Stolen Future and to be released on July 11th). I bring up To the Fairest in this context because I believe it has astonishingly good instrument play backing up the lyrics. How many human musicians can perform at the level of the AI in this song? No wonder musicians hate AI!
Humans still play chess by the way. The top ones all work with and learn from the machines. It is not easy to police human tournaments these days, to make sure that humans do not get assistance from machines, which would be unfair.
But music is an art form, not a competition. The important thing is to create beautiful music, which can give pleasure to billions of people, There is no need to police the creation of music to ensure machines are not used - and indeed that would be a ridiculous thing to do, leading to less pleasure and joy to the consuming public. The best people will learn to collaborate with technology to produce the best work. They have been for years already but now it is reaching another level, where the machines will take over more of the process.
For now the best lyrics are still human. That could change too, given time. Humans need to adapt, accept their limitations and learn to work with the machines or face fading into obscurity. At least we will still be the ones enjoying the music for some time to come!
Here is one for you to enjoy. Nineteenth century American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes’ fabulous poem, The Last Leaf, turned to music by GM Jon:
And here are some of the copious musical compositions of Jon Levitt:
Also: Listen to Tara sing The Chess Songs
About the author
Jonathan Paul Levitt (born 3 June 1963) is an English chess grandmaster, author, teacher, and composer of endgame studies. He studied mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford, earned the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title in 1990. His peak FIDE rating was 2495, achieved in January 1989. As a player, he competed successfully in tournaments, including first place at the 2005 Howard Staunton Memorial. But health challenges led him to retire from regular over-the-board play in his forties, though he continues to engage in online blitz games.
Beyond competition, Levitt has made significant contributions to chess literature and education. He taught chess at the City of London School, co-wrote Bobby Fischer's $5,000,000 Comeback (1992), Secrets of Spectacular Chess (1995) and Genius in Chess (1997), which examines the links between intelligence and chess prowess. He has also composed prize-winning endgame studies.
In recent years, Levitt has pursued creative endeavors outside traditional chess, including songwriting with chess themes dedicated to figures like Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. He has set up the following channels:
Jon lives in Suffolk, England, with his wife Maria.
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