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Astra Builds Its Own Chess Engine, Hits ~2000 ELO
After being crushed by Astra in chess, Google researcher Mike Frank open-sourced the game archives, then let GPT-6-based Astra build its own Python chess engine, measured at around 2000 ELO.
2026-09-10 ~ 2026-09-12 · 2 episodes · 5 posts
Episode 1 · Google's Astra Beats Human Chess Players; Game Archives Released (2026-09-10, 3 posts)
Google researcher Mike Frank was decisively beaten by the AI chess system Astra, and later published an archive of ten interactive game replays, including Astra (Ultra)'s win over human player Dr. Thanos.
- Microsoft engineer loses handily to AI in a match, promises replay and commentary — MikePFrank · 2026-09-10
- Astra (Ultra) beats human at chess, full game replay with engine eval archived — MikePFrank · 2026-09-10
- Mike Frank publishes archive of Astra chess games vs bots and first human, ~1800-2000 ELO — MikePFrank · 2026-09-12
Episode 2 · No One Has Beaten GPT-6 Astra's Self-Built Chess Engine Yet (2026-09-12, 2 posts)
Mike Frank demoed a chess app where GPT-6 Astra builds its own Python engine, testing around 1800-2000 ELO. He opened a public challenge and no one has beaten it yet.
- Nobody has beaten my GPT-6 Astra chess setup — public beta challenge open — MikePFrank · 2026-09-12
- GPT-6 Astra builds its own chess engine, hits ~1800-2000 ELO and stays unbeaten — MikePFrank · 2026-09-12