It could also be the latest grim match in the tech industry.
One side: O3 model with adjusted Openai inference. Meanwhile, the Grok 4, the flagship AI model of Elon Musk.
At the AI Chess tournament hosted by Google's Kaggle, the two met in the finals to test the manufacturer's reputation.
O3 took the boards 4-0 by storm and won the AI chess crown.
The third place playoffs were sent to Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, beating the O4-Mini 3.5-0.5
While tech companies have long used chess to measure computer progress and capabilities, today's specialized engines are virtually invincible, even the best human players.
In 2016, Alphago was a program developed by Google's Deepmind to play the Chinese strategy game GO, and it became headlines when he defeated world champion Lee Sedol.
However, this competition led to the general-purpose AI programs being at odds with each other to see which models would appear on the chess board.
Openai, Xai, and Kaggle did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
How the showdown unfolded
The tournaments will be held from August 5th to August 7th, Openai's O3 and O4-Mini, Xai's Grok 4, Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash, Anthropic's Claude 4 Opus, Deepseek's Deepseek R1 and K2.
The Grok 4 was impressed early and reached the final over the brackets. O3 did the same thing and dismantled all his opponents along the way.
When the two met in their final match, it wasn't close.
“Until the semi-finals, it seemed like we couldn't stop the Grok 4 to win the event,” wrote Chess.com writer Pedro Pinhata.
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“In spite of the moment of weakness, X's AI looked by far the strongest chess player,” he added.
However, as the final began, the predictions fell apart. “The chattering O3 simply dismantled his mysterious opponent with four persuasive victories,” writes Pinhata.
“Grok's plays were unrecognised and quickly failed frequently. And in most cases, O3 showed no mercy.”
Former world champion Magnus Carlsen was not awaited during the live stream of the final on his YouTube channel Take Take Take.
He compared Glock to “that guy from a club who learned theory and literally doesn't know anything else.”
“It just makes the worst impulse,” he said.
Altman vs Musk
Openai's victory over Grok is another chapter in an increasingly public feud among its co-founders.
Musk on Monday threatened to sue Apple, claiming its App Store favor with the opening. Altman fired back at Mask's X control.
Musk posted the ChatGpt 5 Pro Exchange on Tuesday, and the bot deemed him “more reliable” than Altman.
In May, Altman tried the same trick with Grok and asked who should lead the AI race if the fate of humanity is at stake.
“If forced, I leaned against Musk to emphasize his safety, and while I'm critical of the survival of humanity, Altman's accessibility is essential,” Groke said in response to Altman's question. “Ideally, those strengths should be combined with regulations to ensure that AI benefits everything.”
