Perhaps we could play chess with apes

I'm sure many apes are smart enough to understand the rules, we just need a way to teach them. i wonder what they're rating would be

they are not even close to be able to comprehend the purpose, the rules. The difference between mate and checkmate, the turn based nature of the game.

please be realistic kiddo

@tarkonaw don't be rude, they solve many puzzles/games in a fraction of the time humans can. Have a look on youtube if you haven't seen

giving them food for solving stuff that is not abstract..

Chess have a rule set, try explaining en passant to an ape. How the pieces cooperate and more. That would be way too much, to train a monkey to play chess. If I could see a 40+ move game played correctly between two apes I would know I'm dreaming

@tarkonaw nah they have superb memory which chess is a lot about and lateral thinking, not like dogs who are just trained to do tricks.

You're right explaining it to them would be hard as I said but if we could think of a way I would love to sit across a board and play them.

the problem is not "explaining" but grasping abstract action and the concept of chess on their part.

You can not explain to anyone what can not be grasped. Like the poor animals in circus, they perform silly things but don't know why other than they get treats (or punishment if not) if behaving in a certain repetitive way to different orders. They have no idea why they are performing

i would try playing chess with apes but i would always lose on purpose
if i tried to win the ape will rage and *shudder* steal my oreos!

Ok you all made some good points so I had a brainwave.

Just start with the simplest situation, 2 rooks vs king. Have it on a touchscreen and computer bes the king, when they get checkmate we give a banana.

After they’ve grasped that gradually add complexity, maybe give the opponent a pawn or something until we see how close they can get to the full game

I was thinking some form of the game, Go, may be playable by the apes.

I feel apes could develop a symbiotic relationship with chess, but would the ape want to play chess?