The Case for Computers in Chess June 6, 2012, 4:57 am Just as Hungarian grandmaster and commentator Peter Leko was expressing surprise at Viswanathan Anand's strategy in Game 8 of the World Chess Championship against Israeli Boris Gelfand, Anand's 17th move brought the game to a sudden close, Hartosh Singh Bal writes in the Latitude blog of The New York Times. "Anand had deceived both his challenger and one of the strongest players in the world," he writes. But many lesser players watching the game live with specialized computer chess engines weren't flummoxed by Anand's play; programs like Houdini had flagged Anand's trap a few moves earlier. Computers have so flattened the game of chess that even novices like me can make some sense of the moves being played at the highest level.