"Do you think chess players will migrate to Go because they don't like playing a game that they can't win against a computer?"

I don't think most chess players will migrate to Go. It's the serious chess players which will probably migrate, and they'll probably migrate to a variant of chess rather than to Go.

Go is just too different for most players who are fascinated with chess to switch to (though they might appreciate both).

Many chess variants, on the other hand, tend to be similar in many ways to regular chess. So if you enjoy playing regular chess, you'll likely enjoy playing a variant just as much (maybe even more).

In fact, "regular chess" is itself actually a chess variant, as the rules of chess have changed over the centuries. What we call "chess" today differs in some ways from what was known as "chess" even just a couple of hundred years ago. And the further back in time you go, the more differences there are.

Chess is not a game whose rules are set in stone for all time. It changes and develops with the demands and interests of the ages. And it seems likely that the demands of our age will change it once again.

"I'm nowhere near good enough to pretend to understand the motivations of a chess master, but this does kind of make sense to me. Somehow, it kills the vibe to know that computers will always win."

It's not so much that humans somehow resent the dominance of the machines in chess, but that computers (and the study of chess in general) have radically transformed the game in a direction that many players are unhappy with.

For instance, it used to be that if a tournament game lasted too long, it would be adjourned (ie. the players would take a break for a while) until the game could be resumed. In the meantime they could think over the adjourned position and use what they thought up when the game resumed. Because of computers, that's no longer done.

The problem is that either player could now secretly use a computer to analyze the adjourned position for him, and from that point on the result of the game becomes more of a matter of who has the strongest chess computer rather than of which human is the strongest chess player.

Another problem that computers (and the study of chess) have brought about is that the memorization of previously analyzed moves has become a major part of the game (especially at the more competitive levels). This was true even in Fischer's day, before chess computers were useful, but is much more true today.

The consequence of this is that the person who's memorized the most chess moves can have a great advantage (though this is a bit of an oversimplification, as many other factors enter in to play as well). Many people are really not very fond of playing against what amounts to a database of chess moves rather than against another human being.

That's why chess variants like Fischer Random Chess are appealing: to a very large extent, they take away the usefulness of memorizing chess moves.

Of course, one of the advantages that computers have over humans is that they have a "perfect memory" (though not a limitless one). So when playing a chess variant like Fischer Random Chess, the playing field is leveled against computers as well.

Another problem that computers have brought to chess is the possibility of cheating using computers. Accusations of cheating with computers have plagued even the highest levels of chess, and certain types of chess ("postal chess" and internet chess in particular, where you can't see who you're really playing against) are very vulnerable to such cheating.

Playing a variant of chess that's harder for computers to win would solve this problem as well.

"Funny, humans still enjoy sports even though a human sprinter will never run as fast as a motorcycle."

Well, the thing is that a motorcycle doesn't actually run.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to sports like sprinting and boxing when humanoid robots get advanced enough to be able to actually compete in these sports.

I don't think they'll be quite as catastrophically affected as chess has been, since study with the robots isn't likely to give nearly as much of an advantage to players in those sports as studying with chess computers has given to chess players. But it'll still be interesting to see how they react once robots can actually beat them at their game.