OpenAI’s o3 Dominates Elon Musk’s Grok 4 with a Perfect 4-0 Victory in AI Chess Showdown

In a high-profile AI chess tournament featuring leading generative artificial intelligence models, OpenAI’s o3 decisively defeated Elon Musk’s Grok 4 with an undefeated 4-0 scoreline. The event, held on Google’s Kaggle Game Arena, drew global attention as it became a symbolic contest between OpenAI—under CEO Sam Altman—and xAI, Musk’s own company, highlighting the divergent trajectories of the two tech visionaries and their AI efforts.

Undefeated Finals and Tournament Run

Throughout the knockout stages to the final, o3 exhibited remarkable strategic stability and systematic move-reading capability, remaining unbeaten from the quarterfinals onward. In stark contrast, Grok 4 struggled to keep pace, culminating in a clean sweep by o3 in the final match. Observers noted that o3 played at a level consistent with an average chess club player, while Grok 4’s performance was aligned with that of a beginner.

Expert Commentary from Magnus Carlsen

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, who provided live commentary during the event, offered a candid assessment. He estimated the chess rating of OpenAI’s o3 at around 1200 points, whereas Grok 4 ranked approximately 800 points. For context, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) rates beginner players near 800, typical club players around 1200, and top grandmasters exceeding 2700. Carlsen likened the event to a historic AI battle reminiscent of Deep Blue’s matches against Garry Kasparov in the 1990s, highlighting how such contests provide unique insight into machine reasoning.

Behind the High Stakes: Altman vs Musk

The competitive dynamic extended beyond AI chess skills to the personal rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but parted ways three years later following managerial disagreements. Since then, Musk established xAI, pursuing his own vision for artificial intelligence development. The tournament thus had symbolic significance, pitting their respective AI models directly against each other.

Following Grok 4’s 4-0 defeat, Musk tweeted that xAI had put “almost no effort into chess” and claimed Grok’s chess skills were merely secondary abilities. This statement underscored Musk’s apparent strategic de-emphasis on chess as a core AI capability. Meanwhile, Altman publicly criticized Musk in past interviews, describing him as a “bully,” indicating a complete rift in their relationship.

Broader Tournament Context and AI Landscape

The AI chess tournament included eight general-purpose large language models from various major players, including Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash, OpenAI’s o4-mini, Anthropic’s Claude 4 Opus, and others from Moonshot AI. OpenAI’s o3 emerged as the clear dominant force, raising questions about the current level of AI reasoning models’ chess competencies beyond language processing.

The impressive but still modest chess rating of 1200 attributed to o3 indicates these AI systems remain far from professional human play, yet their performance marks significant progress since early AI chess programs. The event illustrated how AI models integrate multi-domain capabilities and how competitive development among AI labs influences advances in reasoning and game strategy.

Conclusion

The AI chess tournament served not only as a contest of computational chess prowess but also as a symbolic confrontation between two major AI industry figures—Sam Altman and Elon Musk. OpenAI’s o3 delivered a flawless performance, underscoring its lead in AI development. Meanwhile, Musk’s Grok 4 suffered a comprehensive defeat, revealing limitations and reflecting Musk’s admitted deprioritization of chess-related skills in his AI model.