They are disproving an assertion. Demonstrating that an alternate approach implodes the assertion is a perfectly acceptable route, especially when the original approach was cherry-picking successes and throwing out failures.
I wish I could just make bullshit moves and get a higher chess ranking. Sounds nice.
I disagree. If there is a procedure for getting ChatGPT to play chess accurately and you discard that and do some naive approach as a way of disproving the article, doesn't sound to me like you have disproven anything.
I dont understand the point of your second sentence, seems to be entirely missing the substance of the conversation.
You can spin it that way if you want to, but the result is essentially guiding it through a brute force of the first successful playthrough it can muster.
And it has already been stated elsewhere in the thread: an illegal move is not technically a forfeiture, so this is some heavy "giving the benefit of the doubt".
It would be interesting to see how ChatGPT would play after making the first illegal move. Would it go off the rails completely, playing an impossible game? Would it be able to play well if its move was corrected (I'm not sure how illegal moves are treated in chess; are they allowed to be taken back if play hasn't progressed?). Could it figure out it made an illegal move, if it was told it did, without specifying which one, or why it was illegal? By stopping the game as soon as an illegal move is made, the author is missing the chance to understand an important aspect of ChatGPT's ability to play chess.
I got the impression the author did this because they thought they were being fair with ChatGPT, but they're much more likely to be letting it off the hook than they seem to realise.
(Sorry about the "they"'s; I think the author is a guy but wasn't sure).
I wish I could just make bullshit moves and get a higher chess ranking. Sounds nice.