# Ataraxos AI beats leading Stratego player using 16 GPUs for training

_Published Thursday, October 1, 2026 at 2:24 PM EDT · AI, Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![A cartoon version of a Stratego piece, specifically one showing a bomb. — Primary](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/GettyImages-1864707238-1152x648.jpg)

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, New York University, and Stanford built an AI called Ataraxos that beat Stratego player Pim Niemeijer 15 games to one, with four draws, Ars Technica reported. Training used 16 GPUs and a few thousand dollars.

Stratego requires players to reason about 40 opposing pieces whose identities remain hidden until battle. Games can last 2,000 moves, making bluffing and long-term uncertainty central challenges. The demonstrated result concerns Stratego competition, where the system faced Niemeijer, described as arguably the game's best player of all time.

## Sources

- [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/ai-finally-beat-the-best-stratego-player-in-history-and-did-it-on-a-budget/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/0Cw2E35aL_MJFQGejuRDJa
Published: 2026-10-01T18:24:18.258Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-01T16:28:04.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-01T20:04:58.219Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)