Scenario avoidance
Structured premortems and multi-path scenario work designed to surface catastrophic trajectories while they are still tractable.
AI safety · Strategy · Foresight
We apply the strategic analysis and game-theoretic discipline of elite international chess talent to AI safety scenarios, catastrophic outcome avoidance, and long-horizon decisions at the frontier.
Grandmaster Labs is a boutique consulting practice for frontier AI companies and serious safety teams. We bring minds trained under extreme competitive pressure to the work of anticipating failure modes before they become irreversible.
Structured premortems and multi-path scenario work designed to surface catastrophic trajectories while they are still tractable.
Independent pressure on plans, assumptions, and governance designs from people practiced at finding the move others miss.
Clear, high-signal sessions for research directors, safety leads, and boards who need strategy without theater.
The AI safety community treats catastrophic risk as real, urgent, and demanding of the highest-caliber thinking available. So do we.
Elite chess is not a metaphor we borrow for marketing. It is a training ground for long-horizon calculation, adversarial reasoning, and composure under irreversible stakes. We assemble that talent from across the globe and apply it, with independence, to the questions that matter most for frontier systems.
Our clients are labs and teams who already take these risks seriously and want external strategic pressure that matches that standard.
Short pieces on method, risk, and why this work exists. Not a blog — working notes for people already taking the problem seriously.
The Hand That Feeds It, Is The Hand It Needs.
The goal isn’t for the chess master to be right. The goal is for the team to discover what it might be wrong about.
Your skillset matters. Now more than ever.
The chess master is not the answer. The chess master is the opposing player.
We work selectively. A short scoping conversation is enough to determine whether the problem, the timing, and the standard of rigor are a fit.