> but realizing what the reasoning could be in retrospect (sort of reverse engineering) Not in this situation. While the chess engine performed a network guid

> but realizing what the reasoning could be in retrospect (sort of reverse engineering) Not in this situation. While the chess engine performed a network guided non-deterministic search and returned a result, its neural network did not. With tools like in the paper, we can now map the network's internal states to something close to human relatable concepts. Even without such tools we could observe what lines were productive by analyzing a few ply deep and comparing with other moves we could have made. It's closer to something becoming obvious with hindsight, where seeing what works compared to what you thought of helps to highlight the flaw in your plan or something you missed, while reinforcing your understanding of the engine's moves. That scenario is a common enough one.