YouSaid · the spoken record

Hikaru Nakamura

lines on the record: 239
first: 2022-10-17
most recent: 2022-10-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Because this is an exception where you can do that. There almost are no variations in the King's Innovation where you do that. You almost always retreat the bishop to guard the pond, the bishop to F8. You break the pawn chain because it's an exception to the rule Because you're not actually worried about White being able to push the pond to D6 here. It was probably the best game I ever played, so it keeps going A5, G4. Yep.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I take take. Now, this is actually an exception to the rule. Normally, the King's Indian. You don't want to break this pawn chain from the The four ponds in a row that connect four.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I feel like it's very hard for white to play. Yeah, very hard for White to play. It feels like. You're getting attacked. You're king. You see the black pawns are coming down towards the king, and it's very hard to defend. And also, a lot of players don't like being attacked. Generally, you try to avoid positions where your king is under fire, which comes back to what I said about Magnus as well. Like, he doesn't like it when his king is under fire. And so therefore, you can't always get that. But you see, White had to play along to get to this point as well. If White didn't want something, this double-edged and this complicated, he could have avoided it.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nowadays, this is very well known as a standard theory. But at the time, the reason that I was aware of this is because I had played a tournament, I think, in Montreal. I think it was Montreal like the summer before. And one of my friends had actually played this variation with the black pieces. So I was aware of it. And it seemed very dangerous.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, normally the King's Inn, you try to sort of like storming with the pawns. The kingside where the white king is. So you see, now I push and I start pushing all my pawns forward.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's one sequence in the late middle game where. It's funny because I actually think I remember I tried to show this game to Peter actually, Peter Till, and I confused the move order in the late middle game. So I don't want to do that again. 2010, it was”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, there are two games. There's a game that I won against Boris Galfond in 2010 where I offered a queen sack, I think on five consecutive moves. Sacrifice the queen, yeah. So”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it does happen, of course, but very rarely. And I mean, I've done it on stream many times. Like, it's just, you go with the move that for whatever reason, like it just intuitively, whether it's from playing hundreds of thousands of games on the internet or just that experience, like you just intuitively can feel like the move is right.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just Phil, it's really just Phil. It's like this move feels right. And so I play it when you're at that stage of the game. It's like, as long as it's not a blender and it just, that is just that fill. There is no way for me to put that into.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's basically, you look at a move and you see when it's like five seconds or 10 seconds, you play a movie and you just make sure that it's not a blender. You just look, make sure it's not a blender, and you just go with it. And the first part, though, is the feel. So it's like, I see this move and it looks right. I don't know why it's right. I can't put that into words, but it looks like the right move. And then I look very for like a split second. See, as long as it's not some kind of blender and you just play that move”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like, if we play a game with three minutes, there are games I will just win very quickly. But a lot of games between top players, players have to think you have to use time. And in those final critical stages, I just don't blunder. I just don't blunder really at the end of the day. That's really the only difference because everybody's very, very strong, but it's sort of like who is the better CPU, for lack of a better way of putting it. It's like who makes a split dissect split second decisions the best. I do think that I'm extremely good at that in a way that almost nobody else is. That really is the only difference is that those split second decisions. Because you can get a worse position. But again, if you keep the game going, players have to use a time when you get down to those final 10, 15 seconds. I almost always end up winning in those situations.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think it's generally that I'm able to keep the games going no matter what until we're low on time. I'm always able to do that.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's just playing so many games online, and there's some kind of subconscious feel that I have. Because when you're that low on time, you can't calculate. It's just you have to look, you just have to figure out what's the movie you want to play is. No calculation, and just go with it. And I think just playing so many games probably, I mean, I'm guessing I played over 300,000 games online. And I think just playing all those games, it's a feel. There's no tangible way that I can't put that really into words. It's just a feel.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think it's much more applicable to Blitz in particular because my intuition is very good. So when I'm making less blunders with limited time on the clock, my opponents actually make a lot more blunders. That's why I think it's much more pronounced in Blitz than it is in classical chess because in Blitz, when you're down to like 10 seconds in the game, both players have 10 seconds, my intuition is just better than theirs. I mean, Mag is maybe not so clear, but like if you look at other players, say Fabiana Caruana, a very strong player, when he gets down to 10 seconds or in these situations, he almost always makes a blunder, almost always. So I'm just more precise. I make less blunders and that really the effect is much more dramatic in Blitz.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's, I think, probably my biggest strength is that I'm a universal player. I can play pretty much any opening strategy doesn't really matter. Beyond that, I think it's mainly that I don't really make many blenders. I don't make blunders unless I mean, I know I'm oversimplifying. It's not as simple as that.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Kings of Indian Defense for many years, and they started losing like four or five games in a row, and it took Kramnik. Very similar to what I mentioned about the Sicily Nydorf and Fabiano. And Gary gave it up. He started switching to playing the Grunfeld defense. And so I think that also instilled some psychological fear as well, because Gary was the boss. In openings, no one could compare to him.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think it's because Kramnik understood him. Actually, one thing that's funny speaking of Kasparov is that I think it got under his skin. Like when I worked with him, Kramnik actually played a certain style, very aggressive, very sort of risky opening play during the time when I was working with Gary. And I know that it annoyed Gary because he's like, why couldn't Kramnick play like this against me? Because I think Gary felt if Kramnick did that against him. He would have just blown him off the board and had many great victories. So I think it's Kramnik understood Gary they had worked together, I think, during the late 90s. I think Gary actually was very useful or very helpful in terms of Cramer getting a spot on one of the Russian Chess Olympiad teams in the mid-90s. So I think it's just Kramnick understood him very well. And Gary just could not, he just couldn't figure it out. I think also another thing, coming back to psychological part, is that Kramnik actually beat Kasparov in many games in the King's Indian defense. Kasparov”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Either very strong tactically, but if he was in positions that were defensive, he would make mistakes and lose in endgames like he did in one of those games in the World Championship against Kramnik. So there were very clear defined weaknesses in Kasparov's game. Whereas Magnus, they're no clearly defined weaknesses. Maybe he doesn't like being attacked. Maybe that's the one thing. He likes king safety and he doesn't like being attacked, but that's not something that you can easily do. Whereas, say, if someone's very tactical and they're not as strong positionally, that is something you can that will happen quite frequently in games. You can steer games a certain way. Doesn't mean you'll always get there, but that is something tangible. Whereas king safety, that's not something tangible at all. It's very, very hard to attack someone based on unless they play certain style of openings.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think for Magnus. You know that in the endgames, if you get there, he's not going to blunder. That's the first thing. So you know if you reach an end game, he's not going to make a mistake. He obviously plays great openings. And there's just really no defined weakness that he has. There's no weakness that I can think of very specifically. There are many times where players actually outprepare him in the opening phase, but as soon as they're on their own and they have to think, very often times they'll make mistakes. So there's just no weakness for Magnus, really no weakness. Unlike, say, Kasparo, like Kasparov, on the other hand, there are very clear weaknesses in his game, like Kramnik exploited them. First of all, very, I don't want to say like ego is the right word, but like very stubborn believing that his openings were infallible, that he could just win just proven advantage and win the game out of the opening, like against Kramnik when he ultimately lost. Also generally not a great defender.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For Gary as well. I mean, he was the number one player in the world for 20 plus years. A lot of opening strategies he came up with and our people still play them today. Bobby, I'm not so sure you can really make that case because he shot up really quickly, but he was the world champion for a very short window of time. And then he quit the game as soon as he became world champion. So I don't really feel like you can put Fisher in that conversation simply because he didn't have that longevity at all. He was up there for a couple of years. So I would say it's probably Magnus, but I understand people can also say Gary's the best player ever remains to be seen. But I think if Magnus is number one for probably another, let's say another three to four years, I don't think there's any debate at all.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I mean, I can't make the case for me. Be serious. I know there are a lot of people who want that kind of me to give off some kind of ego like that, but no. Obviously, I'm nowhere near the conversation. Actually, on that note, I would say also, I know people wanted to know if I'm the greatest player to never have played for the World Championship or to have not got become world champion. I don't think that I'm actually anywhere near the top of that conversation. I actually think Lavon Aronian tops that conversation by a big margin simply because he was number two in the world for a very, very long time and he never even got to the match. So as far as world champions and who's the goat, I think Magnus is the goat simply because he's playing the best chess by a bigger margin, he has the highest elo of all time. On the other hand, chess is a game where you build upon the giants of the past. We learn from them. And so you can definitely make the case.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I could give you a perfect example as I played a game in the Canada's tournament last round against Dingloren from China. There were many times where it was completely fine for me, but it started drifting. I started making some mistakes and I was worse. But there was one last moment where I think I had one move where I would have been able to draw the game quite easily. And every other move was significantly worse. And I did not find that move and I lost the game. But if I had known,”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's out there, find it. Like, if you look at Magnus' games, there are a lot of situations where the position is equal, but there's, or it's equal with one move, but only one move. If you don't find that one move, you're significantly worse. A lot of times that's the case. So if I can somehow know that there's like only one move where I'm okay. I could figure it out”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I would need to know. I would need to know is there one move that's good or there's more than one move. Again, how you extrapolate that.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you're saying if I'm in trouble in a game. And I'm in the same situation. So I'm in trouble in a game. It's probably a little bit more. It's probably like, I would say two to three times where I would need to know”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I just need to know. I just need to know whether there's something really good. Le Position's really good, or it's just like an equal position or it's just normal. That's all I need to know.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and I can follow that intuition probably to, because what normally is going to happen in such a situation is there probably are two moves or three moves max that you're going to consider in a really critical position. Like if I feel like there's something there, there are two to three moves. So if I know something is there, I'll be able to figure it out if I know that the position is very good.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Will tell me that with my intuition there are many times I play blitz online, I'll say something, I'll say something along the lines of I can feel like there's something here. Intuitively, I feel like there has to be a good mover. I'm probably winning. There's something there, but I don't know that. And most of the time I'm actually right about it. Like after the game when I look with the computer, usually it's like, oh, I should have played this move and it would have given me a big advantage or I would have outright won the game. So if I just know whether there's something there, that's good enough.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It basically would be something like one buzz means the position is great, and two buzzes means the position is completely equal or there's nothing special in the position.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that doesn't have to go into the speculation over the board. So I find it a little bit odd that Magnus hasn't said anything further. At the same time, it's also kind of peculiar because Magnus' reputation is also kind of in tatters in a sense. Like a lot of people are not happy with him for what he's done. But still, he goes and plays this tournament in this European Club Cup tournament and he's just gaining like 10 points as though nothing has happened. I mean, I don't really know where Magnus' head is at because if I was in that situation and everyone's coming after me for making such an accusation, I don't think there's any way I'd be able to play chess anywhere near the level that Magnus is playing at. So the whole situation is very strange.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's definitely possible. But Magnus could also take the other route and just say, well, he cheated online in 100 games. Like, I'm not going to play against a cheater. That's very easy to say. That's factual. It's proven.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't know why Magnus is still silent because my read of the situation was that there was some sort of NDA or there was some information that chess.com had that was like they could not release. And so my read of it was Magnus was essentially saying the same thing chess.com said where like I can't say anything about it because of whatever or whatnot. But then chess.com releases what I perceive to be the stuff that they could not talk about anyway. And Magnus still isn't saying anything. So I don't really understand why Magnus does not said anything further on.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That video publicly. No, they definitely don't. But yeah, I think when I look at it all, I feel like if people are looking for someone to blame, I don't think it's actually Magnus the other day. I think it's on chess.com very squarely for not handling it soon”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, it doesn't. I'm actually quite independent of them. One thing that's interesting to note is that a lot of people are under the assumption that when I do broadcast of tournaments or things of this nature, that chess.com is actively helping me. They are not helping me. I'm an independent contractor. And so my opinions are my own. And there are no lists given to me about like cheaters, anything of this nature. That has always been completely separate.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think, yeah, I think they could have released that. I think also they could have probably not let him play after it happened the second time as well, because it seems like it happened. I think it was at least like four or five different times. I haven't looked very, very closely at that, but it wasn't just an isolated incident. And so I think if there is blame for that, it's definitely on chess.com, which should stop people from thinking that I'm in some way influenced by...”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I'm in a very awkward spot there as well because I know why, I mean, I was like 99% sure why Magnus dropped out. It would have come out regardless though. It would have come out no matter what because Magnus was not going to back down on a stance about Hans and others would have brought it up anyway. So it's very tough. I think if you want to look for blame, I think probably it would be on chess.com ultimately because they were the ones who probably could have nipped all this in the bud at a much earlier stage and it wouldn't have gotten to where it got to.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I absolutely can. Again, I think it comes down to the specifics of how it was handled. Now, as far as I go, I was covering the news. And this is what makes it so difficult for me versus, say, some of the other content creators is that I do in a sense have that inside knowledge. Again, this is probably not really public knowledge. But when I went to St. Louis to play this Rapid and Blitz tournament before the Sinkfield Cup happened where Magus and Hawes were playing, there were people who told me very specifically that they thought he was cheating. Other players in the event, they even gave me like actual theories about things in his shoes, things of this nature”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, it is the ultimate say in this in that the top players, if they feel that he has cheat over the board, even if there's a report that says that Hans has not cheated, top players can still decide not to play him and sort of override whatever ultimate decision FIDA comes to. So that's also why it's very unclear, this term that U.S. championship Hans qualified. He's playing the tournament. But beyond this, there are no turns where he's automatically qualified to. And so it also is on the top players to sort of have to reach some conclusion on their own separate of feeding.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mean, I think I would probably beat him in Blitz and Rap. But Classical is a whole different question altogether. I think in Blitz& Rapid, I would. I mean, one thing actually that was very telling in both report and also Hans' interview for all the other stuff it was said is the one thing he did say and seemed very adamant about was the fact that he had never cheated against me. So that was the one thing he did say that at least according to the report was truthful. So it's something possibly down the road to consider. But I do want to see what happens with everything else first with Fide and whatever they choose to do in regards to Hans and Magnus. And then see where the smoke stands. But I think also one other thing that is potentially very dangerous about the whole situation.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, right now that's not in the near future for me. I think, fortunately. Well, because there's maybe only one tournament that I'm playing in that he could be playing in potentially, and it's not even set to be happening at the end of the year. There might be like a World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championship. So I don't think I'm going to have to make that decision for at least a bottle. Six”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, right, of course. And again, we'll see what happens. I think that's going to end up being on Fide more than anyone else to try and do that. I don't think asking the organizers to do it. I mean, I feel like Fide, they are the governing body. It will be on them at the end of the day to figure it out. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One thing you'll see is that a lot of people are talking about Weather Hans is cheater or not. The one thing that almost nobody is doing is actually trying to show how it can be done. Everyone's basically avoiding that. I think the single biggest reason for that is simply because it can be done very easily at like a weekend tournament. If you play a weekend tournament where the top prize is $100 and the players are maybe master level, somebody could already do this because even in St. Louis now where they have the security, my understanding is the nonlinear junction device they bought costs about $11,000. And organizers, if you have a weekend tournament at the local club, you don't have $11,000 to spend on such a device. And so that is why a lot of people have been talking about it, but I think it is very, very serious. And that's why it is good, even if aside from Hans even, it is a very important question or debate to be having at the present moment.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. It's very tough. And the one other thing I would say on the topic that's really important to note is this sort of came from left field for most of the people who are in the general public or very casual chess players, but this is not something that wasn't known, wasn't even on the radar. I think this has not been said before, but there was one of these things where they talk about how Hans has, he played better during a period of time when games were broadcast versus not broadcast. I actually heard this rumor two years ago during one of the terms he's playing specifically. So that is the thing is that this has been out there for a very long time. And so it's hard because you do believe that Magus could have handled it better. But if it was two years of these rumors and nothing was done about it, I don't know.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there was actually an article that was released today by Ken Rogoff, who is a grandmaster at chess where he wrote this article in the Boston Globe, and he essentially said that have Hans and Magnus play a match and see what his score is. Because statistically, if it's above a certain percentage, that means he's legitimate, because of course you have security. If it's below, that might mean that probably means that he's not at the level that he's at. So I don't know if that's a real way to settle it necessarily, because also for Magnus to ask him to play against someone who's cheated, I think for him, he just would never entertain the idea because it's like, why am I going to play against someone who cheated?”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Tough question. I don't. In my heart of hearts, I feel like there had to be a better way to handle it than what Magnus did. On the other hand, sort of being in this world of top grandmasters, having heard these rumors for two years, I think that the fact that it was blown off and it wasn't treated seriously, I'm not sure if there was a better option. So in my heart of hearts, I feel like there had to be a better way to handle it. But in practicality, like in the practical world, I think he might have made the only decision where it became a big issue.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Definitely in his favor. Definitely in his favor because. For example, if I go online and play against a computer, let's just say I go play against Softfish tomorrow, I'm going to play a very certain type of opening strategy, try to keep the board closed, and maybe hope to get lucky. Now, computers have gotten so good that generally even that doesn't, I don't even have a chance even with such strategies, but you play differently than you normally would. And so if you're playing a game against him and there's a move that looks really weird, it doesn't seem logical at all, that can also start to affect you. Is there something unbecoming? You start worrying about what is happening. And so it definitely is a very tough situation.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. I think also that could have a psychological effect. That is the other thing that makes the whole Han situation so tough. Because if you think that he's cheated or you're unsure about what's going on, that is another psychological factor whenever you play against him.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. 100%. That is absolutely possible. I think that's why I think for everybody in the situation, we want to see what happens in the next six to 12 months, because I think it will be very clear. Also, it's very interesting to me because there are other stats from that 72-page report that chess.com compiled, which in essence say certain other junior players basically have peaked that they're not likely to improve further. So it's also going to be very interesting when you look at those like, I think it was like 50 pages of graphs, because there are graphs that say like some of the other junior players are done. So when we look forward in a year or two, if those players don't improve, it will also say something about their methods as well that they've used to sort of compile this data.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think that's for sure true. When I think back to the last five to ten years, there are plenty of top-level tournaments that I played in where there was no security at all. You would just go into the auditorium and play your games, and that was that. So I do think it's a big issue. I think it has been a big issue. But the reason it's only coming to light now is because it features a very strong junior player who's very close to the world's elite. There have been many cheating scandals before. There was this French player, Sebastian Fowller. There was this player Igor Rouses from Latvia. There was, I think it's from Belarus, or maybe I have that wrong. Maybe it was Bulgaria. Boris Lavanov as well. Those are three big cheating scandals, but they were not at the absolute top levels of chess, which I think is why it never became the huge news story that this is, or it wasn't viewed in the same kind of way. It's why I think organizers were perhaps a little bit too lax in terms of security.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Scientists. Right. That's a good one. No, of course I'm not. You know, but that's the thing. You see all these stats are thrown out there and you try to understand what's being said. But it's also very scary because when you see these things that look very legitimate and then they're disproven or people say like you're cherry picking like the dates and all these other things, it almost feels like you can come to any conclusion that you want to. And that's why I think this is such a serious issue for the world of chess because going forward, if we don't take it seriously now, I think at some point there is the potential for a much, much larger scandal.”
2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source