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

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “All of those players. I never really saw that with Hans Nieman. So it's very difficult for me to sort of, with my own two eyes, being in this chess world so long see things a certain way and then like something that's never happened before is happening. But at the end of the day, it is still possible. It is completely possible that Hans something clicked at a certain age and he started improving in spite of the fact that the statistics look weird in terms of his rating improvement. So I don't know, I think that in six to 12 months, I'll probably be able to say one way or the other with very certain confidence like whether he should be there or not.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “So, initially, I thought that that was actually quite legitimate, but as I found out much more recently, anybody can basically upload this data. So that whole theory, while it seemed very convincing at the time, is simplyn't any statistical evidence, in my opinion, now. But there are games from some of those tournaments that definitely considering where his rating was, look very suspicious in 2020, I would say. Again, that's not the role of myself to decide or chess.com. That's obviously going to be up to Fide whether they think that's compelling evidence or not. I think for me, what I would say from an intuitive standpoint is that I've been in this world for a very, very long time. I've seen most of the juniors as they've risen through the ranks, Magnus and many others. And there's always been something about them that has stood out to me that's been like a brilliant game they've played against someone who's much higher rated. I've just seen it from...”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Regardless of whether I believe he cheated or not, he is playing at probably a 20, he's probably at least 2,650 no matter what, regardless of whether he's cheated or not. He's already at that level, which is very, very high. So I think the stats will bear it out in the next probably, I said three to six months. Probably I would say next six to 12 months whether something happened. I really 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

  4. “Yeah, that's a very tough question for a couple of reasons. I think, first of all, when people refer to evidence in regards to whether Hans should over the board, there is not, I don't think there ever will be quote unquote hard evidence. The only thing that would ever constitute that is if he's caught in the act. Literally he's caught like using a phone with an earpiece, whatever it might be. That is the only way that there would ever be hard evidence. So as it stands right now, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence. How much of it is legitimate or not remains to be seen. I know people have questioned the statistics. Some people think it's very convincing. Some people think it's complete nonsense. I think that right now I'm very undecided, but I do feel that within the next three to six months, assuming Hans is able to play over the board in more tournaments, the stats will make it very clear one way or the other based on his results, whether it's legitimate or not. I think for me, I would say that regardless of the...”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think for me, I feel like having that me against the world attitude though, it really fueled me when I was younger, feeling like it was me against the world, everyone hating me or me hating the world. That was very important. I was able to channel that anger in a way that really helped me improve. So like, do I regret it? On the one hand, yes. Of course, I think you don't want to be like that. On the other hand, what I've gotten as good as I am, if it was different, I'm not so sure. So mix.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yeah, I mean, this is definitely true. I'm not going to pretend it isn't. When I was younger, I was very angry when I would lose games on the internet. Many of these stories are specifically from the internet, of course. And I think I look back on it. And of course, I wish that I'd been able to like channel the anger differently. Basically, I think the simple gist of it is I would play Blitz games online and I lost. I would get angry at my opponents instead of getting angry at myself, which of course, it's silly because they're playing the game. They're trying to win. Like, why shouldn't they try to beat you? I think for me, like, I'm not happy about that when I was a young teenager getting so angry over these online games and insulting a lot of people along the way.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I think you have to have that. I think for me, it wasn't really ever about thinking I'm the best in the world, it's about like going into that game. That game, whoever I'm playing, I believe that I can beat them or I know that I'm going to beat them or I'm better than them. That's for me, it was always about whenever I'm in that moment in the game, just knowing that I can do that. I think that is also another thing that when you start playing more and more in these top tournaments, you kind of lose that sometimes because the positions you have the same opening strategies. You end up with positions that are very draw-ish where you reach end games, things of this nature. And so it can also make you very jaded as well after you've been up there for quite a long time.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Think it's a mix. I think there's a fine line. I think you have to be very confident in order to get to the top. I know some players are very expressive like myself, like Kasparov and others. There are other people like Anant who don't express it, but then there was a book that I think was released fairly recently where he basically said like he was really angry in his room and he was like bang walls or doing something with chairs. I don't remember the exact story. But like he was able in public, he kept it very like very buttoned up. But then in private he wasn't. I think you have to have that edge. If you don't have that edge and you don't get upset when you lose games because you will lose games along the way, then it's impossible to get anywhere near the top. So I think every top player has that ego or extreme confidence that is necessary. If you don't have that, you'll never, I think, get to the top, probably in almost any field, frankly.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Exactly. Yeah, that's what you do. And also, you have to be very self-critical because for Fabiano, the Nydorf was the one opening he did very poorly against, but he worked really hard and he came up with a lot of different ideas and he solved that weakness.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Here and there. But when you start playing it every game, there's a point at which when you lose these games, you just can't, it becomes too much. And I spoke about this in the C-pod podcast where I play the Nidorf, and then I played Fabiana Caruana, a very strong American player as well. And he just blew me off the board in like four straight games. I'm like, okay, enough, enough of this. I just can't keep doing it.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Well, I think that's another thing. I was a very aggressive player probably until I got to about this 2700 Elo and then it kind of my style changed a little bit. I think what it is is I like to play attacking chess. I loved playing openings like the King's Indian, the Sicilian Nidorf as well when I was a little bit younger. And it's just like, why not try to fight with both colors, try to fight in every game and win if you can? Try as hard as you can. Now, one of the things is, as you get better and better, players are also better and better prepared. So you have diminishing returns when you play these very aggressive openings like the King's Inno or even the Dutch, which I played for a while. You can only, it only takes you so far, then at a point people figure out what how to respond to those choices. So I still do play these openings. For example, I play tournament St. Louis about three weeks ago and I played a great Kings Indian game, which I won against Jeffrey Zhong, an American junior player. So I still do play it.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Absolutely. I mean, I think also it's very humbling as well because, like, When you spend your whole life playing a game and you got pretty good, you think you're pretty good at it But even for Magnus, I think when we look at it and you see these things that we've spent 20, 30 years playing this game and it just, it doesn't click. And then you see it. It's just like it really is beautiful.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Think for me these days when I see some of these moves that computer suggest after a game that I play and I just go wow, that is the beauty for me because these are not moves that I would ever consider. And when I then see the move and then like I might make a couple of moves to try and understand why, that is the beauty to me is seeing all these things that just like 10 years ago I never would have even seen because computers weren't at the level they're at today. And so the depth and creativity of what they're saying, even if it's not like in our language, but in the evaluation, that's where I find a lot of beauty”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I think it's definitely true when you look at the imbalances that are not like crazy attacking positions. One thing that Bobby Fisher was really, really good at when he was the world champion is playing endgames with a bishop versus a knight. Now, traditionally we think of the knight being better than the bishop even today in endgames, but Fisher proved that there are a lot of endgames where a bishop is better than a knight. So I do agree with that statement. It's like the imbalances between like bishops and knights in many positions. You never really know. Many positions where a knight is better than a bishop or knight and bishop are better than two bishops. Or like it is all the imbalance. Generally, it is the imbalances though between the bishops and the knights or combinations of the two pieces that lead to the most interesting positions. So I agree with you.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “So it's probably going to lead back. All roads kind of lead back there as well. There probably are other ways where there is play, but I think that's at the end of the day, the symmetry is what's going to lead to like a forced equality or draw in the game of chess.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Probably night up six again. Or to make it simple. If I play knight after I move one, black here can also play d5 on move one. And normally at some point, white's going to end up playing d4.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Yes, I think E4, D4, C4, and Knight F3 for sure will be a draw. Other openings, I'm not sure about, but those first four possible starting moves, I think Chess is a draw.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Think it does so basically, I'm saying E4, E5, I think is a draw. I think D4 D5 is a draw, C4, C5. I think basically symmetry. That's”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I'm so sure because when you look at the computer games and you see these decisive results, it's because they played the openings are set generally. For move one, they play set openings. Like you might play the Nydorf, you might play the Berlin defense. Normally it's set openings as opposed to computers being able to do whatever they want. I just believe in general. In the openings that are symmetrical, like E4, E5, D4, D5, The computers will draw. And I think the optimal opening, I think E4, E5, NIDA 3, NINEF6 is probably a guaranteed draw if there is perfect, if we have perfect information and we know that chess is solved, E45, NIDA 3, NIDF6, the Russian or the Petrov defense, that will be the optimal strategy.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “I highly doubt it without major advances in quantum computing. I don't think it's realistic to expect chess to be hard solved. I just don't think that will happen. But I don't know. It could happen 20, 30 years maybe, but I think in the near future it's not realistic.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Right, because I know the computer says it's fine, but I grew up without computers. And so to me, you're pushing upon on the edge, it's the opening phase, you don't do things like this. It's just, it looks ridiculous. Now, of course, I have worked with computers long enough that I know that computers prove that everything is fine. But still, to me, it does feel wrong.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Just fine, it can, it probably, like everything else, is equal with perfect play, but it definitely, if you're not careful with black, you can be worse for sure. But if you ask me, I can't say why it's a good move. I can say, okay, maybe I'm going to expand on the king side. I'll push this pawn here and push the pond forward. Maybe I can put the bishop on G5 and in some position the pond guards the bishop, but I can't give like an actual good explanation for why it's a move that makes sense because it doesn't make sense.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Here's an example there's a move here that nowadays humans will play, which is this move Pond H4 And this is a move that 20 years ago if someone showed this move to Kasparov, he would just laugh at them no matter who you were he would basically say you're an idiot. What is this move? Like you're pushing a pawn on the edge of the board. It does nothing. And this is something that's playable. But even if you were to ask me or any other top grand master why it's playable or why it's a move that makes sense, we wouldn't be able to say why it makes sense because it doesn't. We just know that it's fine because the computer says it's fine.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yes, so in the opening, for sure there are certain positions where moves are playable. And I can even give you an example actually in this Nidorf. We can just set the position up a few moves earlier. Yeah, Nidor on B8, Bishopman C8. And just move the king back to the center. Bishop back to F8 and pawn to E7. So, the pawn in front of the king just pushes back two squares”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Or it's just you and your opponent. One thing that was great in the old days before computers simply became too strong is that you would actually do analysis with your opponent after the game. And that's very much to humans analyzing the game. Is you and your opponent two peers? And you come up with these human ideas. It's not automatically run back to your room, look with a computer and, oh, I should have played this move and it's just like winning the game. So that is kind of something that no longer exists in the game of chess because, as I said, there's no reason to analyze with your opponent after game.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “So it's like anybody now will use a computer from the time they start the game and you use a computer, you look at the evaluations after the game to see how you're doing. But you don't really ever have those moments where you're just, it's you.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “I mean, that's a higher level concept, of course. I'm trying to give a beginner example. That is something that I do think about as well. Like, I try to think about my opponent's pieces, that is basic logic. I think a lot of people these days at the upper levels of chess, they look at the game as something of pure calculation and you lose that human element. You're trying to just calculate all these different sequences of moves and you don't think about the basics. And it's something, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the next generation of kids who become very strong because that is really how they approach the game. They learn with computers. Whereas like I learned with computers at a certain point, but I did not start off with computers from the get-go. So human element still exists in my game. Actually, Magnus, I think, has said this too, where he did not use the computer, I think, until he was maybe like 11 years old, something around there. And so we have that human element to our game that I think the newer generation won't have. Now, it doesn't mean they aren't going to be better than us, but it's going to be a completely different approach.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “But that's a basic thing that people can follow. Actually, doing pure calculations, like moving five or ten moves in your head, that's not realistic. But trying to use basic logic to figure out what pieces are on squares that look correct is something anybody can do.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Because now you've gotten your pieces to all the optimal squares, and now you have to look for a specific plan, but you have gotten these pieces developed out of the opening. And that's a very basic thing that I think a lot of people don't think about is like, what are the optical placements for the pieces?”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “I wouldn't say it's in the game, but there isn't really a great square for that rook right now. But in this position, you would probably move your rook to C8. And then the middle game begins after that.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Okay, so let me move the queen to just follow some basic principles. Okay, because I want to bring my rooks to the center of the board. So, like, in this position, you've pretty much developed all your pieces. There are only two pieces that you haven't brought into the game.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “I'll castle now. You can move the knight to either square. It's somewhat irrelevant, but just move the knight. I'll just play it.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “So that's very basic. But then, if you move the bishop out and you castle the king, let's just say bishop seven. Okay, so now you've done everything with the pieces on the king's side. So, what would be the next set of try and develop the pieces?”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And then castle the Right, exactly. That's correct. And that's what you should do. That's the best way to play the position. Now, once you do that, though,”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Think both sides are actually pretty happy right now. But the thing is, if you're playing with a black, what is a move that sticks out to you to follow basic principles?”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “I think that at the higher levels, you're always thinking about the patterns on one side of the board specifically, but then also what happens is you play more and more if you're a very strong player. You will be able to remember, say, pond structures where the ponds are on certain squares from games that you've played like 15, 20 years ago even potentially. So it's a mix. I think a lot of it is more subconscious than actively thinking about and like figuring it out like that. The only thing for me that I definitely am doing very frequently when I play is trying to look at my pieces. Are they placed on the optimal squares? Are there better squares? And then once I get past that, like using the basic logic, I start to think about, okay, pure calculations, like what are the moves that make a lot of sense and start calculating direct moves. But one of the most basic things that I think that I do that a lot of people actually should do that they don't do is looking at the piece placement and trying to figure out what pieces look like they're on good squares versus”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Their forks night attacking like a queen in a rook, for example, or pawn attacking a queen in a rook or like a rook and a bishop. It's innumerable. But I will say that I think that with chess, the more of these patterns you see, the quicker you catch them. And that's how you improve, I think, the most is by learning these basic tactical themes at the beginner levels.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Yeah, so it's things like forks, for example, where you attack two piece at the same time, discover attacks like checkmates, and again, winning like a queen or other material. Those are probably two most important ones, batteries or batteries and pins, things of that nature.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Mostly tactics, actually. Openings were not other than top level chests. Openings were not a thing probably. I want to say for players below maybe master level in a serious way until maybe like the early 2000s.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “I was, I mean, I wasn't studying them cover to cover, though. It's like you just study certain diagrams, certain positions.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Yeah, I think it was just, I just played as much as I could. Like, it wasn't like I was consciously thinking about it as an eight-year-old, you're not really thinking about those sorts of things or the big picture. So I just basically kept playing as much as I could, whether it was online, whether it was against my brother, reading these chessbooks as much as I could. I just devoured as much information as I could.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it's like I came back. It was a very good start. And then I lose like this. But I stuck with it. I improved very, very quickly thereafter. And yeah, I was very straightforward.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “I mean, I think I probably knew it existed, but I didn't. I was just playing. It's a completely different world than now. If a kid goes on their computer, they can immediately figure out what are the basic checkmates, all these different things. The time that didn't really exist, you would have to find it in a book.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Pretty good at the game. And so a chess is the same thing as when I started out, it's like, why am I not good? What am I doing wrong? And I basically refused to accept that I couldn't be good at the game. And so, you know, at the start, I actually played for a couple of months. I did very poorly. And then my parents stopped me from playing for about six months. They just said, no, you're not playing. Your brother's quite good. My brother was one of the top rank players in his age group in the United States. So you're not playing. Then after about six months, they relented and they let me play. And the first tournament back, I actually, it was four games. I was playing against other kids. And I won the first three games. So it was really good. And I lost the form of checkmate in the fourth game. Which is, of course, quite ironic. Oh,”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “I think that this applies to actually chess or any number of sort of basic games actually for that matter is that I'm not naturally talented, but if I don't get something, I try to figure out why don't I get it? What am I doing wrong over and over and over again? And I mean, there are many games like this. There's this funny game on the phone. I'll just use it as an example. There's a game called Geometry Dash. Now, I'm not world class or anything at it. It's just a silly little game on the phone that you play. You just tap and it goes up and down. People will probably know what that is. But I played that for maybe an hour or so. I just randomly plays for one hour and I was terrible at it. And I kind of forgot about it for a week. And then I came back. I saw on my phone. I'm like, okay, what am I doing wrong? Like, why am I not good at this game? So I spent like probably like 100 hours over the following month just playing it nonstop over and over and over again to get to get better at it. And again, I'm not like world class or anything, but I'm”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “I was enjoying nature. I was going outside hiking mountains, like going and kayaking, all these things that I was not, that I had not done for many years.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Yeah, it makes, yeah, exactly. It made me, it took all that pressure off, and I kind of, I'm just trying to play as well as I can. And I don't really worry. Like if I lose the game, it's not the end all be-all. And maybe that's just like psychological stuff that I should have tried to sort out before. I mean, I did at some period of time do certain things along those lines. But I just, yeah, I became free. And I think it definitely, it was not about the chess. And that's one of those things that's also very hard because when I look at myself and when I had these periods where it seemed like I played better or improved, one of these periods was in 2008 where I basically I dropped out of college. I was about 2650 elo so I was roughly top 100 in the world. And for the first probably half part of 2008, I played very little. Almost not all. I went up to Vancouver. I was living on my own for the first time. And I was not studying that much. And then after that period, I started playing. And I actually improved.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Yeah. I mean, I agree with that completely. I think that if you look at my career prior to the pandemic, I put huge amounts of pressure on myself because I really wanted to be as good as I could be, but it was the way I was earning a living. And one thing that's very difficult about chess is that only the top 20, maybe 30 players in the world make a living from the game. Now, you make a very good living. No way am I diminishing chess, but the problem with it is it's not secure at all. So if you don't get invitations to the absolute top tournaments, which have prize funds from anywhere for maybe $100,000 up to potentially half a million dollars, if you don't get those invitations, it's very, very hard to earn a living. You can go from earning maybe $200,000, $300,000 a year to earning like $50,000. So it's very, very unstable. And I think for myself, I really put a lot of pressure on myself in a way that it affected me and not in a good way.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “I mean, it's basically that, yes, like I do want to perform while I'm going to give it my all, but it's not like if I lose a game, it's not the end of the world.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Evening just clear my mind these sorts of things now, they aren't really hacks per se, but it's trying essentially to have short term memory loss.”

    2022-10-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #330 – Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source