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Magnus Carlsen

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2022-08-27
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2022-08-27
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  1. “Thank you so much. Thanks for having me I wanted to say this at the start, but I never really got the chance. I was always a bit apprehensive about doing this podcast because you are a very smart guy and your audience is very smart. And I always had a bit of imposter syndrome. So I'll tell you this now after. Podcast, so please do judge me, but I hope you have enjoyed it”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, you can still have fun. You can try and pursue your goals, whatever they may be, but I'm pretty sure there's no special meaning in trying to find it also doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. For me, life is both meaningless and meaningful for just being here, trying to make not necessarily the most of it, but the things that make you happy both short term and also long term.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “So the night moves in an L, and like in Shogi, it can move both forwards and backwards. It is quite a nimble piece. You can jump over everything, but it's less happy in open position where it has to move from side to side quickly. I am generally more of a bishop's guy myself, for the old debate. I just prefer quality over the intangibles. But I can appreciate a good night once in a while.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Yeah, yeah. I don't think. Stressing over that, like. Obviously. It's so human that you can't help it to some degree. But I feel like stressing over love, that's the blueprint for whether you're looking or you're not looking or you're in a relationship or marriage or anything, like stressing over it is like the blueprint for being unhappy.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “That I'm more worried about, you know, not worried, but more like trying to just. Be a good version of myself. I cannot always be the best version of myself, but at least try to be good.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “No, not necessarily like trying to find love. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. I'm just trying to find my way. And my love for For the game, obviously it comes and goes a little bit, but there's always at least some level of love. So that doesn't go away. But I think in other parts of life, I think it's just about doing things that make you happy, that give you joy, that also makes you more receptive to love in general. So that has been my approach to love now for quite a while that I'm just trying to live my best life and then the love will come when it comes. In terms of romantic love, it has come and gone in my life. It's not there now, but I'm not worried about...”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Oh, not at all. As long as I'm aware of it, then it's fine, and I don't think. The inherent loneliness of my profession, really, affects the rest of my life in a major way.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, really But it's, you know, it's part of the profession. But I think any sport or activity where it's just you and your own mind is just by definition only.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Oh, yeah, for sure. Like, a chess player's life is by definition pretty lonely because you have nobody else to blame but yourself when you lose or you don't achieve the results that you want to achieve.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yeah, okay, it's always been increasing, but I feel like it's been increasing exponentially. I mean, or at least the importance of fun. But I guess it depends on the society as well. Like in the West, we've had such Christian influence. And, I mean, Christianity hasn't exactly embraced the concept of fun over time.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I don't think I'm very good at it. It's just that I can back it up, which makes it seem that I'm better. And also... You're even doing it now.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I don't think I am. A lot of people who Make those observations about me. I think I just expect very, very little. So they expect From the best chess player in the world, they just Anything that's non-robotic is interesting. Also, when it comes to trash talking, like, I have the biggest advantage in the world that I'm the best of what I'm doing. So trash talking becomes very, very easy because I can back it up.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I mean, it's so different in the sense that you can be one of the best players in the world and loose two or three errors in a row without that being like a massive outlier.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I'm not very good at that, so I cannot say that I understand it completely. When it comes to different sizing and all of that, I just haven't studied it enough.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Not bluffing in the same sense, but there is some element. But I do enjoy it on the chessboard. If I know that, oh, I successfully scared away my opponent from making the best move, that's of course satisfying.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yeah, and it actually happened with me a bit as well. I started out really aggressive. Then I became probably too technical at some point taking a little bit too few risks and not playing dynamic enough. And then I started to get a little bit better at dynamics so that now I'm, I would say definitely the most universal player in terms of style.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “But she was just at the end, she was just totally universal. Like at the start, she was probably a bit too aggressive, but no, she was absolutely universal.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “First of all, they did the chess, they did the chess well, they did it accurately. And also they found actual games and positions that I've never seen before, which really captivated me. I would not follow the story at times. I was just trying to, wow, where the hell did I find that game? Trying to solve the positions”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Also, Patrosian, the former world champion said, when your opponent wants to play Dutch defense, don't stop them. I mean, chess players will know that it's the same thing.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Yeah, exactly. They should know that are wrong. And so much. Politics, it's like you're often asked to do something when you're It would be much better to do nothing. No, but that happens in chess all the time. Like you have a choice. I often tell people that. In certain situations, you should not try and win. You should just let your opponent lose. And that happens in politics all the time. Yeah, just let your opponents. Continue whatever they're doing, and then you'll win. Don't try to do something just to do something. Often they say in chess that having a bad plan is better than having no plan. It's absolute nonsense.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “No, that kind of helps. No, I can understand. That obviously, for every action, there's a reaction, and you have to calculate. Far ahead, it probably would be a good thing if more big players on the international scene thought a little bit more like a chess player in that sense, like trying to make good decisions based on limited amount of data rather than thinking about other factors, but it's so tough. But it does annoy me when... When people make moves that they know are wrong for different reasons.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “It just helps you make decisions. Yeah, that would be my main takeaway that you learn to make informed guesses in a limited amount of time.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Yeah, it's a cliche, but I think to some extent all the people you surround yourself with They can help you a lot. It's only family that only has their own interests at heart. And so for that reason, like my father's like the only one that's been constantly in the team and that he's always been around and it's for that reason that I know he has my back no matter what.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yeah, they sort of wanted me to do more school, to have more options. And then I think at some point. They just gave up But I think that sort of coincided when I was actually starting to make real money of tournaments. And after that, you know, everything's been. Sort of easy in terms of the family, they've never put any pressure on me or they've never put any demands on me. They're just, yeah, minus has to focus on chess. That's it. I think they taught me in general to be curious about the world and to get... A decent general education, not necessarily from school, but like just knowing about the world around you and knowing history and being interested in society. I think in that sense they've done well.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “He's taught me a lot of things, but most of all. As long as you win a chess, then everything else is fine. I think especially my father, but my parents in general, they always wanted me to A good education and find a job and so on, even though my father loves chestnut and he wanted me to play chess. I don't think he had... Plans for me to be professional? I think things changed at some point. I was less and less interested in school. And for a long time we were kind of going back and forth fighting about that, especially my father, but also my mother a little bit. At times a little bit difficult.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “And he said, No, I just played the Ragostim with the different colors because if the night was here, it would be the same position. I was like, I never, I was like, how am I one of the best 20 players in the world? And I've never thought about that. So I actually started playing. I started playing this line as wide with pretty decent result and it results and it actually became kind of popular and everybody who asked about the line, like I would always tell them, yeah, that's the Henry Carlson variation. I wouldn't necessarily explain why it was called that. I would just always call it that. So I really hope at this point at some point this line will find its rightful name.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “And so he would play those openings pretty exclusively. And as Black and the tournaments that he did play and also the Sweshnikov Sicilian is like, that's the only two of my sisters have played a bunch of chess tournaments as well. And that's the only opening they know as well. So my family's portrait is very narrow. So this is the system. Black goes here and then very often white takes the pawn and black takes the pawn. So at some point I was watching one of my father's online blitz game blitz game and as white he played this this so this is called the carcon defense he took the pun it was taken back and he went with the knight his opponent went here and then he played the bishop here So I'd never seen this opening before, and I was like, wow, how on earth did you come up with that?”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “It's the Svechnikov Sicilian that I've played a lot myself also during the World Championship in 2018. I won a bunch of games in 2019 as well. So that's one opening. And I also taught him as black to play the Ragosian defense. And then the Ragosian defense goes like this. It's characterized by this bishop move.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “But I mean, So he's played a lot of other gambits. Maybe this is the one he wanted to mention. So maybe this is called the But I just know it as the 2G4 gambit. Maybe this is the one. Like this one he has. One he has played a bunch. And he's been telling me a lot about his games in this line. It's like, oh, it's not so bad. And I'm like, yeah, but you're up on down. But I can sort of see it. I can sort of understand it. He's like. Is proud of the fact that nobody told him to play this line or anything. He came up with it himself. And there's this, I'll tell you another story about my father. So there's this line that I call the Henry Carlson line. So at some point... He never knew a lot of openings in chess, but I taught him a couple of openings as black. It's the”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Is that I haven't really, I have so I can tell you I've never watched any of his videos from start to finish. I'm not like, I'm not the target audience, obviously. But I think the only chess YouTube video that my dad has ever watched from start to finish is Agamatur. And he said, like, I watched one of his videos. I wanted to know what it was all about. Because I think Agamatur is like, The same strength as my father, or maybe just a little bit weaker like 1900 or something. My father is probably about 2000. And my father has played chess his whole life. He absolutely loves the game. It was like, that's the only time he's actually sat through one of those videos. And he said, yeah, I get it. I enjoy it. So that's the best recommendation I could give. The only channel that my father actually enjoys.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “No, so like. Just letting me do my thing. Like, if you give me a bunch of work, it will probably feel like a shore. And if you don't give me, I will spend all of that time on my own without thinking that it's work or without thought that I'm doing this to improve my chess.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “That's for sure, but I'm also very, very. About giving advice because I think. Again, my way only works if you have some combination of talent and obsession. So I'm not sure that generally recommended. Like what I've done doesn't go with what most coaches suggest for their kids. I've been lucky that I've had coaches from early on that have been very, very hands-off and just allowed me to do my thing, basically.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Yeah, in harmony. Like, if you can control the middle, you can more easily attack on both sides. That applies to pretty much any game. It's as simple as that. And attacking on one side without control of the middle would feel very non-harmonious for me. I talked about the 10th game and In the World Championship, that's the time I was the most nervous. And it was. Because it was a kind of attack that I hate where you just have to abandon one side and the attack has to work. There was one side and part of the middle as well, which I didn't control at all. That's like the opposite of harmony for me.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “I would say it's more of the latter that would be more precise that you look, I mean I look mostly closer to the middle, but then I would focus on one like there are usually like one grouping of pieces on one side and then some more closer to the other side. So I would think of it a little bit that way.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “General, I try and create harmony on the board. Like what I would usually find harmonious is that The pieces work together, that they protect each other and that there are no pieces that are suboptimally placed. Or if they are suboptimally placed, they can be improved pretty easily. Like I hate when I have one piece that I know is badly placed and I cannot improve it.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “It means that at some point early you're planning your evaluation has been better so that you play just very simply, very clearly. It looks like you did nothing special and your opponent lost without a chance.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Everything But so, I mean, it wasn't hard for me to tell at that point that I had something that the other kids didn't because I was never the one to grasp something very, very quickly. But once I started, I always got hooked and then I never stopped learning.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “And also, I knew that I studied a lot more than the others. I knew that I had a passion that they didn't have. They saw chess as something like It was a hobby. It was like an activity. It was like going to football practice or any other sport. You practice once or twice a week and then you play a tournament at the weekend. That's what you did. For me, it wasn't like that. Like I would go with my books and my board every day after school. And I wouldn't I would just constantly Be trying to learn new things. I had like two hours of internet time on the computer each week. And I would always spend them on chess. I think before I was... 13 or 14. I'd never opened. Browser for any other reason than to play chess.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Who was clearly like the best or second best? And at that point, I thought it was over because I thought he wouldn't give away points to others. And then the very next day, he lost to somebody. So the rest of the tournament, it was just like I was always playing my game and watching his. And we both won the rest of our games, but it meant that I was half a point ahead. Like the feeling when I realized that I was going to win That was just so amazing. It was like the first time that I was the best at my age. And at that point Yeah, at that point, I realized I could actually be very good at this.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Was edging a little bit closer. In each tournament, I felt like I was getting a little bit better. And when we had the championship, I knew that I was ready, that I was now at the same level of the best players. I was so anxious to show it. I remember I was just the feeling of excitement and nervousness before the tournament was incredible. The tournament was weird because I started out, I gave away a draw to a weaker player. Whom I shouldn't have drawn to, and then I drew against the other guy.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “No, so I'll tell you about the most satisfying tournament victory of my career. So that was the Norwegian Championship under 11 in 2000. Before that tournament, I was super anxious. Because I started kind of late at chess. I played my first tournament when I was eight and a half, and a lot of my competitors had already played for. For a couple of years or even three, four years at that point. And the first time, so I played under 11 championship in 1999. I was like a little over the middle of the pack. I'd never played against any of them before. So I didn't know what to expect at all. And then over the next year.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Yeah, extremely aggressive, dynamic chess. It probably appeals to me a lot because these are the things that I cannot do as well. That it just feels very special to me. But yeah, in terms of games, Never thought about that too much.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Yeah, there are several games of. Young Kasparov, like before he became world champion, if you're going to ask for my favorite player or favorite style, that's probably.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “I don't think of it. I mean, I tried to, I find the games interesting. I tried to learn from them, but trying to rank them has never interested me.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “No, I mean. No, it's not because of the finishing, it's because of his overall impact on the game. It's higher than anybody else's.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “I've been number one for 11 years. And for a lot of the time, the gap has been pretty big. So I think there are decent arguments for all of them. I've said before, and I haven't changed my mind, that Gary generally educates. There are arguments.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “The longevity for sure. Also at his peak, he was not quite the level of Fisher in terms of the gap, but it was similar to or I think even a little bit better than mine. As for me, I'm of course unbeaten as a world champion in five tries. I've been world number one for 11 years straight in an even more competitive era than Gary. I have the highest chess rating of all time. I have the longest streak ever without losing a game. I think for me the main argument would be about the era where there's the engines have leveled the playing field so much that it's harder to dominate. And still, I haven't always been a clear number one, but”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “And that would be the argument for him, for Gary, he's played in a very competitive era and he's beaten several generations. He was the best He was the consensus best player, I would say for almost 20 years, which nobody else has done in at least in recent time.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Yeah, I think I can make a case for myself for Gary and for Fisher. So I'll start with Fisher. For him, it's very, very simple. He was ahead of his time, but that's like intangible. You can say that about a lot of people. But he had a peak. From 1970 to 72, when he was so much better than the others, he won 20 games in a row, also the way that he played was so powerful and with so few mistakes that he just had no opposition there. So he had just a peak that's been better than anybody.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “I'm always skeptical of those who said that they knew that I was going to be world champion after that game or at all at that time. I mean, Was easy to see that I would become a very, very strong player. Everybody could see that, but to be the best in the world or one of the best ever.”

    2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source