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Magnus Carlsen

lines on the record: 187
first: 2022-08-27
most recent: 2022-08-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Yeah, and I think the rules have changed over time a little bit. But I would be, I mean, speaking of games and all that, I'm also interested to play other games like Chess 960 or Fisher Random, as they call it, like that you have 960 maps instead of one.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I guess it is quite fascinating that all those years ago they created the Knight and the Bishop without probably realizing that they would be almost equally strong with such different qualities. That's crazy.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It sounds very good. I haven't tried a lot of other games, but I tried to play a little bit of Shogi. And for my noob Shogi brain, comparing it to chess, what annoyed me about that game is how much the pieces suck. Basically, you have one rook and you have one bishop that move like in chess, and the rest of the pieces are really... Not very powerful. So I think that's one of the attractions of chess, like how powerful, especially the queen is, which.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, it depends on the situation, but generally that's fine. And there are a lot of openings that are based on that, that you sacrifice upon for the bishop air, and then eventually it's some sort of positional equality. So that's fine. But the way AlphaZero would sacrifice a knight or sometimes two pawns, three pawns. See that it's looking for some sort of positional domination, but it's hard to understand. And it was really fascinating to see. Yeah, in 2019, I was sacrificing a lot of Lot of ponds, especially, and it was a great joy. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to continue to do that. People have found more solid opening lines since that don't allow me to do that as often. I'm still trying both to get those positions and still trying to learn the art of sacrificing pieces.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A few moves down the line, you can see that you can either retrieve the material or you can put your opponent's king under pressure or have some very concrete positional advantage that sort of compensates for it. For instance, in chess, so bishops and knights are fairly equivalent. We both give them three points, but bishops are a little bit better. And especially a bishop pair is a lot better than a bishop and a knight, or especially two knights depends on the position. But like on average they are. So sacrificing a pawn in order to get a bishop pair, that's one of the most common sacrifices in...”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's one of the things that's hardest to replicate. As a human as well, or at least from my playing style, that usually when I sacrifice, I feel like I don't do it unless I feel like I'm getting something like tangible in return.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Funny thing about Dem is he doesn't play chess at all like an AI he plays in a very very human way No, I was hugely inspired when I saw the games at first. And in terms of man versus machine, I mean that battle was Was kind of lost for humans even before Enter top level chess. So that's never been an issue for me. I never liked playing against computers much anyway. So that's completely fine. But it was amazing to see how they quote unquote thought about chess in such a different way and in a way that you could mistake for creativity.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I can evaluate as a human. I can know what they find unpleasant and so on. Very often, the case for me to some extent, but a lot for others, that you arrive in a position. And your opponent plays a move that you didn't expect. You know, if you didn't expect it, you know that it's probably not a great move. Since it hasn't been expected by the engine. But if it's not obvious, why? It's not a good move. It's usually very, very hard to figure it out. And so then looking at the engines doesn't necessarily help because at that point, like you're facing a human, you have to sort of think as a human.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My team does. Personally, I try not to use them too much on my own because I know that when I play, you obviously cannot have help from engines. And often I feel like often having imperfections. Knowledge about a position or some engine knowledge can be a lot worse than having no knowledge. So I tried to look at engines as little as possible.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but you could also look at it another way that regardless, like if you turn on whatever engine you turn on, like if you try to analyze either from the starting position or the starting position of some popular opening, like if you analyze long enough, it's always going to end up in a draw. So in that sense, you may not be going for like the objective the tries that are objectively the most difficult to draw against but you know you are trying to look at least at the less obvious paths”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not entirely sure, but there were at least some players, even in the top events who you could see did not use them or did not use them in the right way. And then you could gain a huge advantage because a lot of positions, they were being evaluated differently by the neural networks than traditional chess engines because they simply think about chess in a very, very different way. Short answer is these days it's all about surprising your opponent and taking it into position where you have more knowledge.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Find ideas now that actually give you an advantage with the white pieces. I mean, people don't expect to find those ideas anymore. Now it's all about finding ideas that are missed by the engines either they're missed entirely or they're missed at low depth. And using them to gain some advantage in the sense that you have more knowledge and, you know, it's also good to know that usually these are not complete bluffs. These are like semi-bluffs so that you know that even if your opponent makes all the right moves, you can still make a draw. And also at the start of 2019, neural networks had just started to be a thing in chess.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and it would also very often come up with them himself. Also at the start, he had some of the first computer engines to work for him to find his ideas, to look deeper, to verify his ideas he was better at using them. Than a lot of others. Now I feel like the playing field is a lot more level. There are both computer engines.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There were several reasons for that. First of all, he worked harder, he was more creative in finding ideas. He was able to look places others didn't. Also, he had a very strong team of people who had specific strengths in openings that he could use.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, these things have changed a lot over time. Back in Kasparo's days, for instance, he very often got huge advantages from the opening as”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some extent, also, yeah, I said, if you evaluate it better and thus accumulated some small advantages, then you can often make your life pretty easy towards the end of the end game.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think if you evaluate well at the start, you know what plans to go for. And then usually the play from there is often pretty simple. Let's say you understand how to arrange your pieces and often also how to arrange your pawns early in the endgame, then that makes all the difference. After that is like what we call technique of very often that it's technique basically just means that the moves are simple and these are moves that a lot of players could make not only the very strongest ones. These are moves that are kind of understood and known.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it does matter in some simpler endgames. Yeah. But also there are these theoretical endgames with very few pieces like Rook Knights and Toupon versus Queens, but a lot of endgames are simply defined by the queens being exchanged. And there are a lot of other pieces left. And then it's usually not brute force. It's usually more of understanding and evaluation. And then I can use my strengths very well.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I knew that for most of the time it was a theoretical draw since chess with seven or less pieces on the board is solved. So you can, like people who are watching online, they can just check it. They can check and They can check a so called table base and it just going to spit out win for black or draw. And also I knew that, didn't know that position specifically, but I knew that it had to be a draw. So for me it was... About staying alert, first of all, trying to look for the best way to put my pieces. But yeah, those endgames are a bit unusual. They don't happen too often. So what I'm usually good at is I'm using my strengths that I also use in middle games is that I evaluate well and I calculate short variations quite”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mainly to the middle game because when you get to the end game, it's usually brute force calculation that makes you spend so much time. So middle game is normally it's a complicated mix of brute force calculation and like creativity and evaluation. So endgame, it's easier in that sense.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'm trying to find something that isn't there. I think 10 to 15 minutes thinks in complicated positions can be really, really helpful, then you can spend your time pretty efficiently. It just means that the branches are getting wide. There's a lot to run through, both in terms of calculation and lots you have to evaluate as well. And then based on that 10 to 15 minute thing, you have a pretty good idea what to do. I mean, it's very rare that I would think for half an hour and I would have a eureka moment during the game. Like if I haven't seen it in 10 minutes, I'm probably not going to see it at all.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I transport it away. Sometimes I have to sort of repeat it because I forget. And it does happen frequently in games that you're thinking for, especially if you're thinking for long, let's say half an hour, or even more than that, that you play a move and then your opponent plays a move, then you play a move, and they play a move again and you... So that's obviously what happens when you store the information and you cannot retrieve it”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One position at a time, so then I go back, and that's when people play, or at least that's what I do, when I play blindfold chess against several people, then it's just always one border at a time and the rest are stored away somewhere”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, Blitz is a lot about calculating forest lines. So those, you can see pretty clearly that the players who struggle at Blitz were graded classical are those who rely on deep calculating ability because you simply don't have time for that in Blitz. You have to calculate quickly and rely a lot on intuition.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, like you calculate a few moves ahead and then you evaluate because a lot of time the branches become so big that you cannot calculate everything. So you have to fall. Yeah, so you have to make valuations based on mostly on knowledge and intuition. And somehow I seem to do that pretty well.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, it does sometimes, but for me, it's more like I'm at the board trying to find the solution and understand the training at home is trying a little bit to replicate that. You give somebody half an hour in a position in this instance, you might have thought for half an hour if you played a game. I just cannot do it. One thing I know that I am good at, though, is calculating short lines because I calculate them well. I'm good at seeing little details and I'm also much better than most at evaluating, which I think is something that sets me apart from others.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Usually, you have to look deep. And then when I get these lines during the game, I very often find the right solution, even though Even though it's not still the best part of my game to calculate very deeply.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, one thing is made, but find the best move. That's generally the exercise. Like, find the best move, find the best line.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think my intuitive understanding of chess has over those years always been a little bit better than the others, even though it has evolved as well. Certainly there are things that I understand now that I didn't understand back then, but that's not only for me, that's for others as well. I was younger back then, so I played with more energy, which meant that I could play better in long drawn out games, which was also a necessity for me because I couldn't beat people in the openings. In terms of calculation, that's always been a weird issue for me. Like I've always been really, really bad at solving exercises in chess. That's been. Like a blind spot for me. First of all, I found it hard to concentrate on them and to look. To look deep enough.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the answer differs a little bit now from what it did eight years ago. For instance, I feel like I've had two peaks in my career in 2014, well, 2013, 2014, and also in 2019. And in those years, I was very different in terms of my strength. strength specifically in 2019, I benefited a lot from opening preparation. While in 2013-2014, I mostly tried to avoid my opponent's preparation rather than that being a strength. So I'm mentioning that also because it's something you didn't mention.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But let's say every player, let's say they sign a five-year contract for a team, like one of them, you're going to get randomly allocated to, let's say, a bottom half team”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, are you gonna punish Messi for taking a mediocre Argentine squad to the final in 2014 and punish him because they lost to a great team very narrowly after they missed? He set up a great chance for Igwain in the first half, which he fluffed. And then, yeah, eventually they lost the game.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I'll give you a completely different answer. Depending on my mood and depending on whom I talk to, I pick one of the two and then I try to argue for that.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I do. I just think that rising and Pressure and breaking under the pressure is often really oversimplified take on what's... On what's happening.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the World Cup is pretty overrated seeing us as it's such a small sample size. So it sort of annoys me always when titles are always appreciated so much, even though that particular title can be a lot of luck or at least some luck. So I do appreciate statistics a bit and all the statistics say that MES is the best finisher of all time, which I think helps a lot. And then there's the intangibles as well.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but it's, I think, just like with chess, it's hard to compare eras. Obviously, the improvements in football have been in technique and such have been even greater than they have been in chess, but it's always a weird discussion to have.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's pretty hard to make a case for anybody else than Messi for his all-around game. And frankly, my Real Madrid fandom sort of The second Ronaldo, not the first one. So I always liked Ronaldo, but I always kind of thought that Messi was better. And I went to quite a number of Madrid games, and they've always been super helpful to me down there. The only thing is that they asked me that we're going to do an interview and they were going to ask me who my favorite player was. I said somebody else, I think I said Isco at that point. I was like, okay, take two now, you say Ronaldo. So for them, it was very important. But it wasn't that huge to me.”
2022-08-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #315 – Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source