Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time | Lex Fridman Podcast #315

See the timestamps below. Quick note from Lex: The camera on Magnus died 20 minutes in. Most folks still just listen to audio-only version, but here on YouTube, we did our best to still make it interesting to watch & listen by adding image overlays. I mess things up sometimes, like in this case, and it hits me hard when I do. But I'm always working hard to improve. I hope you understand. Thank you for your patience and support along the way. I love you all. 0:00 - Introduction 0:51 - Greatest soccer player of all time 7:57 - Magnus's approach to chess 17:10 - Game 6 of the 2021 World Chess Championship 21:12 - Chess openings 33:35 - Chess960: Fischer random chess 38:37 - Chess variants 41:22 - Elo Rating 49:48 - World Chess Championship 1:14:00 - Losing 1:21:22 - Day in the life 1:28:12 - Drunk chess 1:32:43 - Chess training 1:40:37 - Garry Kasparov 1:49:54 - Greatest chess player of all time 2:03:06 - Advice for chess players 2:04:49 - Chess YouTubers 2:08:20 - Henrik Carlsen 2:13:55 - Lessons for life 2:17:19 - Queen's Gambit 2:19:10 - Poker 2:25:24 - Loneliness 2:28:45 - How does the knight move? SPONSORS: - Shopify: shopify.com/lex to get 14-day free trial - Athletic Greens: athleticgreens.com/lex to get 1 month of fish oil - Fundrise: fundrise.com/lex - BetterHelp: betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - InsideTracker: insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off

While I was watching a video , I got an ad about a podcast and how if you 'paid for it' , you would get so many life changing lessons . That's when I realized the magnitude of the great work that Lex is doing, because he puts out the kind of content for which I would happily pay 10 times the amount charged by others, completely free on youtube. And in yesterday 's episode when the topic about Magnus was brought up, I secretly wished how amazing it would be if Magnus was invited to the podcast, and lo and behold there he is ! Simply amazing!

I almost can't believe the amount of interesting people you've had on your podcast recently. You're the man Lex. Love your work.

You have a remarkable way of bringing out the authentic side of your guests Lex. Thank you for doing these, I get so much enjoyment out of these conversations.

One of the best podcast episodes I've ever had the pleasure to listen to. You should try to bring Magnus back for another episode with the camera working. I'd love to see him explain some chess to you over the board while talking more about his interesting perspectives on life.

I really love how open Magnus is about sharing his thought process and feelings. He seems pretty self reflected and it's nice to see that he isn't timid to say that he is much better than player X and so on.

I've seen this Magnus fellow somewhere. Can't put my finger on it

Wow, a remarkable conversation. Thank you for coming to this podcast, Magnus!

So enjoying your calm, respectful, long-form interviews. It's such a joy to hear such well-informed questions and intriguing discussions with fascinating people. Just found you recently but I'm catching up on old shows!

I’ve genuinely been waiting for Lex to interview Magnus for years. This was a real treat to see.

"When your opponent can predict every single one of your moves, and still lose" That's a stone cold killer quote. Profound when it comes to chess because it's the worse way to lose a game at any elo, you know where they're trying to attack but either you lose track of the sequence on one single move and lose, or you just don't have the capability to counter their attack.

So glad to find Magnus was such an accessible personality. so enjoyable a listen that the camera failure went practically unnoticed.

1:59:58 “What is beautiful to me Is when your opponent can predict every single one of your moves, and they still lose” - Magnus Carlsen Fascinating mind, fascinating personality! Great, great work, dear Lex Friman. Excellent interview.

Amazing interview with the best!

Lex. Please invite Magnus again. Such an inspiration to me. Not just in chess

Just listened on this now - wow what an excellent interview it was, touching on so many different things and really showed what an humble and great guy Magnus is.

As a watcher on YouTube and avid chess player who follows the professional circuit having the camera die on Magnus 20 min in was kind of like an “aw man” moment but I’m an adult so I got over it in the next five seconds and am just happy that Lex got to Magnus and was able to get that much of magnus’s time. Literally no one gets that much of his time. Mag is easily the most exciting player to watch just cruise around playing online bullet chess. It’s hard not to like him when he is so brilliant but there are other players who are worth mentioning along with Magnus in today’s chess. Personally, i am a big Wesley so fan, Danil Dubov...Levon Aronian...wow so many....thanks for the pod lex!!!

Wow, this is by far the best interview with Magnus Carlsen I've ever heard! Great job! :)

I love to hear from absolute masters in their field like this also, as a non-chess fan (but huge admirer of strategy games in general, even though i suck at them) this was very easy to follow despite quite a lot of in depth chess talk nice work!

I am dreaming of reaching Magnus level of objectivity. Insane. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview both on entertainment and content interest level. One world: thanks.