Hikaru Nakamura teaches chess to Lex Fridman

Full podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJNvxYEcVAY Lex Fridman podcast channel: youtube.com/lexfridman Guest bio: Hikaru Nakamura is a chess super grandmaster and is currently the #1 ranked blitz chess player in the world. He is also one of the top chess streamers on Twitch and YouTube.

Great Hikaru is attempting to train an AI how to play chess

0:38 Editor taking rook instead of mate in one, classic

Hey Lex, I'd love to see a sit down with Yasser Seirawan while you're on this Chess binge. He's such a captivating story teller and has a world of experience of Chess from the days of Garry Kasparov and his ilk

"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life" — Paul Morphy

Lex's folks utilizing the "make content, then slice the content into smaller content" thing. Good job, team. Thousands and thousands of views.

Best thing I’ve learned in chess came from Mikhail Tal quotes. “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” “There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine.”

Machine learning is one thing, machine explaining is another.

That cover image is on point. The added graphics are on point. All the points are on point as well.

This conversation makes me think about people today growing up with GPS. Listening to the maps voice telling one to turn right, drive for three miles, then turn left, and you will reach your destination. I used to study physical maps and figure out which way to go. This, to me, is the human element difference Hikaru is talking about.

Chess is a puzzle that has a solution that changes with every move the other player makes

The board showing during the "class" is wrong, some pieces are in wrong positions

3:58 Lex, your editor forgot to castle for black and the move h3 for white on the 2D board.

I woke up on Jan 1 2023 with an urge to learn chess. I can't explain it but yesterday morning I downloaded 2 apps and began watching house of YouTube videos of chess for beginners. I don't know where this came from but I am having a blast and am now deep diving chess. It's a hobby to round out my list. So, Archery, Cigars, chess. I guess I'm just an old need but I always "wished I knew how to play chess" well, now I will.

I try to never miss the opportunity to let a master teach the fundamentals of/in any skill or field, generally seems like a good idea.

Nakamura is so pedagogical. So understanding and does the ''tests'' just like a teacher would.

h4 is an underrated move because you're attacking the kingside and taking up space where there's plenty. If that gets up to h5-h7 in a way where it's protected and can't be attacked, it's close to making a new queen and can create many different issues as an attacking piece.

Lex: Ok, but how do you actually play? What constitutes a move?

The Alpha GO movie is great for understanding how AI thinks. It transformed the approach to GO. When they figured out its strange approach to the game they finally realised. AI doesn't care about winning by a huge margin. It figured out that winning by 1 point still means a win. So, once it has pieces in place to win by 1 point, it can move on the another area of the board. Human players were concentrating on capturing as many pieces as they could, wasting time in an area while GO was setting them up for a loss in another area. Moving the Pawn up along the edge makes no sense to a human thinking just 5, or 10 moves ahead, but AI probably figured out that it will help isolate the King in 25 moves, or at least shift the odds from 50:50, to 50.1:49.9 in its favour.

Maybe pawn to H4 along the edge is the computer giving the other side another turn to play. It's calculated that any other move by the opponent results in a better position