#2275 - Magnus Carlsen

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Joe Rogan podcast, checking out The Joe Rogan Experience.

Tony Hinchcliffe (0:06)

Shrink by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

All right, we're off and rolling. Magnus Carlsen, ladies and gentlemen. You want some coffee?

Magnus Carlsen (0:16)

No. Oh, this is water.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

Tell Jeff to bring in the coffee. I forgot to bring in the coffee.

Magnus Carlsen (0:20)

No, no. I'm good with water.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

I need coffee. I'm going to keep up with you, buddy. Of course, Tony Hedgecliffe is here, who's a gigantic chess fan and just creamed his pants yesterday when I told him you were coming in. And then immediately I said, you got to come with me. And so Tony's here as well. It's an honor to meet you, man. I'm always fascinated by people that are at the top of something that's insanely difficult, like chess. And I'm always wondering, like, how much time is involved?

How often do you play? And when did you start? How old were you when you first started playing?

Magnus Carlsen (0:55)

I think my dad, my dad is an avid chess player. So I think he thought that I might have some talent. So he thought he taught me pretty early at around five years old. But at that time, I wasn't that interested. I was mostly into Legos and I was into maths and like sports stats. And I had my little flag book with all all the countries in the world, their flags and their inhabitants and area and everything. And I sort of, that's what I did generally, just taking in all the stats that I could also with sports, reading the sports section every day. And I didn't find chess that fun. A couple of years later, my older sister is a year and a half older than me.

She did a lot of chess with my dad. I started sitting in on them a bit and I started liking it. And I really, really wanted to beat my sister as well at generally everything. And yeah, from there on, it really just became my thing. It's been my main hobby and eventually work as well since.

Joe Rogan (2:07)

Yeah, obviously. It's so funny though, a spark, a competitive spark with your sister is really what ignited you to get going with it.

Magnus Carlsen (2:15)

Yeah, the funny thing is like she's not competitive at all. So she hated the fact that I like, I wanted to play, especially when I realized that I could beat her. And she liked chess, but she stopped for a while and only started when I had become like good enough that there wasn't a competition. So it turned out like my dad was right. After all, I just needed that extra push.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

Yeah, what a call. I think you've got some talent. What a call.

SPEAKER_4 (2:46)

Grandmaster at 12, was it?

Magnus Carlsen (2:50)

13 So actually the record is 12, but most kids these days, honestly, they start so early. I was at a tournament in India a few months ago, and there's this guy who's like a 1600 rated player, and he's three years old. And I'm seeing the games. They're actually decent.

And yeah, now there's this one kid from Argentina, they call him the Messi of chess, who's gonna become a Grandmaster soon. I think he's only 10 So they're really, really playing early these days. But it's good to see though, because information is so easily accessible these days. It takes a lot shorter time to get good at something.

Joe Rogan (3:42)

Well, it seems like now chess, because of social media, it's like everything else. It's kind of exploding, because there's so many fascinating videos out. And then, of course, there was like the big controversy with that young man who you believe is a big old cheater. That guy. I need to know the anal beads thing. Is that a legitimate theory?

Magnus Carlsen (4:04)

So, it actually started in one of my friend's streamer channel. One random guy said, made a comment about anal beads. And he was like, yeah, maybe. And then, I think it became... It started taking the rounds in reddit, and then Elon saw it, tweeted about it, and then obviously, it blew up. I actually spoke to...

I think it was Mark Andreessen who said, like, that would be one way to do it.

Tony Hinchcliffe (4:41)

Yes.

Magnus Carlsen (4:42)

But I really, really, really don't believe that that has happened. I think it has no connection to reality, but it just became a thing of its own.

Joe Rogan (4:53)