GM Hikaru on The Chess Economy | Dojo Talks

‪@GMHikaru‬ joins GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, and IM Kostya Kavutskiy in today's episode of DojoTalks where GM Hikaru Nakamura talks about professional chess life and joins the Sensei in discussion of professional chess economics.
Interested in improving? Check out the Dojo Training Program: chessdojo.club
Chess is more than a game, it's a lifestyle. Live it with ChessDojo merch: www.chessdojo....
Want to support the channel? Donate here - streamelements...
Find all of our chess book recommendations (& more!) on our Amazon storefront: www.amazon.com...
Follow ChessDojo here:
Website: chessdojo.club
Twitch: / chessdojolive
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / chess_dojo
Patreon: / chessdojo
Instagram: / chess_dojo
Podcast: chessdojotalks...
0:00: Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura discusses the chess economy
5:52: Norway Chess event and the challenges of finding sponsors
11:33: Increase the visibility of tournaments.
17:12: Entering the streaming industry may seem appealing, but...
22:52: Creating chess courses can be a bureaucratic process and not a huge money-maker.
28:38: The Complexities and Enigmas of Hikaru
34:06: Content Creation vs The Candidates
39:41: Quality of Top-Level Chess is Declining
45:34: Prag is Ranked as the Top Junior Player
50:46: Importance of Playing Against Top Players
56:28: Chess Grand Prix
1:02:33: Hikaru wants to organize an event and write a book about his life.
1:07:49: Nakamura explains why it's important to be the first to upload a video recap of chess events to maximize views.

[@flipina]

1:16 - When Hikaru started listening to ChessDojo, on chess podcasts 2:30 - Hikaru on choosing events to play, Pruess' special distinction 3:56 - Sinquefield, rise of chess events over the years, GCT, etc 5:50 - Norway Chess 8:08 - Chess organizing is thankless? Profitability of events 9:30 - What makes a good organizer, role of social media and video streaming platforms 11:00 - Future of chess and community outreach and exposure 12:37 - Second boom, popularity of chess 13:36 - Esports vs chess growth, where growth is 16:20 - First mover advantage, business aspects of chess content 17:48 - Chessable courses, fair value, inventives and downsides 20:00 - Directions for chess players to monetize and make money, KZbin video tips 45:20 - Hikaru ranks juniors (top 5) 50:10 - Nepo, how Hikaru assesses potential and performance 51:36 - On the future of chess, online rapid chess, sponsorships for online chess events 56:07 - OTB chess and online broadcasting 58:27 - More on sponsorships, new classical time controls 59:52 - On prizes from events, Titled Tuesdays, where players are getting money 1:01:21 - Future events for Hikaru 1:02:19 - Future for Hikaru's content 1:03:32 - Why Hikaru isn't playing in Morocco and Chess Championships, scheduling of events, blaming Garry (lol) 1:06:37 - Post-events and recaps struggle 1:07:08 - KZbin tricks for chess recaps 1:08:40 - Transparency in chess content, Hikaru and Levy 1:11:00 - Final words, Fabi vs Hikaru past rivalry for WC, candidates 2028 😂

[@keedt]

So both Jesse and David have won a classical game against Nakamura? That's pretty impressive!

[@GMHikaru]

Yes, it is easy to forget how good both of these guys are! It's also fairly scary to think that the first time I played both of them was around 2001...where does the time go.

[@f12mnb]

Nakamura is a great guest!

[@bradleyreese5156]

Normally I am not into Naka, but his perspective of how players and organizers can spread the game is enlightening! One of the best interviews I have seen in a while about how to concretely spread chess.

[@lazydetective4774]

I managed to listen to about 20 minutes before I was too exhausted by all the words. Maybe I should take 20 minutes more in about a week when I have recovered ;-)

[@bradleyreese5156]

@@lazydetective4774 it's a podcast? So I am unclear why all the "words" should be considered exhausting. What would you have them do, not talk on a podcast? The only thing exhausting is perhaps your inability to concentrate for longer than 20 minutes, lazy detective indeed.

[@lazydetective4774]

@@bradleyreese5156 Dont get mad about my lack of endurance ;-)

[@afronasty2000]

​@@lazydetective4774 Dad voice: "I'm not mad, just disappointed." 😂

[@lazydetective4774]

@@afronasty2000 Sorry Dad. No dad, please not the belt again. Please...I will do better next time.

[@adiedits8027]

32:00 is interesting and personally, I can’t relate to it more. I took the LSAT twice after relentless, obsessive studying and got decent scores which I thought were below my potential, but good enough to get into some solid schools. 8 months after my previous test, I was getting ready to officially enroll into a law school before I decided to give the lsat another go. I figured that if I achieved my goal score, I would apply to some of my dream schools. If I did terrible, I didn’t need to worry because I had already been accepted to other solid schools. I prepared WAY less and focused on the “nothing to lose” mindset and i achieved my prior best score to the extent that my dream schools became a possibility. I can’t stress enough how awesome it is to see Hikaru succeed at this level and attribute much of that success to his new mindset!

[@kvnjng]

Congratulations! I agree, and to add on to that, I know of someone who is a great amateur classical pianist doing some very hard technical pieces on the instrument, he said that sometimes you work really hard on something and it feels like you hit a wall, but then you revisit it with a new and fresh perspective and you've let the remnants in your body and mind ''marinate'' a bit and suddenly you are better. In that sense, perhaps, Naka too got a break from classical through COVID and streaming and classical chess during 2019-2020

[@regnitteo]

Happy to hear Hikaru sees Vincent up there Top 3 - especially acknowledging his consistency 👍

[@yeskimkim]

I met Hikaru at Norway Chess last year, and also heard his live talk. I was going to watch a game of his, but as I entered the playing area he drew his game with Magnus after just minutes, but fun meeting him and fun to hear him talking about this tourney

[@freeWizard]

Wow, such a pleasant surprise to see and hear Hikaru on the pod. He's such an intellect not just with his chess but his whole perspective and knowledge around it. It really was a great listen, the best guest to have on a chess podcast. Thanks ChessDojo for inviting him and Hikaru for coming ❤

[@nickschneider4830]

You guys gotta upload a whole bunch following this vid and the algorithm should help you guys out… the dojo deserves some more popularity

[@juhonieminen4219]

Thumbs up for inviting Hikaru, and great that he had the time to take part! These Dojo Talks have been my favourite chess content this year, besides ChessVibes tredmill & Gout speedrun. He's had a wild year and very down to earth live streams.

[@WilsonMagna]

Hikaru a real hustler, getting those recaps ASAP, and hes right. I'll watch recaps from the good players like Hikaru and PowerplayChess, but if the only video available is from Levy or an untitled player, I'll watch that. Then once I've watched a recap on a game, its near 0 chance I'm watching it again from another youtuber.

[@raylopez99]

The First Mover Advantage.

[@mrdisco8616]

It was interesting hearing Hikaru talk about the race of getting game recaps out, it kind of reminded me of David's and Sveshnikov's take on chess players owning the intellectual creation that is the game they just played. I'm more of a copyleft guy myself but something about top players working their brain at maximum for hours creating this and then having to run to their hotel room and rush their recap to make sure they get a good piece of the profit from the discussion of said game online feels just wrong.

[@retrospect]

This was awesome!

[@synesthetically]

Excited for this one!

[@liszt85]

So great to see the Chess Dojo flourish, with new high profile supporters like Hikaru! :)

[@liszt85]

Also Hikaru is absolutely right about Chessable courses by top players being useless for amateurs and benefitting the top players more. Good to see someone who knows what he's talking about say this.

[@horaciobrown9754]

At what minute was that said

[@flipina]

Very good interview, interesting topics too. Magnus has recently talked a lot about "flow" and Hikaru talks about "literally don’t care." These are very similar philosophies or mindsets that even I, a non-player, love hearing about.

[@MrSoupandBread]

Getting the big guests now!

[@mikem668]

Hikaru is describing lots of great players in the past. Lasker, Capablanca, many of the Soviet world champions. Philosophy, diplomacy, electrical engineering, opera, classical piano. There's great value in pursuing something that isn't primarily competive. Or more accurately where you're competing with yourself and the art form itself. Not adding to your rating and ego by beating other people.

[@YRMW1983]

A podcast is really the perfect medium for Hikaru (besides streaming). This was very enjoyable as Hikaru has a lot of interesting and insightful takes and you guys asked great questions! Will check out more of your episodes 😊

[@seinundzeiten]

super interview

[@daramurphy7193]

I think the role of blitz in nakamuras development is very interesting. I still wonder what is the exact mechanism for how he learned. Did he download and analyze the games and review mistakes as they happen, or had he such an aptitude for learning chess that just immersion in blitz was enough to improve. I feel for most players going on a blitz binge doesn't nesecairly equate to improvement.

[@chesscomdpruess]

I guess he probably mainly got better just subconsciously from tons of experience, and did not spend a bunch of time analyzing his blitz games. And I currently am thinking that this works brilliantly for a fair number of talented geniuses, but is not a learning method that can apply to most people. But I want to investigate this question further!

[@vinothkumar1220]

Watch the video where Hikaru reacts to his stepfather's interview to chessbase

[@katis999]

Great Interview

[@westsidebilling]

The main lesson to be learned here is if you're under 2500 OTB don't quit your day job!

[@TheHipHopVlog]

I would buy Hikaru's Book 1000%

[@stormixgaming8389]

Cool

[@sportschad]

Hikaru: "2700" "that low"....BRUH

[@bernaridho]

Is it true that chess streamer like Gotham and Botez can earn more than GM?

[@ChessDojo]

Yes, the top streamers earn much more than just the average GM

[@danh72]

This is great.

[@sarterus]

Burnout effects results a lot loving the game matters.

[@keithwald5349]

This is not a gripe, because Naka is always interesting (and he does like the sound of his own voice). But he is very, very far from a typical GM, even typical super GM. He's made his many millions outside chess competition (the only way one could - just like Magnus and Garry). So he has many more options availble to him than does a typical GM. I think a more representative person regarding the chess economy would be someone around 2600 like Eric Hansen (check out his recent stream on this subject) up to someone around 2700 like, say, super GM Mamedyarov. Although economically, chess does resemble fields like art, literature, or music, it is even more extreme in that the peak is ridiculously sharp and narrow at the top, then rapidly falls off to super GMs not even being able to pay rent. The reasons for this can be discussed, but that's the reality.

[@raylopez99]

This is a good book if you want the perspective of an "average" GM: A Year Inside the Chess World - January 1, 2016 by Daniel Gormally (Author) - (Wikipedia) : Daniel William Gormally (born 4 May 1976) is an English chess Grandmaster. His peak rating is 2573, achieved in the January 2006 rating list.

[@MoreContent24]

Nepo never reaches 2800. His highest classical rating is 2795.

[@nilent]

Would love to see chess becoming a routine part of the school sports k through 16 curriculum like baseball, football basketball, swimming, gymnastics etc.

[@binks2413]

The content is tough for chess. If something new happens, a tournament, new device, controversy etc you everyone makes similar videos. It will become even more dilluted as time goes on

[@rickstermandude]

Nice episode. I think David’s name is misspelled in the introduction.

[@travistucker4067]

🔥

[@anotherelvis]

Income of GMs at 19:08

[@joeldick6871]

Erm... You didn't ask him about cheating (I mean the topic of cheating and cheating accusations, not about the possibility of him cheating).

[@ChessDojo]

We had a different topic for this show :)

[@joeldick6871]

@@ChessDojo Surely cheating, cheating accusations, and the discussions around it have had an impact (positive and negative) on the chess economy (the topic of this show).

[@ChessDojo]

Yep! Just didn't come up

[@amarpatil6503]

Bro talks so much and also fast😂 ....which also might help as a content creator and all....but still

[@thechesslobster2768]

Lol hilarious timing with the recent BS cheating accusations against Hikaru.

[@AntonStachSZN]

Explain pls

[@Ninterd2]

​@@AntonStachSZNHikaru had an insanely impressive streak of 45.5 out of 46 points when playing blitz against FMs and CMs. Some people think that that is suspicious, but I personally just think Hikaru is that good.

[@AntonStachSZN]

not even close to be sus@@Ninterd2

[@motoboyaquiemlondrinapr]

Hilarious, I tell you!

[@TFPMadcow]

@@Ninterd2Hikaru has a video where he explains the math of the expected results behind that streak. I would start by watching that one, and following the math based on the official ratings.

[@overthetarget334]

I challenge Hikaru to play without headphones and cameras that are on every spot in the room. His elo will be closer to his OTB.

[@adomaskuzinas2137]

Spotted the paranoid russian

[@overthetarget334]

Gotham and Hikaru sitting in a tree, C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G. First came cash, then came fame, now they will their lives living in shame.

[@musical_lolu4811]

The hell is wrong with you