The gap between Russia and other countries is even more striking if you realize that after the breakup of the Soviet Union a lot of grandmasters and chess talent have emigrated from Russia.
Like James Clear wrote in his book Atomic Habits, when a habit is highly valued in an environment, it gets pretty strong. He mention the hungarian Laszlo Polgar who raised all his daughters to become little big chess geniuses. And Russia values chess like no other country i know.
Dear Nalf, you got one fact slightly wrong: In the Soviet Union they did not play chess in school, they had dedicated chess schools, where gifted children trained and played every day after normal school. I don't know for sure if this is still the case, but it's definitely right in Russia's alley. CU twinmama
I did go to the Berlin Grand Prix leg 3, just finishing today. Was a good atmosphere, top players and only 30 people on the viewing platform. Very interesting to see the top players in person. The Soviet Union had a Chess school and it was popularised in schools. It's still so, that's why they have so many GM's.
The Russians spent a lot of time and effort identifying those young people who could excel in chess and then investing in training them. It was used as you mentioned in your video as a way to prove superiority of the soviet system versus the rest of the world. Fischer did put a money wrench in their plans and not computers make it possible to use it as a training tool so this is why Magnus is the world's best chess player.
Hi NALF, interesting and nicely researched video again. Hm, until recently I was in touch with a few young English speaking Russian UA-camrs of your age NALF. None of them learnt how to play the chess game and is interested in doing so. Quite a surprise to me.
The USSR had schools set up for youngsters who showed potential. The government fully funded the chess academies. Their lives were chess. Just as boxers, wrestlers, hockey players, basketball players, gymnasts, weightlifters..........were fully funded to play and win at their sports for the USSR.
Fischer learned to play mainly from books and magazines-I heard once he learned Russian to study Soviet chessbooks. Russians also consider Bobby a student of their Russian school of chess.
Let's face the truth. In 1945 their country was in ruins. Nevertheless, they put first Sputnik into space already in 1957, and the first man who traveled into space was russian - Yuri Gagarin.
Шахматы навязывали населению, оказывается, чтоб отвлечь его от религии, а не чтоб детей чем-то полезным занять, такой чуши я еще не слышал! Кстати, играли и до революции сильно многие, например, Чигорин и Алехин. Вы так смешите Фишером, ничего до и после вы сказать не можете, и его чемпионство длилось недолго. Просто штаты скупают игроков, своей школы у вас нет. Мы играем лучше, потому что лучше мыслим и у нас лучшая шахматная школа, часть которой бывшие республики, наша бывшая часть...
The reason is that due to lack of entertainment(like in the USA) in the USSR, Chess and other sports were the only means on entertainment and thats why people played it a lot. The soviets believed that if they dominate chess, they'll be considered intellectually superior over the "decadent" west and poured enormous money in chess, ballet , etc.
Very interesting. Little curious extra Detail - Germany doing well on Number of Grandmasters but never really managed to break through to the top of the chess world. In other words Germany seems to be good at educating skilled chess players but not so great at pushing these stand out talents that take the top of the world. Maybe just coincidence but I thought it was interesting 😉
While part of the reason chess was pushed in the Soviet Union was Cold War propaganda, as it happens, your view of the Fischer-Spassky match is also an effect of Cold War propaganda, on the other side. Beyond the US, we do view this as an important event, but not as defining. First, Fischer was far from an underdog: he already had a much higher ELO rating before the match. Second, Soviet chess players dominated chess before and after Fischer's heyday (Karpov, Kasparov), a period when Fischer was deposed as champion and didn't play top matches (refusing to play Karpov). You don't mention another Soviet motivation for promoting chess: sharpening military minds about strategy. But it didn't work out in Ukraine, did it.
better think about why the Russians can single-handedly create their own nuclear power plants, fleets, airplanes, and this with a population of only 150 million people. At a time when Western countries can hardly do it even together.
Don't mix up the Russians with the citizens of Soviet Union. Lots of chess players in Soviet Union hail from the Turkic respublics culturally close or historically associated with the Othman Empire and Persia where chess playing has been a usual passtime.
I used to really respect Chess as a thinking man's game until deciding to play chess again recently. It's dominated by teenagers. You can be a GM at age 10. My respect has been dashed. Now it reminds me of online games like Starcraft, where kids figure out hacks and tricks to win. That's what Chess is, knowing all the tricks to win. You become good at Chess, not by being brilliant, but by playing 1000s and 1000s of games until you recognize most situations. I now kind of think of Chess as a child's game. It's just like a Russian to spend so much effort on a child's game.
If you think chess games have only as many variations as can be learnt, you haven't played chess at a high level... Top chess players have _always_ been a combination of brilliance and encyclopedic knowledge of situations in past chess games, just like any other mind game. For the record, the youngest grandmaster is 12 years old, and there are just 40 who became GM before they were 15. And the FIDE top 100 contains just 6 teenagers.
@@Daneelro No I'm not saying Chess is limited to several situations, but the more you know, the better you are. Unless they let you bring that encyclopedia to the table, you have to rely on games you've played. The point being, players rarely are making brilliant moves at the table as they've learned those moves before sitting down and simply are acting out of habit.
@@YTSparty No, you don't have to rely only on the games you've played. You can very well remember moves you read in books or saw as spectator. But the result is not that you simply act out of habit, not at all. It helps you avoid repeating mistakes others made in the past, and focuses your brilliance into unexplored areas.
@@Daneelro Define brilliance. I compare it to playing the piano. I'm a 1500 chess player and a decent piano player. Both are the result of repetitive learning. When I play a difficult piano piece, I play it over and over. How I got to 1500 in chess was playing game after game until I saw enough of the tricks and learned my own tricks.
This is a point of contention in the US. Some refer to Chess as a sport while others reserve the word sport for athletic endeavors (with or without competition... for example just running is a sport, even if you aren't competing with anyone.) You also have a similar conention when referring to a "sport" as a "game". I used to feel Chess was unworthy of the category "sport", but then I heard how many calories were burned in competitive Chess.
@@nomirrors3552 The rule of the thumb is the brain is 2% of body mass but consumes 20% of the energy. But intense thinking increases this only by 5% (to 21%). But effort is not only about calories and physical sport by necessity involves lots of brain work (even if it's mostly about muscle coordination). It's worth to note that the IOC recognises chess as a sport, even if it is not part of the Olympics.
Lot of people in the east went into nature science, cause this was least political stress, unlike in art or social sciences. So communism kind of raised more 'Nerds'. Just the system had no plan to turn all this genius into useful products, cause none of them could found an enterprise to produce something. It just ended with kind of "suggestion for improvements" at some party secretaries table.
To be fair, it's not the great minds who found successful enterprises in the West, either - that's a self-serving myth. The company founders tend to be privileged sons of rich people with capital to start with and ruthless financial practices to increase it, who build a cult of personality and take credit for the work of their employees (see Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk).
извините, но это какая то чушь, начиная от того, что с помощью шахмат пытались отучить от религии и заканчивая тем, что в России очень много гроссмейстеров, из-за того, что в СССР с помощью шахмат пытались доказать превосходство. даже просто на календарь посмотреть, СССР распался в 1991 году, а видео было записано в 2022. сейчас рядом с Магнусом два топа из России, Дубов и Артемьев, 1996 и 1998 годы рождения. вы серьёзно считаете, что какие-то суперпупер деньги Советского Союза поваляли на этих людей?
Per capita: Armenia 13.2 per million (ex CCCP) Serbia 7.4 per million Hungary 5.4 per million Israel 4.7 per million Netherlands 2.24 per million Ukraine 1.97 per million (ex CCCP) Russia 1.67 per million (ex CCCP) Poland 1.26 per million Spain 1.20 per million Germany 1.14 per million France 0.77 per million USA 0.29 per million India 0.048 per million China 0.034 per million And you speak about Russia?
The gap between Russia and other countries is even more striking if you realize that after the breakup of the Soviet Union a lot of grandmasters and chess talent have emigrated from Russia.
Like James Clear wrote in his book Atomic Habits, when a habit is highly valued in an environment, it gets pretty strong. He mention the hungarian Laszlo Polgar who raised all his daughters to become little big chess geniuses.
And Russia values chess like no other country i know.
Yea cause we don't have permanent trends in certain games chess is still thougt to kids but the phone keeping everyone away😔
Russians are just incredibly smart
Good book
Thank you for the recommendation,interesting. Will seek the book out.
@@Jean-nl8vpand you’re not
Dear Nalf,
you got one fact slightly wrong: In the Soviet Union they did not play chess in school, they had dedicated chess schools, where gifted children trained and played every day after normal school. I don't know for sure if this is still the case, but it's definitely right in Russia's alley.
CU twinmama
so interresting again, thank you, Nalf
I did go to the Berlin Grand Prix leg 3, just finishing today. Was a good atmosphere, top players and only 30 people on the viewing platform. Very interesting to see the top players in person. The Soviet Union had a Chess school and it was popularised in schools. It's still so, that's why they have so many GM's.
American Football is nicknamed Chess on Grass here in Germany . The Player (HC) moves his players like chess pieces on the field
Why are Russians so good at chess? What else can they do through the long, cold Russians winters?
So they ought to be really really good at sex, then, I suppose?
You can to foodball in 40°c
How hasn't this channel blown up?
I know right!
The Russians spent a lot of time and effort identifying those young people who could excel in chess and then investing in training them. It was used as you mentioned in your video as a way to prove superiority of the soviet system versus the rest of the world. Fischer did put a money wrench in their plans and not computers make it possible to use it as a training tool so this is why Magnus is the world's best chess player.
Hi NALF, interesting and nicely researched video again.
Hm, until recently I was in touch with a few young English speaking Russian UA-camrs of your age NALF. None of them learnt how to play the chess game and is interested in doing so. Quite a surprise to me.
The USSR had schools set up for youngsters who showed potential. The government fully funded the chess academies. Their lives were chess. Just as boxers, wrestlers, hockey players, basketball players, gymnasts, weightlifters..........were fully funded to play and win at their sports for the USSR.
really there were no professional athletes and chess players in the USA?
No Professional Chess players in USA @@tartarelin
@@tartarelin To be a professional you need to get paid. The US had no professionals. A few players had rich patrons but that is not professionalism.
How about a video "Why so many American actresses ruin their faces by plastic surgery"?
this would be a very short video cuz the answer is simply "dumb AF"
Or it could be because they’re not women. Transvestigation is necessary these days.
@@user-yc6xn5ze6h what for what is it necessary ? I would rather say its a choice to have then saying its necessary these days.
i love tjis
@@xorast-_-t6997 don’t let Sandra Bullock’s Adam’s Apple or Michael Obama’s Benis poke your eye out! 😂
Fischer learned to play mainly from books and magazines-I heard once he learned Russian to study Soviet chessbooks. Russians also consider Bobby a student of their Russian school of chess.
Answer is: _because chess has a very simple logistics chain._
hahaha yes
Let's face the truth.
In 1945 their country was in ruins. Nevertheless, they put first Sputnik into space already in 1957, and the first man who traveled into space was russian - Yuri Gagarin.
Another interesting video Nick. But one question remained unanswered for me. What happens if you roll a "6" with the dice in chess?
You stand up and scream Uno Uno.
@@kerry4385 No, what you mean is Mau Mau
@@S-V-E-N-1-9-7-8 ah, that's why everybody stares at me when i play chess. Thx
@@S-V-E-N-1-9-7-8 Are you referring to the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya? Is this somehow all tied in together?
@@mojojim6458 no, I meant the card game "Mau Mau", which used to be very popular with children in my days.
Why you put Latvian on the thumbnail?
BTW There is a chess club in Schwäbisch Hall 😉 and their first team is pretty impressive.
imagine if you mix former soviet republics that would change the number by a lot
Currently insensitive.
More Ukrainian grandmasters per capita, approx 1/500,000 vs 1/600,000
Шахматы навязывали населению, оказывается, чтоб отвлечь его от религии, а не чтоб детей чем-то полезным занять, такой чуши я еще не слышал! Кстати, играли и до революции сильно многие, например, Чигорин и Алехин. Вы так смешите Фишером, ничего до и после вы сказать не можете, и его чемпионство длилось недолго. Просто штаты скупают игроков, своей школы у вас нет.
Мы играем лучше, потому что лучше мыслим и у нас лучшая шахматная школа, часть которой бывшие республики, наша бывшая часть...
They're very good at mathematics too
Interesting history. Love it.♥️👍
The reason is that due to lack of entertainment(like in the USA) in the USSR, Chess and other sports were the only means on entertainment and thats why people played it a lot. The soviets believed that if they dominate chess, they'll be considered intellectually superior over the "decadent" west and poured enormous money in chess, ballet , etc.
Russians are good not only in chess, but also in rhythmic gymnastics)
Young Russians grow up playing chess at family gatherings the way Americans play cards or cornhole. Its in the culture man!
And they still use German words like "Zeitnot" and "Großmeister" :D
Und Zugzwang.
And "Zwischenzug".
Mittelspiel, Endspiel...
Very interesting.
Little curious extra Detail - Germany doing well on Number of Grandmasters but never really managed to break through to the top of the chess world. In other words Germany seems to be good at educating skilled chess players but not so great at pushing these stand out talents that take the top of the world. Maybe just coincidence but I thought it was interesting 😉
Yeah, I was surprised to see Germany having so many grandmasters when their names nowadays don't really seem to appear in the big tournaments.
Germany doesn't push chess as if it is life or death.
While part of the reason chess was pushed in the Soviet Union was Cold War propaganda, as it happens, your view of the Fischer-Spassky match is also an effect of Cold War propaganda, on the other side. Beyond the US, we do view this as an important event, but not as defining. First, Fischer was far from an underdog: he already had a much higher ELO rating before the match. Second, Soviet chess players dominated chess before and after Fischer's heyday (Karpov, Kasparov), a period when Fischer was deposed as champion and didn't play top matches (refusing to play Karpov).
You don't mention another Soviet motivation for promoting chess: sharpening military minds about strategy. But it didn't work out in Ukraine, did it.
Well, Putin isn't a chess player.
Thanks
"BLACK KNIGHTS." (ALIEN)
It's the alphabet Russia's Cyrillic alphabet is conducive
I like how there is no transgender athletes in chess, cos no easy victory over women in this field lol
but how did the american menaged to beat him ?
Interesting, Nalf. I never would have thought that chess would be used against the Russian Orthodox Church. Now that is nonsense. Cheers nice job
What's your elo score? 🤓😅
ELO? The Electric Light Orchestra?
@@mojojim6458 I'm amazed that you know this band. Are you a secret fan of ELO?
@@S-V-E-N-1-9-7-8 I guess it's not a secret anymore.
Russia and China are top 2 smartest winners for chess
In China: You win chess.
In Russia Chess wins you.
Don't forget about Hungarians 🇭🇺 and Israelis 🇮🇱 , there are a good amount of them that are GM in Chess , via per capital.
better think about why the Russians can single-handedly create their own nuclear power plants, fleets, airplanes, and this with a population of only 150 million people.
At a time when Western countries can hardly do it even together.
Damn you'd think a country that's so good at chess wouldn't suck so bad at war.
3D-GOD-MAN.
very interesting topic. think you could be a good journalist too lg Michael/Hannover
I actually thought that Russia had over 1000 GMs.
I total there are around 1700 GM's
Asks why are Russians so good at chess... uses thumbnail of a Latvian.
Very interesting, nearly the same resons why Germany is dominating the world of "Mau Mau" 😁
It strikes me as scales from my eyes, our regime is trying to get people away from the church. Mmm, are you sure?
@@PalmyraSchwarz You don't need a government for that; the church can do it all by itself.
@@rolfspannbauer6750 Yes, but this was his chain of arguments.
@@PalmyraSchwarz I think you took my comment more seriously than it was meant. It was not the plan to start a discussion.
nice video
To get back at the US in something atleast
Don't mix up the Russians with the citizens of Soviet Union. Lots of chess players in Soviet Union hail from the Turkic respublics culturally close or historically associated with the Othman Empire and Persia where chess playing has been a usual passtime.
I used to really respect Chess as a thinking man's game until deciding to play chess again recently. It's dominated by teenagers. You can be a GM at age 10. My respect has been dashed. Now it reminds me of online games like Starcraft, where kids figure out hacks and tricks to win. That's what Chess is, knowing all the tricks to win. You become good at Chess, not by being brilliant, but by playing 1000s and 1000s of games until you recognize most situations. I now kind of think of Chess as a child's game. It's just like a Russian to spend so much effort on a child's game.
If you think chess games have only as many variations as can be learnt, you haven't played chess at a high level... Top chess players have _always_ been a combination of brilliance and encyclopedic knowledge of situations in past chess games, just like any other mind game.
For the record, the youngest grandmaster is 12 years old, and there are just 40 who became GM before they were 15. And the FIDE top 100 contains just 6 teenagers.
@@Daneelro No I'm not saying Chess is limited to several situations, but the more you know, the better you are. Unless they let you bring that encyclopedia to the table, you have to rely on games you've played. The point being, players rarely are making brilliant moves at the table as they've learned those moves before sitting down and simply are acting out of habit.
@@YTSparty No, you don't have to rely only on the games you've played. You can very well remember moves you read in books or saw as spectator. But the result is not that you simply act out of habit, not at all. It helps you avoid repeating mistakes others made in the past, and focuses your brilliance into unexplored areas.
my man lost one game to a teenager and hates chess
@@Daneelro Define brilliance. I compare it to playing the piano. I'm a 1500 chess player and a decent piano player. Both are the result of repetitive learning. When I play a difficult piano piece, I play it over and over. How I got to 1500 in chess was playing game after game until I saw enough of the tricks and learned my own tricks.
I learned something AGAIN?!!! Uh, I've got to stop watching this channel! 🙂
Interesting, but (unfortunately for the Russians) Noway has had the World Champion for 7 or 8 years or something
Interesting how you call it a sport. Do americans equate competition with sports? Or is sport an athletic pursuit?
Professional chess is considered a sport all around the world...
This is a point of contention in the US. Some refer to Chess as a sport while others reserve the word sport for athletic endeavors (with or without competition... for example just running is a sport, even if you aren't competing with anyone.) You also have a similar conention when referring to a "sport" as a "game".
I used to feel Chess was unworthy of the category "sport", but then I heard how many calories were burned in competitive Chess.
@@nomirrors3552 The rule of the thumb is the brain is 2% of body mass but consumes 20% of the energy. But intense thinking increases this only by 5% (to 21%). But effort is not only about calories and physical sport by necessity involves lots of brain work (even if it's mostly about muscle coordination).
It's worth to note that the IOC recognises chess as a sport, even if it is not part of the Olympics.
Now India is the new Russia
No, it's not 😂
It is ussr is 500
Lot of people in the east went into nature science, cause this was least political stress, unlike in art or social sciences. So communism kind of raised more 'Nerds'. Just the system had no plan to turn all this genius into useful products, cause none of them could found an enterprise to produce something. It just ended with kind of "suggestion for improvements" at some party secretaries table.
To be fair, it's not the great minds who found successful enterprises in the West, either - that's a self-serving myth. The company founders tend to be privileged sons of rich people with capital to start with and ruthless financial practices to increase it, who build a cult of personality and take credit for the work of their employees (see Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk).
Life Goal: beating Nick in a chess match
извините, но это какая то чушь, начиная от того, что с помощью шахмат пытались отучить от религии и заканчивая тем, что в России очень много гроссмейстеров, из-за того, что в СССР с помощью шахмат пытались доказать превосходство.
даже просто на календарь посмотреть, СССР распался в 1991 году, а видео было записано в 2022.
сейчас рядом с Магнусом два топа из России, Дубов и Артемьев, 1996 и 1998 годы рождения.
вы серьёзно считаете, что какие-то суперпупер деньги Советского Союза поваляли на этих людей?
I’m Russian and now I know why my dad told me that you have to study chess
Did the Russians send the Bishops to Siberia?
A
What nonsense. According to your logic, any poor people will get carried away with chess out of boredom. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard
hi:3
Long live Ukraine 🇺🇦
Z
Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with this?
what?
Good news: Ukraine, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Finland and Sweden has aspirations to join NATO
И шо ?
what does this have to do with the video
@@ringo5721 got triggered by the word "Russia"
Except for the Ukraine gambit. That's always eluded them.
Per capita:
Armenia 13.2 per million (ex CCCP)
Serbia 7.4 per million
Hungary 5.4 per million
Israel 4.7 per million
Netherlands 2.24 per million
Ukraine 1.97 per million (ex CCCP)
Russia 1.67 per million (ex CCCP)
Poland 1.26 per million
Spain 1.20 per million
Germany 1.14 per million
France 0.77 per million
USA 0.29 per million
India 0.048 per million
China 0.034 per million
And you speak about Russia?
What per capita? Pro Players?
"INTELLIKI." (ZERO)