This is a clip from a conversation with Garry Kasparov from Oct 2019. New full episodes once or twice a week and 1-2 new clips or a new non-podcast video on all other days. You can watch the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RVa0THWUWw
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Garry Kasparov is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, he dominated the chess world, ranking world number 1 for most of those 19 years. While he has many historic matches against human chess players, in the long arc of history he may be remembered for his match again a machine, IBM's Deep Blue. His initial victories and eventual loss to Deep Blue captivated the imagination of the world of what role Artificial Intelligence systems may play in our civilization's future. That excitement inspired an entire generation of AI researchers, including myself, to get into the field. Garry is also a pro-democracy political thinker and leader, a fearless human-rights activist, and author of several books including How Life Imitates Chess which is a book on strategy and decision-making, Winter Is Coming which is a book articulating his opposition to the Putin regime, and Deep Thinking which is a book the role of both artificial intelligence and human intelligence in defining our future.

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As perhaps the greatest chess player of all time, when you look introspectively at your psychology throughout your career, what was the bigger motivator?

The love of winning or the hatred of losing?

Have to confess I never heard it before, which is again, congratulations, it's quite an accomplishment.

For me, it was almost like a physical pain because I knew that if I lost the game, it's just because I made a mistake.

So I always believed that the result of the game had to be decided by the quality of my play.

Okay, you may say it sounds arrogant, but it helped me to move forward because I always knew that there was room for improvement.

Actually, fear of mistake guarantees mistakes.

And the difference between top players, the very top, is that it's the ability to make a decision without predictable consequences.

People are like, you are just at the crossroad.

You can go right, you can go left, you can go straight.

And the consequences are just very uncertain.

Yes, You have certain ideas what happens on the right or on the left or just enough, you go straight, but it's not enough to make well-calculated choice.

And when you play chess at the very top, It's about your inner strength.

I will stand firm and I'm not going to waste my time because I have full confidence that I will go through.

Now, going back to the original question is, I would say neither.

It's just, it's the, it's love for winning, hate for losing.

They were important elements, psychological elements, but the key element, it's the, I would say, the driving force was always my passion for making a difference.

It's just, I can move forward and I can always enjoy, not just playing, but creating something new.

It's just finding new ideas in the openings, some original plan in the middle game.

Actually, that helped me to make the transition from the game of chess, where I was on the very top, to another life, where I knew I would not be number 1, I would not be necessarily on the top, but I could still be very active and productive by my ability to make a difference, by influencing people, say joining the democratic movement in Russia or talking to people about human machine relations.

There's so many things where I knew my influence may not be as decisive as in chess, but still strong enough to help people to make their choices.


Speaker 0: As perhaps the greatest chess player of all time, when you look introspectively at your psychology throughout your career, what was the bigger motivator? The love of winning or the hatred of losing?

Speaker 1: Tough question. Have to confess I never heard it before, which is again, congratulations, it's quite an accomplishment. Losing was always painful. For me, it was almost like a physical pain because I knew that if I lost the game, it's just because I made a mistake. So I always believed that the result of the game had to be decided by the quality of my play.

Okay, you may say it sounds arrogant, but it helped me to move forward because I always knew that there was room for improvement. So it's the-

Speaker 0: Was there the Fear of the mistake?

Speaker 1: Actually, fear of mistake guarantees mistakes. And the difference between top players, the very top, is that it's the ability to make a decision without predictable consequences. You don't know what's happening. It's just intuitively. I can go this way or that way.

And there are always hesitations. People are like, you are just at the crossroad. You can go right, you can go left, you can go straight. You can turn and go back. And the consequences are just very uncertain.

Yes, You have certain ideas what happens on the right or on the left or just enough, you go straight, but it's not enough to make well-calculated choice. And when you play chess at the very top, It's about your inner strength. So I can make this decision. I will stand firm and I'm not going to waste my time because I have full confidence that I will go through. Now, going back to the original question is, I would say neither.

It's just, it's the, it's love for winning, hate for losing. They were important elements, psychological elements, but the key element, it's the, I would say, the driving force was always my passion for making a difference. It's just, I can move forward and I can always enjoy, not just playing, but creating something new.

Speaker 0: Creating something new. How do you think about that?

Speaker 1: It's just finding new ideas in the openings, some original plan in the middle game. Actually, that helped me to make the transition from the game of chess, where I was on the very top, to another life, where I knew I would not be number 1, I would not be necessarily on the top, but I could still be very active and productive by my ability to make a difference, by influencing people, say joining the democratic movement in Russia or talking to people about human machine relations. There's so many things where I knew my influence may not be as decisive as in chess, but still strong enough to help people to make their choices.

Speaker 0: So

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Garry Kasparov: Fear of Mistake Guarantees Mistakes | AI Podcast Clips