Magnus Carlsen: the advice that made him chess GOAT

What makes Magnus Carlsen the greatest chess player of all time? It’s not just his natural talent or his relentless drive – it’s a single piece of advice from a coach you’ve probably never heard of.

At 9 years old, Carlsen met Norwegian grandmaster Simen Agdestein. Agdestein quickly saw that the boy was a prodigy, armed with an extraordinary memory and a natural feel for the game. Carlsen began training with him once a week.

During one session, Agdestein noticed Carlsen using the same Sicilian Defense variation for several games. To shake things up, he grabbed a random chess book, opened a random page, and told Carlsen, “Play the next game using this opening.”

That moment changed everything.

“If you don’t explore, you cannot grow.”

The next game, Carlsen was asked to open another random page and use its opening. It is this random exploration and learning that allowed Carlsen to develop his instinct.

Most players train with rigid discipline, memorizing openings, studying computers, and perfecting calculations. Carlsen however embraced the chaos. The randomness of playing unfamiliar openings. Diverse openings made him better at pattern recognition. He could evaluate positions without doing extensive analysis in his mind. 

Randomness helps you hone your skills beyond chess as well.

Basketball players improve a lot more with random practice.

When players train using focused practice: of repeating the same drill a hundred times, they plateau out. But when their practice is varied: they shoot 10 hoops, followed by 10 layups, followed by 10 three pointers, followed by 10 free throws – they improve their skills faster!

The same thing has been studied in people learning maths. When they are taught to solve the same kind of problems repeatedly, they don’t skill up as fast as when the problems are shuffled and varied from three or four different topics.

Shailesh Kantak and his colleagues sought to figure out why varied practice helped people learn faster. They put people under MRI. And found that more parts of the brain lit up for people who performed varied practice.

Repetition can become boring for the brain. Repeated effort subdues the attention your brain provides. Adding randomness to your training eliminates laziness. Your brain pays more attention. More parts light up. More parts connect.

Carlsen deliberately makes slightly bad moves during the opening.

Because most chess masters today learn chess with the help of computer analysis, Carlsen avoids prepared lines. He deliberately plays a slightly non-optimal move. This makes the game unpredictable from the beginning. It throws the opposition off. It allows Carlsen to drag the game out of heavily analyzed lines into uncharted areas. Into areas where the game again becomes one of skill and not memory. Where Carlsen’s instinct gives him an edge. And allows him to win with more ease.

Action Summary:

  • Try new things. Mix it up.