This Is A Story About Talent | Fabi's Response To Dubov

The term of "natural gift" is a complete bullshit that has root in ancient beliefs. In modern chess, TRAINING is everything.

2nd highest rated player, and he’s the least talented? wat

The interviewer is pathetic. If you’re going to say that it is ridiculous for Fabi to be the least talented player in top 20, then you must then identify who the least talented player really is; else you’re just glazing.

There's no "natural talent", that's completely mythical. Talent is developed, it's hard work, people may have a couple of predisposition to do things faster, for example, but if they don't work on this advantage, it's not going to work by itself. Ask a top 10 chess player how many hours a day they studied when they were growing up, how many things they sacrificed to improve the chess capacities, etc.

I wish I was as articulate as Fabiano

I love this podcast but please getting a better mic. Or add subtitles.

Dubov is so delu when he says that anyone could do what Caruana did aha ...
Caruana reached an elo of 2844 in classic cadence, and he didn't even have that little psychological extra boost that number 1s get from being number 1 and that Carlsen and Kasparov benefited from.

Maybe if he hadn't worked so hard, he'd have reached “ONLY” 2800, which is still a score that normal GMs will never ever approach, and that Dubov will never reach.

The fact that someone has worked hard doesn't prevent them from having good innate qualities, one doesn't prevent the other, and the elo of 2844 can only be reached by adding the two together.

What's more, the ability to calculate all the lines exhaustively and rigorously in the middle of a game has much more to do with raw brain power than finding a spectacular combination once, which has more to do with memorizing patterns. So it's more or less the opposite of what Dubov says.

I think what Dubov MEANS is that Fabi is more Kasparov than Karpov. He's more "terrifying analytical engine" and less "I pull moves out of my butt at blitz speed". But Fabi has the most "decent human being" vibes of all the top grandmasters. He's like the anti-Hikaru. He may well be the most intelligent Super GM alive.

Still Fabi is more talented than Dubov...

During a lesson I took from IM Jeremy Silman, he said that anyone with an undamaged brain could attain Elo 2200. RIP Mr. Silman, I dissagree. Hard work will only get you to the best you can be, only talent can get you the rest of way.

everything is pointless unless approved by kramnik

the ego Dubov has is insane

Caruana -> an emblem of today US (Clever and ahead of the game) ... Dubov -> an emblem of today Russia (arrogance elevated to arrogance)

this guy competes with Magnus the diva to be the most foolish and stoopeed chess player when it comes to not playing chess

Caruana, Fabiano is world number 2 with a rating of 2803 on Jan 6th 2025. Dubox is 29th. That's an objective criteria.

Gentleman.

not the biggest fan of this host. I wish he tried to underdtand what fabi says a bit more and come back with some better answers/questions

My suggestion is that natural talent will beat top players more often. Training / hard work will enable a player to always beat lower rated players. Maybe Caroline Wozniacki would be an example. I think looking at record against top 10 or top 5 players might be a way to assess talent. Not perfect but objective measure.

Caruana is such a class act. I hope he becomes world champion someday, he handily the mindset and level for it.

The fact that Fabi remember the all game vs Keymer, with all the variations, without any note is a testament on how "naturaly gifted" he is. Absolute genius, like every super-GM. Dubov is unfortunatly not part of this very exclusive group. Maybe this is why he feel the need to give us his opinion on players stronger than him. Which can be interresting, but not so much when the said opinion is to discuss how not gifted those strongers players are.

I like that Fabi ground the conversation at the very beginning. Yes there is the big old talk about who is the most gifted and that's well and good. But at the end of the day, the only real metric to rank chess player is the elo. And in this regard, Fabi is way more gifted than Dubov. And that is a fact.

That was very interesting to watch !

Dubov is a mediocrity who has gained some modest fame as a sh*t stirrer. That's it. He's mostly a non entity in the world of professional chess.

Dubov seems like a lazy undisciplined lowlife

I read somewhere that the definition of a natural talent is the ability to progress faster all other factors being equal. It's hard to create a good experiment, but roughly with in 1 year with a comparable time/games played how big is the gain in ELO...

I think Dubov is actually kind of right...the fact that Fabi don't even know what talent means sort of points to that. Talent represents the "floor" and the "ceiling" of an individual player's development; not only where they start in relation to other competitors (as in the case of young players) but also how far they can go; how excellent they can be at outshining everyone in their field of endeavor which is where I think the sideways compliment comes into play - he don't shine, he just keeps on grinding his way through until the bright ones burn out.

i would have appreciate it more if the interviewer would let fabi speak and deep dive into the questions a bit more... fabi was speaking facts

The interviewer was just trying to stir up drama. Talent vs hard work is an age old battle and dubov didn't mean anything negative.

Really enjoyed the review of the game! Great to hear and see how the best think about a game.

Maybe Fabi isn't a great natural chess player because Fabi appears to be a calm and rational person, when most of the super GMs appear to really really weird.

Fabi is the most sane chess player in history of chess, all others are weird , big time weird !

Dubov basically insinuated that Carlsen never reached 2900 because he's lazy.

Every GM has both talent and hard work.

This is replicative of the messi ronaldo debate. Those who argue ronaldo is more impressive due to his effort often caveat messi's ability with this 'natural ability argument". In reality messi's workrate and dedication has been recognised by everyone around him. The reality is were all born with no skills, our brains may be more prone to this info due to our raising but hard hours repetition and dedication is the real decider.

If going 2851 is hardwork then we will accept it

All people got personally insulted by Dubov's comments except for Fabiano himself))).

What a dork interviewer. Instigating.

Don't really know how talent is measured, but it comes in different forms. Fabi is one of many players in history (Korchnoi, Keres, Ivanchuk, Rubinstein, Tarrasch for example)who was close to being champion but someone else was a little better.

Compliment Gambit declined.

Actually the whole argument is correct. It is easy to achieve when you are talented, it is much more of an achievement when you are not talented.

The least what player???!!

Fabi answered well. But either way I hate this video.

Love Fabi. I think what sets Fabi apart from other top players is his ability to analyze which is supported by his idk talent or other abilities sucha as memory etc. You can't reason on a topic if you aren't granted the subject matter. Fabi has access to subject matter as does Magnus. But now i'm probably talking about something else. Word to Fabi. I think logical reasoning helps a ton with Fabi, if he can eliminate possibilities through deductive reasoning, he'll do it. That's Fabi. He has a grasp on intellect. Dubov doesn't concern himself even with semantics. That's his problem. On board with Fabi in this Fabi vs Dubov comparison. Great insight from Fabi, an incredible player. Christian you should learn something for a change. ha jk Good upload you guys

Dubov speaks as he plays, with bursts of instinct. Caruana's speech is very structured, fluid and harmonious. Dubov will never ever be as structured as Caruana, but he's not structured enough to realize it.

consistency and hard work is better- look at gukesh

Tom Brady was not the most naturally talented quarterback, but he became the best ever. So I can understand how he means it as a compliment.

This is just semantics. Um actually hard work = natural talent so Dubov was being an asshole hurr durr. Can we not think of language in a more nuanced way?

Fabi is top 5 😂😂😂

Did he just say that a player with decent memory, pattern recognition, and adaptability isn't talented?

Okay then.

Basically what he is saying is Cristiano Ronaldo is successful because of hard work while Messi is talented! Its different channels to become successful. Being talented alone not going to help you to be a successful

Considering Magnus's talent, he could literally be drunk, and you still wouldn't beat him at chess.