All-In Summit: Alexandra Botez takes on the Besties in a 1v4 simultaneous chess match

Ladies and gentlemen, Alexandra Botes. Good seats, good seats. Zach, can you go to the middle? Is this me? This is you? OK. What is this red thing for? It's a clock. It's a clock? Don't worry, you won't need to use it for very long. Oh, Alan. Oh, Alan. Don't let your winners ride.

Rain Man David Sackman. I'm going, I'm going all in. And it said-- We open sourced it to the fans, and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you, guys. I mean, queen of quinoa. I'm going all in. She's a globally recognized chess player, one of the most followed chess commentators online, with about 2 million followers.

I think that's more than we have, isn't it? Totally. We're kind of lagging. She was a five-time Canadian National Girls Champion. She won the US Girls Nationals at age 15. She achieved her highest FIDE Elo rating of 2092 back in March 2016. She began streaming online chess content in 2016 as a student at Stanford, where she studied international relations.

And she and her younger sister, Andrea-- or is it Andrea? Did I pronounce that right? Andrea, yeah. And she's in the audience somewhere. She's in the audience. Where are you? Hi, Andrea. Anyway, they manage the popular Botez Live Twitch and YouTube channels together. And I've watched it from time to time.

So very entertaining. She'll take a selfie with you later, after she beats you. And so we're about to do a four-game simultaneous here. Do you want to just explain the rules to the audience? Yes. And maybe before we get started, thank you guys all for coming to a chess talk.

I appreciate it. How many of you guys know how to play chess? Raise your hand, please. Whoa. OK, that's very impressive. Smart crowd. You guys have a great audience. So the way it's going to work, I'm going to be playing all four of them at the same time. Yeah.

If you guys saw the betting line at the betting lobby in the front, it's 50 to 1 for any of us to even have a shot at winning. Sacks, you must have a shot. Sacks is actually pretty good. Before I explain the rules, maybe you tell them what your chess rating is.

And we can all talk about the chess experience of it. I'm about a 1,600. Yeah. It's not that good, though. Can you explain the Elo rating for folks? 1,600, he's probably in the 65th percentile. So he's kind of like club player type rating. Chamath, you've never played before, right?

I know the rules, but I've never played. OK. I'm a zero. Technically, I'm a zero. OK, are you better than Jekyll, though? Well, I'm smarter than Jekyll. Maybe. I can still beat you at chess and poker. I think I did end up doing better in poker than you did, though.

Oh. I think you were on 30. I won only 12. Pretty good. You won a Prius, and I won a first class ticket to anywhere in the world. Not bad. Not bad. And David, you also are pretty decent at chess. No, no, I'm setting expectations. I'm a zero. No, what is your actual rating on chess.com?

I don't know my rating. I'm not going to talk about that right now. We're not talking about it. Why are you such a sandbagger? I peaked at 1,200. Stop sandbagging. What is it? I peaked at 1,200. So you were basically misdirecting us to think you couldn't play. Yes. No, I really do suck.

I'll be direct. He's insecure. I'm insecure at chess. OK, but-- He has a problem with women. Why can't you make eye contact? I don't want to talk about anything right now. I'm just really nervous about this. OK, well, I love that you guys are already trash talking. I've got to be honest.

This session is like my fucking nightmare because I'm so frustrated with chess. I've got to be honest. I get beat by a girl. I've not been able to get back in my score. Just sitting here and getting embarrassed in front of everyone and putting it on the fucking internet.

It's like-- It's OK to get beaten by a girl. It's not about being beaten by a girl. It's seeing how dumb I am. It's like, let's go. So I think-- He's not faking it. It's true. We're out of here. Go, beat us, beat us. OK, so let me explain the rules really quickly.

Also, I know it's hard for you guys, but it's actually good if you're going to work together here because we are only-- That doesn't work, ever. No. No. That hasn't worked in 145 episodes. No, no, no. It's impossible. These two idiots are the two that cannot work together. David and I have worked together for years.

So we'll be fine. We're going to collaborate over here. I feel like this is a group therapy session instead of chess. So I'm going to explain the rules now. 20 called me dumb. Well, no. I mean, you know what podcasting means to men, right? Group therapy. Oh, yeah. No, that makes sense.

That makes sense. We don't do therapy. So five minutes on the clock. Everybody playing only has five minutes. I have five minutes. They have five minutes. If anybody runs out of time, the game is over. So if they manage to stall me enough and they're just running my clock on one board, I can lose.

Every time they make a move, they get an extra two seconds increment. This is just so that if I only have 10 seconds on one clock, I can at least run there, not lose on time. And the way it works is they can make moves at any point. I think we're going to have a little eval bar on the screen behind.

So if you don't play chess, you can kind of look at that. There we go. There we go. So you can look at that. If the eval bar, you could see more of white than black. Alex, mine doesn't work. That means I'm -- it's because that's an illegal move.

Oh, okay. That's okay. It will work. Don't worry. I'll come back. All right. Yeah. And don't worry. If you don't know chess, I will let you know if they make a good move or if they make a bad move. I will call it out just so that everybody can follow.

It will be better. That would be funny. Okay. All right. Let's get started. All right. Are you ready? No, I'm not. Good luck. Good luck. Okay. D4. I think I'm just going to do the same first move. Actually, no, I'm trying to checkmate you in four. Yes! Get him!

Good luck. There we go. And you are the strongest of them all. I'm not going to try to checkmate you in four. I'm just going to play simple openings here. I knew you'd be speedy. When do I go? Uh-oh. Do I go? Okay. Here we go. We're running. What do I do?

What do I do? What do I do? Yeah! Get him, David! Get her! Wait. You're not letting me checkmate him? I didn't know you were going to help everyone. Hold on. I know what's about to happen here. Okay. Let's go here. Also, the clock near the board is their time.

The clock near the outside is mine. Okay. Where's my moves, guys? Oh, no, it's there. All right. Well, I can't -- oh, the timer didn't start. Sorry, Alex. No, that's okay. I'll reset it. Oh. You know what? For fun, I guess let's just do three minutes on this clock.

There we go. I only count in increments of 12 minutes. Okay. It's my turn. There we go. So you actually can try to flag me faster. Okay. I am going to -- David, what do I do? I've got to concentrate on the game here for a second. What are you going to do?

I'm standing here to intimidate you. Are you going to develop that knight? It's working. Yeah! I came up with this myself. I can tell. I can tell you didn't get assistance on that one. Take it. Take it. Yeah, take it. I didn't know that David Sax would be doing a simul of his own here, but I guess it works.

It was actually a pretty good move. I didn't know you could go backwards. What have you done? What have you done? I'm going to go like this. Yeah. Why do you keep saying it's okay? Why not -- it's nice. I'm going to have to play faster. I'm starting to only get three minutes on each board, and nobody has been checkmated yet.

Okay. Check. What? The fuck? All right. You asshole. What? No. Check's not a big deal. Okay, not a big deal. I'm going to move this person here. Look. Hey, hey. I'm moving this person to here to block her. Yes? Okay, good. Okay. Oh, my God. She did two moves, and now I get two moves.

She's got more play time than I do. What? Take your knight out. You've got to get castled. What? You've got to get castled. What the fuck does that mean? Okay, you've survived. I'm proud of you. Fuck. Why did I not be speaking a different language? Did I move? Huh.

Okay. Easy move for you. Easy -- David. Oh, okay. Wait, did I miss a move, or no? Or am I good? I think you just castled. I castled. Yeah, yeah, you're good. David, look, I'm doing this little tip-sitting over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I can tell he's not paying attention to you anymore.

He doesn't care. Alex, take that! Okay, I think I need to bully the weakest link, and then focus on the other boards. What the fuck? There we go. Okay, so he just lost a piece. He's lost, but now he can try to stall me on the clock. Stall, stall, stall.

Okay. What does this thing want to do here? Here? Hold on, I am confused. Hmm. Okay, I'm starting to get two minutes on the clock on most of the boards. I'm going to cast a spell. Okay. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell.

I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell.

I'm going to cast a spell. I'm going to cast a spell. So far, they're actually-- he just put a queen on the board. I can tell. It's a different color than the other queen. I want to. Oh, fuck. She forked me. OK, there you go. I'm forked. I'm fucked.

She forked me. So Sax's position is even right now, and he's up a minute on the clock. So he has the best chance so far. Shemoth hasn't gotten checkmated. The other two have been able to get a little bit of a break. So he's up a minute on the clock.

So he has the best chance so far. Shemoth hasn't gotten checkmated. The other two have been able to get a little bit of a break. So he has the best chance so far. Shemoth hasn't gotten checkmated. So let's round of applause. And this position is actually pretty even also.

And I only have two minutes. So I'm going to just have to do more cardio at some point and take out Jkal very soon, because he's managed to lose many of his pieces. So he's in big trouble. OK, OK. Nice, nice, nice. I'll be faster. Hmm. Huh. Hmm. OK.

I think what I need to do is I need to take them out and then focus on you individually, because you're playing very well here. Uh-oh. Hmm. And you're in second place. OK, let's try this. OK. I'm trying. Hmm. All right. We're going to just do-- That's what I'm talking about.

OK. I only have a minute on that board, because I accidentally put three minutes instead of five. I give you an extra minute if that's what you want. No, I don't need excuses. This is competitive. Come on. That is actually a good move. Oh, my God. I blundered a pawn.

Oh, God. Or did I? OK. Hmm. What is she doing? Every time I come here, I feel like I'm doing something completely different. OK. Hmm. Uh. What is she doing? Every time I come here, I feel like I'm doing something completely different. Every time I come here, I can't tell if you've made a move, because your position is so bad.

It takes me an extra second. OK. I have a minute on this board. This is getting really dangerous, so I need to focus on Friedberg. Otherwise, I might flag. And I also have a minute here. So we're just going to have to make fast moves. How much do I have here?

Two minutes? OK. We're going to do that. He's giving me free pieces. This is helping. I did? Check. I appreciate it. Thank you. Check. OK. We're trying now. Three minutes here. Plenty of time. Actually, I have a better chance to flag JCal than they do to flag me, so I'm looking forward to it.

Check. Oh, sorry. You didn't move yet. Oh, wait. You did. You just didn't press your clock. So now it's on you. 50 seconds here. OK. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done.

I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done.

Oh, this is tricky. Oh, my God. I'm going to lose on time. I have only eight seconds here. I don't know how I'm going to do this. Okay, check. 17 seconds. That's a good move, actually. I saw the audience yelling. I need to try not to flag here. I don't know if I can pull it off.

Take a shot. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done. I'm going to try to get this done.

And that is the best way, from what I understand, to get really good at chess is to understand those sort of situational chunks of moves like when you hit me with a knife fork and I lost my rook. >> Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Magnus, the best player in the world, he's extremely good at end games because, again, he knows the foundation of end games really well.

He's had a lot of practice. And he also just has crazy natural talent at figuring them up. >> So speaking of Magnus, there was a chess scandal that we talked about on the pod some ways back involving Hans Niemann, a player who has kind of kicked off chess.com and maybe some other places, too, for alleged cheating.

Magnus said he wouldn't play with him. Now I guess there was a statement that chess.com is allowing him back. Magnus said he will play with him. Can you give us an update on what the chess world thinks happened there? >> Yeah. So I'll give some general background a little bit more so the audience has it, too.

Basically the best chess -- and I know they talked about it on the pod, but just in case. So the best chess player in the world was playing against a talented junior. He was in the top 50 of all players in the world, top 10 for all juniors. And he was this chess player who had risen really quickly, like 100 to 200 points, which was unheard of for his skill level.

And he ended up beating Magnus. And Magnus the next day withdrew from the tournament, which is the first time Magnus has ever done anything. And it basically led to Magnus accusing him of cheating. And Hans coming out with a public interview saying he's never cheated on the board, but he has cheated online when he was, you know, 16 or very young.

Chess.com saw this, and because he said that information about cheating on their site, they wanted to correct the information. So they came out and they said, actually, he's cheated online in hundreds of games, including events that were for money. And then he got uninvited from some larger tournament. And basically what ended up happening is it blew up into this giant controversy where people on Hans' side were saying they haven't been able to prove the cheating over the board.

He admitted to online, that's very different. And then people on Magnus' side were just saying, you know, if the best person in the world thinks he cheated, he has really good intuition. This was recently resolved, where Hans has been able to get back onto chess.com. I spoke to them the day he got back on the website.

The way they saw it is, we just want the world to move forward. We don't want there to be drama in any sport. Somebody can get a penalty, but they should be allowed to come back in. And Magnus agreed to play him back over the board. And then just a day ago, another world chess champion accused him of cheating and made a YouTube video on it.

For what it's worth, he accused him of cheating because his timing was really weird in an online game. But this 19-year-old was like changing music, talking to his chat, so that's probably why. But because of computers, it's just really easy to be suspicious now. But didn't some of the cheating occur in person and they were thinking he might have had some sort of signal and somebody was, you know, maybe an issuer or something like that.

Maybe he could talk to that because that seems, yeah. That's what Magnus was accusing him. Even when the chess.com report came out, chess.com said they found no evidence of cheating over the board and there still has been no cheating, no evidence of cheating over the board. So that hasn't been proven.

That being said, it's extremely difficult to catch people who cheat because it could be as simple as an arbiter you're working with scratching their head when you have a winning move and that's it. So it's really hard to catch. Not saying that he did cheat, but that's the difficulty of catching cheating at a league chess.

At tournaments, are they now going to do them like in a sealed room so that nobody can be watching and present in order to keep the integrity of the game? I mean, they do metal detectors and all of the arbiters now, you know, they check them a lot. They're doing statistical analysis.

They look over their game and things like that. So they're doing all of the tools that they can. Alexandra, thank you for bringing chess to the world. I think you've been an amazing ambassador. Amazing. And thank you for joining us today. Congratulations on all your success. Thank you. Rain Man, David Saks.

And it's said we open sourced it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you, Wesley. I'm the queen of Kinwam. I'm going over you. Rain Man, David Saks. And it's said we open sourced it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you, Wesley.

I'm the queen of Kinwam. I'm going over you. Rain Man, David Saks. And it's said we open sourced it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you, Wesley. I'm the queen of Kinwam. I'm going over you. Rain Man, David Saks. And it's said we open sourced it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it.

Love you, Wesley. I'm the queen of Kinwam. I'm going over you. Rain Man, David Saks. And it's said we open sourced it to the fans and they've just gone crazy with it. Love you, Wesley. I'm the queen of Kinwam. I'm going over you. ♪ Winners win ♪

All-In Summit: Alexandra Botez takes on the Besties in a 1v4 simultaneous chess match

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