How Did Demis Hassabis Learn Chess at Four?

David Senra, reading Sebastian Mallaby, says Demis Hassabis discovered chess at four, had a natural aptitude for the game, and within a few weeks had mastered it well enough to defeat adults. Senra thinks he once heard Hassabis say that half his brain is dedicated to competition.

Hassabis was very special from a very young age. His mother had grown up in poverty, spending part of her childhood as an orphan on the streets of Singapore. His father had been the first from his family to attend university, an aspiring singer-songwriter who sold toys out of the family's beaten-up Volkswagen van. Hassabis first saw his father play a game against his uncle, and the game made him want to learn how to play. By five he was competing in tournaments, sitting on a telephone book on top of a chair so he could get his head over the table. He was relentlessly, ferociously competitive.

At six, a renowned chess player and television commentator told his father he was the best six-year-old chess player ever seen. His parents were fairly normal people living normal lives, and a renowned expert was telling them about their son. His father responded as though instructions had been handed down from God and, for the next half a dozen years, weekend after weekend, bundled his young son into the family's van and drove him off to tournaments.