Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsenis a Norwegian chess grandmaster, and the current World Chess Champion...
NationalityNorwegian
ProfessionChess Player
Date of Birth30 November 1990
CityTonsberg, Norway
CountryNorway
winning men thinking
I can’t count the times I have lagged seemingly hopelessly far behind, and nobody except myself thinks I can win. But I have pulled myself in from desperate [situations]. When you are behind there are two strategies - counter-attack or all men to the defences. I’m good at finding the right balance between those.
thinking self play
For me right now I think being the world number one is a bigger deal than being the world champion because I think it shows better who plays the best chess. That sounds self-serving but I think it's also right.
thinking careers chess
Right now I'm really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I'm not thinking of doing anything else.
thinking player games
Once you're a chess player, you spend a lot of time thinking about the game and you can't get it completely out of your head.
thinking chess overconfidence
I don't think there is a thing like overconfidence in chess. It's always better to be too confident than too reluctant.
winning thinking games
All I expect are wins and to get pleasure from the game. And if someone thinks something about me, if someone's dissatisfied with something... that's not my headache. I hope someday I'll become World Champion - and I'll make all these people happy. But even if for some reason that doesn't happen it won't stop me getting pleasure from chess. I'm sure of that.
thinking giving intuition
Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.
beautiful powerful thinking
Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it's OK to lose. I don't. You have to be merciless.
okay opponent people plays
Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it's okay to lose. I don't. You have to be merciless.
rap
I'm not really into rap.
people
It's just not my nature to go around idolizing people.
player chess different
It's easy for me to get along with chess players. Even though we are all very different, we have chess in common.
player norway being-the-best
My former coach, Simen Agdestein, used to be the best player in Norway.
success winning chess
Not winning a tournament is not an option for me, unless it's no longer theoretically possible - then of course winning becomes impossible. But up to that point, not winning is just not an option.