Magnus Carlsen

Tomorrow Magnus hits the road again. Flying to Madrid, and Friday onwards to Mexico City for a week in the mountains to adjust to Mexican time before Round 1 in Morelia Feb 17^th.
Linares 2007! A few years back the odds against a 16 year old Norwegian being invited to the 8-man top event would seem pretty high, I would say insurmountable. Just to participate will be an extraordinary experience and a great achievement and I hope chess enthusiasts will appreciate his participation irrespective of the final result. 
 
At chess events I’m often asked about his chess training and below I’ll mention the most important contributors to his climb to World Top 25 before turning 16. After starting to work on chess on his own at the age of 8 he has to a large extent been self-going, driven by curiosity and thriving on success.More than 90% of the time he has spent on chess over the last 8 years has been on his own; playing, investigating and repeating positions and games on the board, reading books, playing on ICC and playing tournament games. Anyhow, his teachers have probably been a decisive contributing factor. 

In addition to teaching him the moves and playing a few games / month with him, my most important contribution is probably stopping to give him (poor) advice early in his career. At one of his first adult tournament at the age of 9 a Norwegian FM overheard our analysis and pointed out that my line of reasoning was principly flawed. I thought “OK, I will not make that mistake again!”. 

During a Norwegian Grand Prix (Open) tournament at the Top Athletes School in January 2000, some of his games were brought to the attention of Simen Agdestein who took a strong interest in him. Simen told me that Magnus could become a GM in 5 years. (Exactly 4 years later Magnus achieved his first GM norm and 3 months onwards his third !) Simen offered Magnus lessons with his assistant Torbjørn Ringdal-Hansen (an FM, with a GM norm). Alone or together with another young player Magnus meet with Torbjørn for an hour or two once or twice a week when at home between tournaments for nearly two years. Torbjørn is a very good teacher, is clever with children and Magnus clearly benefited from the joyous atmosphere of the sessions.  

Magnus’ strength was growing and when Torbjørn was leaving to study in another town, Simen Agdestein took over. They had about 30-50 sessions of 1-4 hours during 2002 and the spring of 2003, mainly to go through the games Magnus played at tournaments but also did some other work. Magnus obviously benefited greatly from Simens broad experience and the way he steered their analysis with his energetic and creative style. Simen has always been helpful and understanding.They kept in contact, but less frequently until 2006. Then their contact increased again in august when Magnus joined the Top Athletes School, where Simen teaches chess, to benefit from the flexibility they offer young high school athletes. When home Magnus now has about 14 hours of chess per week at school.  

Magnus meet Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen when Peter was coaching the Norwegian national team in 2003 and over the last 2-3 years they have worked together for two weeks, stay in contact via Internett and Peter has seconded Magnus in 4 or 5 tournaments. Apart from being a world class opening expert, Peter is a remarkably nice man, patient and with a great sense of humour. 

Another Norwegian who has provided a lot of support for Magnus is IA and organiser Hans Olav Lahlum. He has scheduled and arranged bi- or tri-annual tournaments at Gausdal over the last 6 years much with Magnus in mind. Due to his increasing strength and favourable tournament invitations, Magnus is not playing much at Gausdal any longer, but his tenfold tournament participation up there has certainly been a most valuable contribution. It is great to play on “home ground” and combine chess and cross-country skiing. 

Magnus has also been fortunate enough to spend two training session with Garry Kasparov himself, and Garry and his team have been very supportive of Magnus. These sessions were of unique importance not only because of the extremely high quality Garry brings to the analysis board but also as an eye opener of the long, difficult and laborious road leading to the top. Despite being a GM, Magnus really felt like a pupil and novice in the analysis. (It was the first time he had felt like this for many years!) I’m sure these experiences has contributed considerably to his development over the last 2 years.
    
Thursday Magnus plays a simul in Madrid and then Linares/Morelia is next!  

H.Carlsen, February 6^th 2007