Meeting with the Minister of Education.
Thursday December 20th Magnus and I were invited to the Minister of Education Baard Vegar Solhjell. Mr. Solhjell is a chess enthusiast and used to be a decent junior player.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Norwegian school system and chess.
In Norway he have a strong public school and only a very low percentage of children attending private schools. The minister was interested in our views on how to improve the school system as Magnus' background is somewhat special.
At 6, Magnus was interested and quick in arithmetic calculations in the first grade but lost interest and in fact also much of his speed by the time he finished secondary school. Obviously the process of motivating him and giving him sufficient challenges did not succeed satisfactorily.
When we travelled abroad for a year during 2003-4 Magnus and his sisters probably spent an hour or less per day on school work but anyhow they received praise at school for their level of knowledge and maturity upon their return.
We agreed that continues improvement in the qualifications of teachers, making use of available modern educational and IT tools and taking advantage of the innate intellectual curiosity of children could improve the Norwegian school further.
Mr. Solhjell was also interested in experiences from other countries on chess in school.
Combined with the aspiration of Tromsoe city to arrange the 2014 Chess Olympics, the Norwegian Chess Federation and chess enthusiasts alike are in a unique situation to make progress on introducing chess in school to help improve the school system.
Magnus duly won the blitz game but was really impressed by many of the good and natural positional moves played by the minister.
The newspaper VG reported (in Norwegian) from the meeting; http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/elevavisen/artikkel.php?artid=191600
Lastly, Merry Christmas from Lommedalen!
(We have beautiful winter weather and good skiing conditions. Here at 60 degrees north there's about 7 hours daylight but very little sunshine due to the surrounding hills.)
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, December 23rd, 2007
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Norwegian school system and chess.
In Norway he have a strong public school and only a very low percentage of children attending private schools. The minister was interested in our views on how to improve the school system as Magnus' background is somewhat special.
At 6, Magnus was interested and quick in arithmetic calculations in the first grade but lost interest and in fact also much of his speed by the time he finished secondary school. Obviously the process of motivating him and giving him sufficient challenges did not succeed satisfactorily.
When we travelled abroad for a year during 2003-4 Magnus and his sisters probably spent an hour or less per day on school work but anyhow they received praise at school for their level of knowledge and maturity upon their return.
We agreed that continues improvement in the qualifications of teachers, making use of available modern educational and IT tools and taking advantage of the innate intellectual curiosity of children could improve the Norwegian school further.
Mr. Solhjell was also interested in experiences from other countries on chess in school.
Combined with the aspiration of Tromsoe city to arrange the 2014 Chess Olympics, the Norwegian Chess Federation and chess enthusiasts alike are in a unique situation to make progress on introducing chess in school to help improve the school system.
Magnus duly won the blitz game but was really impressed by many of the good and natural positional moves played by the minister.
The newspaper VG reported (in Norwegian) from the meeting; http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/elevavisen/artikkel.php?artid=191600
Lastly, Merry Christmas from Lommedalen!
(We have beautiful winter weather and good skiing conditions. Here at 60 degrees north there's about 7 hours daylight but very little sunshine due to the surrounding hills.)
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, December 23rd, 2007
Comments:
Posted by: Gegga
Thanks for the update, Henrik! It's a good thing that the Minister of Education spends time talking to you! I think there is a lot to learn from the brightest brains around. :-)
Susan, Judit and Sofia Polgar never went to an ordinary school, I believe. You can not argue that this has been bad for them...
Merry Christmas from Stavanger, Norway!
Take good care of your family, and keep up the good work in 2008 :-)
Susan, Judit and Sofia Polgar never went to an ordinary school, I believe. You can not argue that this has been bad for them...
Merry Christmas from Stavanger, Norway!
Take good care of your family, and keep up the good work in 2008 :-)
Posted by: Stein
We are looking forward to Magnus checkmating the rest of the government, in particular "the minister of defence" (=Kramnik, according to Susan Polgar).
Posted by: jAGADISH
Its nice to know that Magnus is in a position to influence decisions that affect Norway ! At least his opinion is sought. There are many countries that are considering having chess as a subject. Anand too is pushing it in India whenever possible. I think there was talk about this in Russia too.
Its interesting that the minister plays chess.
Enjoy the skiing, enjoy Christmas. Merry Christmas and a Joyous holiday and new year to you and Magnus. Please convey my wishes to Magnus. We are all eager to see him progress the same way as a chess player and as a good human being.
Regards
Jagadish
Its interesting that the minister plays chess.
Enjoy the skiing, enjoy Christmas. Merry Christmas and a Joyous holiday and new year to you and Magnus. Please convey my wishes to Magnus. We are all eager to see him progress the same way as a chess player and as a good human being.
Regards
Jagadish
Posted by: Frode Grøtheim
I think it is very important there is some discussion about the most gifted students in Norwegian schools. At the moment the situation is just awful. Basically, the gifted children are not challenged at all, and many lose all interest and do badly. They will never be able to reach their full potential, learning in any kind of school situation becomes hard and no one even see they are gifted. One seems to have the misconception that if you are gifted you automatically do well in school, and if you don’t do well, you can’t possibly be gifted.
Posted by: Vidar
Det er trist å se at de mest begavede elevene går for lut og kalt vann.
Det kunne vært fristende å gjøre et politisk poeng av det, men regner med at den politiske tanken og intensjonen bak vår grunnskole er så åpenbart og innlysende at "det sier seg selv" hvorfor norsk skolevesen står til Nogen Pluss i internasjonal målestokk !
God Jul til Lommedalen og et framgangsrikt godt nytt år.
Det kunne vært fristende å gjøre et politisk poeng av det, men regner med at den politiske tanken og intensjonen bak vår grunnskole er så åpenbart og innlysende at "det sier seg selv" hvorfor norsk skolevesen står til Nogen Pluss i internasjonal målestokk !
God Jul til Lommedalen og et framgangsrikt godt nytt år.
Posted by: Feuervogel
Frohe Weihnachten, God Jul!
Auch einen guten Rutsch ...
Auch einen guten Rutsch ...
Posted by: Mella
In my country institution doesn't show interest in chess.
Happy holidays!
Mella
beautychess.blogspot.com
mellart.blogspot.com
Happy holidays!
Mella
beautychess.blogspot.com
mellart.blogspot.com
Posted by: Loser
Hei.
Hadde det vært mulig å legge ut partiet som ble spilt? :)
Fortsatt god jul.
Hadde det vært mulig å legge ut partiet som ble spilt? :)
Fortsatt god jul.
Posted by: Gegga
Hei Henrik! Når jeg er ute og reiser (i syden, Afrika eller andre steder) kjøper jeg ofte med meg et sjakkbrett. Jeg synes at sjakkbrett er et veldig fint "møbel", veldig fin pynt. Jeg regner med at Magnus har mer ett 1 sjakkbrett. Hvor mange tror du han har? Og hvor mange sjakkbrett finnes i huset til familien Carlsen (totalt sett, også dine og dine døtres...). :-)
Posted by: Henrik C.
Gegga,
thank you very much, I'll do my best!
We have reaaly only 4 or 5 chess sets of varying quality, although I agree it's a great piece of furniture! (When the kids leave home and I have more space available maybe I can improve the collection.)
Loser,
I'm not sure the Minister would appreciate the publication of the game but I will try to get Magnus to write it done for our personal records.
All,
thank you for the comments regarding school. We sure need good initiatives that may improve the Norwegian school. Personally I think there should be more focus on teaching complex and abstract issues by the use of good examples from real life.
Happy New Year!
thank you very much, I'll do my best!
We have reaaly only 4 or 5 chess sets of varying quality, although I agree it's a great piece of furniture! (When the kids leave home and I have more space available maybe I can improve the collection.)
Loser,
I'm not sure the Minister would appreciate the publication of the game but I will try to get Magnus to write it done for our personal records.
All,
thank you for the comments regarding school. We sure need good initiatives that may improve the Norwegian school. Personally I think there should be more focus on teaching complex and abstract issues by the use of good examples from real life.
Happy New Year!
Posted by: FP
Jeg synes helt klart at partiet mellom Magnus og Kunnskapsministeren har offentlig interesse!
Ministeren har i denne sammenheng ikke opptrådt som privatperson, og gode prinsipper om offentlighet i forvaltningen burde helt klart gjelde her. Det vil f.eks. være helt uaktuelt for meg å stemme på denne ministerens parti dersom han har et uforsvarlig eller passivt
åpningvalg med hvit.
Ministeren har i denne sammenheng ikke opptrådt som privatperson, og gode prinsipper om offentlighet i forvaltningen burde helt klart gjelde her. Det vil f.eks. være helt uaktuelt for meg å stemme på denne ministerens parti dersom han har et uforsvarlig eller passivt
åpningvalg med hvit.
Posted by: bjull
I had a dream tonight. It was not the norwegian minister who met Magnus. It was me. I was lucky enough to play a game with Magnus. I don't remember the development, but the end position was like this:
Magnus had his king, a pawn and a box of coke (on the board!). I only had my king and a piece of goat cheese. Magnus was clearly better, but it was my move, and I managed to move the goat cheese like a queen, always checking the king. Magnus had a hard time accepting that I managed a draw, and played on for a lot of moves, protecting his king with the box of coke. But I always managed to find a new position with my piece of goat cheese. I drew agains Magnus!!!
Henrik, thanks a lot for a very interesting blog!
And good luck to Magnus in the future. In ten years, he's the world champion, still being a young guy. No hurry.
Magnus had his king, a pawn and a box of coke (on the board!). I only had my king and a piece of goat cheese. Magnus was clearly better, but it was my move, and I managed to move the goat cheese like a queen, always checking the king. Magnus had a hard time accepting that I managed a draw, and played on for a lot of moves, protecting his king with the box of coke. But I always managed to find a new position with my piece of goat cheese. I drew agains Magnus!!!
Henrik, thanks a lot for a very interesting blog!
And good luck to Magnus in the future. In ten years, he's the world champion, still being a young guy. No hurry.
Posted by: Santa
I think it's noteworthy to mention this quote from the article, in which Magnus strongly suggests that he wants to become a professional chess player (translated from Norwegian):
"I can't imagine doing anything else than playing chess. You can do it for a living."
Merry Christmas to Magnus for providing us with so much chess entertainment in 2007!
"I can't imagine doing anything else than playing chess. You can do it for a living."
Merry Christmas to Magnus for providing us with so much chess entertainment in 2007!
Posted by: Sam
I always found learning at school/university easier when real life examples were used to teach abstract issues. It is a good teaching process, keeps the kids interested and helps them remember complex issues better.
There was nothing worse than being given a set of diagrams in my economics lectures and having to memorise them without having a clear understanding of what they actually meant. I needed to relate them to something in 'real life'.
Well done for bringing these issues to the attention of the Minister, Henrik. We could sure use some good teaching methods here in England as well.
On that positive note, Happy New Year to everyone!
:-)
There was nothing worse than being given a set of diagrams in my economics lectures and having to memorise them without having a clear understanding of what they actually meant. I needed to relate them to something in 'real life'.
Well done for bringing these issues to the attention of the Minister, Henrik. We could sure use some good teaching methods here in England as well.
On that positive note, Happy New Year to everyone!
:-)
Posted by: Ole Morten Persen
I have to agree totally with FP. The chessgame was played as a part of his job, and we, the taxpayers and voters have the right to know how our money is spent and what our elected men and women are doing! It is not just in the interest of the public, but in my view it's your DUTY to publicise the game! Actually I think Magnus should play ALL the ministers and top politicians prior to the next election so us chessaholics can have some sort of basis when we consider who and what party to vote for.
En liten setning på norsk til slutt, siden den ikke helt kan oversettes til engelsk: Jeg for min del ville gitt min stemme til Sjakkpartiet!
Happy new year!
En liten setning på norsk til slutt, siden den ikke helt kan oversettes til engelsk: Jeg for min del ville gitt min stemme til Sjakkpartiet!
Happy new year!
Posted by: Nicholas
I hope Magnus is ready for big fight!
Corus 2008 is soon on it's way and I'd like to see Magnus smashing all these top chess players.
Has Magnus been preparing some specific preparations
for Corus?
Nicholas from Switzerland
Corus 2008 is soon on it's way and I'd like to see Magnus smashing all these top chess players.
Has Magnus been preparing some specific preparations
for Corus?
Nicholas from Switzerland
Posted by: lionel davis
Hello Mr.Carlsen its nice to see the positive support you provide for your
son. I too am interested in the future of chess
through the children as well as the school system,and have successfully done an 8 years study of Fischers collected games which revealed Ultramodern Strategy and was fortunate enough to meet him on icc to relate this fact. This science is the future of chess please send an email if you have an interest,im sure youll find it quite useful as did moro and naka. wish you well in corus 2008.
son. I too am interested in the future of chess
through the children as well as the school system,and have successfully done an 8 years study of Fischers collected games which revealed Ultramodern Strategy and was fortunate enough to meet him on icc to relate this fact. This science is the future of chess please send an email if you have an interest,im sure youll find it quite useful as did moro and naka. wish you well in corus 2008.
Posted by: andy
Corus 2008 :
Who will Magnus beat this time?
Who will Magnus beat this time?
Posted by: Maia Von Lazinni
Bonjour!! well... here in Mexico is really emm... early?? hehe... well!! i just send a message to Mr. Carlsen, Magnus and Family, happy holidayss!! Mr. Carlsen my best wishes for you and all your family, continue supporting and taking care of Magnus!! and... emm.. i have to go.. jeje REGARDSS!! TO EVERYBODY!! wiii.. xoxo's a lot of kisses and hugs to Magnus :D, aurevoir!!
Posted by: Ozgur Akman
Hello Mr.Carlsen,
Since I could not find any private e-mail adress I have to write it here. My name is Özgür Akman and I am press officer of Turkish Chess Fed and chess columnist Sabah, one of the most popular newspapers in Turkey.
Right not I am working about sponsorships in chess for my column and was going to ask if Magnus have any sponsors right now? Is Microsoft still helping Magnus Carlsen?
I wish a happy new year for Carlsen family and even more spectacular successes for Magnus and simply hope to see him playing in Turkey again.
Best wishes,
Ozgur Akman
Since I could not find any private e-mail adress I have to write it here. My name is Özgür Akman and I am press officer of Turkish Chess Fed and chess columnist Sabah, one of the most popular newspapers in Turkey.
Right not I am working about sponsorships in chess for my column and was going to ask if Magnus have any sponsors right now? Is Microsoft still helping Magnus Carlsen?
I wish a happy new year for Carlsen family and even more spectacular successes for Magnus and simply hope to see him playing in Turkey again.
Best wishes,
Ozgur Akman
Posted by: Martin T
Ozgur,
As far as I know Magnus is sponsored by FAST Search & Transfer. I don't know the exact details but I think it's about half a million NOK per year.
Ok I found some info here (in Norwegian):
e24.no/selskap/FAST/articl...60.ece?service=print
Regards,
Martin
PS: I am not affiliated with the Carlsens, just a fan.
As far as I know Magnus is sponsored by FAST Search & Transfer. I don't know the exact details but I think it's about half a million NOK per year.
Ok I found some info here (in Norwegian):
e24.no/selskap/FAST/articl...60.ece?service=print
Regards,
Martin
PS: I am not affiliated with the Carlsens, just a fan.
Posted by: ]julia
hey, i was wondering where and when would his next tournament be, or if he has any plans to attend any in the summer.
thanks
thanks
Posted by: samb
re: ]julia
Magnus will play in Wijk aan Zee in just a few days: www.coruschess.com
As for the summer, I'm guessing Magnus will play in Biel at least: www.bielchessfestival.ch
Magnus will play in Wijk aan Zee in just a few days: www.coruschess.com
As for the summer, I'm guessing Magnus will play in Biel at least: www.bielchessfestival.ch
Posted by: julia
oh great! thank youu
Biel, i was supposed to go to last summer but i got caught so decided not to. How is it there, is it some remote location, and is it some big deal tournament?! im kind of a newbie, but u can tell that already haha
Biel, i was supposed to go to last summer but i got caught so decided not to. How is it there, is it some remote location, and is it some big deal tournament?! im kind of a newbie, but u can tell that already haha
Posted by: Helge
Regarding sponsors, it has today been announced that Magnus' current sponsor Fast is going to be acquired by his previous sponsor Microsoft. Quite a coincidence...
Posted by: Henrik Carlsen
FP,
det er fristende å svare at åpningsvalget var uforsvarlig og passivt:-)
Sam,
thank you for your supportive remarks!
Nicholas,
I don't think Magnus wants to reveal too much about his preparations for Corus but his ambition is surely to do much better than last year.
Lionel Davis,
sounds interesting to me. If you send me some more details (to hen-c@online.no) I'll talk to Magnus about it.
Maia,
thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm!
;r. Akman,
I'm sorry for slow response. Magnus indeed has search engine provider FAST as a main sponsor. Pharmalogica is also sponsoring him, and earlier Micorsoft Norway sponsored him for 3 years and Computas for half a year. Please feel free to contact me on hen-c@online.no
det er fristende å svare at åpningsvalget var uforsvarlig og passivt:-)
Sam,
thank you for your supportive remarks!
Nicholas,
I don't think Magnus wants to reveal too much about his preparations for Corus but his ambition is surely to do much better than last year.
Lionel Davis,
sounds interesting to me. If you send me some more details (to hen-c@online.no) I'll talk to Magnus about it.
Maia,
thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm!
;r. Akman,
I'm sorry for slow response. Magnus indeed has search engine provider FAST as a main sponsor. Pharmalogica is also sponsoring him, and earlier Micorsoft Norway sponsored him for 3 years and Computas for half a year. Please feel free to contact me on hen-c@online.no
Posted by: Øyvind
Henrik, if I were you I would consider
writing my email address something like this: xyz [ at ] mailaddress [ dot ] com or similarly. Otherwise you might just end up with heaps of junk email in your inbox as spiders are crawling the web looking for potential spam-target addresses.
Anyway, who is going to second Magnus in Corus?
writing my email address something like this: xyz [ at ] mailaddress [ dot ] com or similarly. Otherwise you might just end up with heaps of junk email in your inbox as spiders are crawling the web looking for potential spam-target addresses.
Anyway, who is going to second Magnus in Corus?
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