Magnus Carlsen

Tomorrow there's the Linares/Morelia opening ceremony again!  


                                      Ready for the last leg to Morelia.

The long and time-consuming journey from Norway to Morelia was obviously quite exhausting, but renewing our aquintence with real Mexican food at the Mexico City Holiday Inn La Reforma breakfast table yesterday already made it worthwhile! 

A year ago I reflected a bit on who and what had made it possible for a 16 year old Norwegian kid to get invited to Linares. (http://blog.magnuschess.com/060207230209_the_road_to_linares.html,  http://blog.magnuschess.com/160207190707_the_road_to_linares__2.html)
Having performed very well last year and continuing to make steady progress (unofficially he is now at 2752 versus 2676 a year ago), Magnus was invited back for the 2008 edition of Morelia-Linares.

Below I'd like to mention some of the people and companies that have been important to us over the last year. Lastly I'll be immodest enough to reflect briefly on the state of the Chess world. 

Although Magnus at his current level enjoys significant starting fees and prize money, it is important to have the support of sponsors as the economic foundation for taking optimum long term decisions regarding training and tournament participation (rather than letting short term economics decide).

Main sponsor; Last summer Magnus signed an agreement with FAST Search & Transfer, a Norwegian internet search engine company. They share the ambition of being the best in the world in their area.
FAST is currently in the process of being purchased by Microsoft (who has sponsored Magnus in the past) and we certainly hope the cooperation will continue with the new constellation.

For three years Magnus has also had a cooperation agreement with a small upstart company, Pharmalogica, selling fish oil products, and he features on some of their products, for instance Smartfish.  

During last year, Magnus trained together with other strong grandmasters in addition to following the chess classes of Simen Agdestein at the Top Athletes School whenever home between tournaments.
GM Peter Heine Nielsen (mainly 1st quarter) and GM Kjetil Lie (in Elista and Khanty-Mansiysk) served as seconds for Magnus during tournaments.

Due to his love for tournament play Magnus started to travel extensively at the age of 11 and has continued to do so ever since.
However, in 2007 he was more active than ever before and spent more than 200 days away from home (which is maybe too much to live a balanced teenager life).
He will be very active also in 2008 but I think the number of travelling days directionally will go down.
I have followed Magnus to a majority of the tournaments in 2007 (and have put my consulting business on the side line for the time being). He has also been accompanied by seconds PHN and KL on several occasions and two of his school mates on one occasion. 

I would also like to thank Chessbase and Fredrick Friedel for the continued enthusiastic support and the supply of chess software. 

The importance of the many chess enthusiasts following Magnus' games cannot be overestimated.
This enthusiasm and support contribute significantly to making it worth while spending so much time on chess. Thank you!       

After many turbulent years, the outlook for the chess world is quite good. 
We have one undisputed World Champion and are looking forward to a great World Championship battle between the two current chess giants Anand and Kramnik in October 2008. 
Together with Global Chess efficiently run by G.Borg and B.Kok, FIDE seems to have got their act together (but of course this remains to be seen).
The next full World Championship cycle is progressing as planned with the publication of the six host cities of the 2008-2009 Grand Prix series.

In 2008 many of the top players have simply too many strong tournament invitations. The schedule is much tighter than last year due to the GP and the October WC Match.
This is a challenge for organisers but has clearly some very positive consequences.
More players will be introduced to top level events, creating possibilities for the Elite 'challengers' around 2700. And the elite players will get the chance to show their real strength in competition with slightly lower rated players. The benefits are a likely drop in number of draws and there should be less complaints about the privileges of the elite.
Last but not least, it'll be more interesting tournaments to follow for chess lovers all over the world! 

Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 13^th 2007