The warning comes from 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen, the No 1 ranked player in the world. In a candid interview he gave to the German magazine Der Spiegel some time ago, the Norwegian chess prodigy warned keen young players not to allow the brain game to become an obsession. "Otherwise," he said, "there is the danger that you will slide into a parallel world, that you would lose your sense of reality, get lost in the infinite cosmos of the game. You become crazy." As for himself, Carlsen disclosed that he had a "life beyond chess." He likes to chat with friends on the Internet, play poker, go hiking and skiing and play football for his club. With respect to his coaching association with ex-World Champion Garry Kasparov, the young Norwegian GM observed that their playing skills were not that far apart." He noted, however, that Kasparov still had "loads of unused ideas for openings." And the fact that the ex-World Champion had played against most of his opponents was invaluable. "He senses what mood they are in, how they will open the game. I can't do that."
Following are excerpts from his interview with Der Spiegel:
Q: Mr Carlsen, what is your IQ?
A: I have no idea. I wouldn't want to know it anyway. It might turn out to be a nasty surprise.
Why, you are still quite young and ranked the number one chess player in the world. You must be incredibly clever. And that's precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason why Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that.
How's that?
At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics at Oxford. He was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess.
Things are different in your case?
I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.
Aha. How many moves can you calculate ahead?
That depends on the game situation. Sometimes 15 to 20. But the trick is to correctly assess the position at the end of the calculation.
You became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, four months and 27 days, and there has never been a younger number one than you before. What is that due to, if not your intelligence?
I am not saying that I am totally stupid. But my success mainly has to do with the fact that I have had the opportunity to learn more, more quickly. It has become easier to get hold of information. The players from the Soviet Union used to be at a huge advantage; in Moscow they had access to vast archives with countless games carefully recorded on index cards. Nowadays anyone can buy this data on DVD for 150 euros. One disk holds 4.5 million games. There are also more books than there used to be. And then, of course, I started working with a computer earlier than Vladimir Kramnik or Vishwanathan Anand.
When exactly?
I was eleven or twelve. I used the computer to prepare for tournaments, and I?played on the Internet. Nowadays, children start using a computer at an even earlier age; they are already learning the rules on screen. In that sense I am already old fashioned. Technological progress leads to younger and younger top players everywhere in the world.
Is being young an advantage in modern chess?
As a young player you have a lot of energy, a lot of strength, you are very motivated. But young players are often not good at defending a position; they cannot cope well when fate turns against them. The fact is simply that experience is a central issue. One of the most important things in chess is pattern recognition, the ability to recognise typical themes and images on the board, characteristics of a position and their consequences. To a certain degree you can learn that while training, but there is nothing like playing routine. I have always made sure to get that. I have certainly already played a thousand games in the classic style.
For a long time you were the hunter in chess, now that you are the number one, are you the hunted? Do you notice that?
Certainly. The pressure has increased, everyone wants to beat me.
Do you go out for a drink at night sometimes?
Rarely, I prefer to chat with friends on the Internet or play poker on line.