An interesting interview with World Champion Magnus Carlsen was posted today on NRK website.
The interview was performed at the launch of the Play Carlsen app in Oslo a couple of weeks ago. Author Mads Nyborg Støstad kindly translated the quotes to English for Chessdom.
– Kramnik tror at han vet alt, sier Magnus Carlsen.
– Kramnik thinks he knows everything.
– Det er veldig imponerende hvordan Kramnik lirer av seg forskjellige varianter og så videre, og det er ikke så lett å gjennomskue hvis man ikke kan gamet ordentlig selv. Men hvis man ser litt dypere, er det ofte bare tull, sier Carlsen.
– It’s very impressive how he throws around different variations, and it’s not easy to see through it if you don’t know the game well enough yourself. But if you look a bit deeper, it’s often just nonsense.
– Han spiller alltid veldig prinsipielt. Den kanskje største forskjellen mellom meg og ham, er at han gjør veldig mye mer feil. Ofte er det sånn at han tror han har rett, mens jeg har rett, fortsetter bæringen.
– He plays with great principle. Probably the biggest difference between me and him is that he makes a lot of mistakes. He often thinks that he is right, while I am the one who is right.
– 13 år gamle Magnus Carlsen kjøpte alt han sa. Ikke jeg, sier den 23 år gamle sjakkongen med et djevelsk smil.
– 13 year old Magnus Carlsen bought every word he said. Not me.
– Han er veldig selvsikker. Han er ikke redd for noen. Han tror ikke jeg er bedre enn ham, han tror ikke Aronian er bedre enn ham og han tror ikke Anand er bedre enn ham. Han taper faktisk en del mot Nakamura, men han tror i hvert fall ikke Nakamura er bedre enn ham, sier nordmannen.
– He’s very confident. He’s not afraid of anyone. He doesn’t think I’m better than him, he doesn’t think Aronian is better than him. He actually loses a bit against Nakamura, but he certainly doesn’t think Nakamura is better than him.
Shame. Magnus is just as much a jackass as the next guy.
Same old story…it’s the rare champion in any endeavor who manages to also be a gracious human being.
Anand you mean?
Bit harsh. You expect a little more dignity form a WCH. Or maybe its just that I am used to a humble champion because of Kramnik and Vishy.
Kramnik is simply spreading some ‘dezinformatsya’.
Kramnik plays better chess than you Magnus Carlsen, even at your peak. You can’t expect him to top the candidates. He’s a OG just spicing up the candidates.
That’s a shame. He might be head and shoulders above others in chess currently, but belittling Kramnik like this and Nakamura on reddit recently is way over the top and shows that fame is getting to Carlsen’s head. I guess that Carlsen still has to mature as a personality. A little of Anand-style humbleness would do him a lot of good.
kramnik is really genius, carleson is just a nonsense and stupid and thinks that nobody other than him know how to play chess also after losing many games against many players.
Maybe there are inaccuracies in Kramnik’s post game analysis – I wouldn’t know – but a least he makes an effort to explain the game to chess fans.Svidler is good value too.If I was a chess tournament organiser Kramnik and Svidler would be my first choices.
Kramnik has just lost so it’s probably true he’s over the hill.
Oh, after reading this I think a “weird” or “shocked” option in the reactions would be useful! Sad thing to read.
The article can have been edited to sound more aggressive, but if this is the case I would have expected complains by Magnus.
Before you criticize Magnus for this, you maybe should be reminded that Kramnik has said that Magnus is not better than him or the others at the top. I guess this is his ironic answer.
Carlsen may continue to win chess tournaments, but he won’t win any hearts with this kind of trash talk.
Can you people cut the crap with all this “He needs to be more humble” nonsense… this guy has singlehandedly infused youth and spice back into the game of chess. Truth be told Magnus is very level headed, humble, and gives praise & credit to his rivals when due – at the same time with his accomplishments you can’t blame the kid for no longer taking trash talk from other players now that he’s the MAN. Both Kramnik and Nakamura are players who initiated these shots back and forth. Magnus is definitely on another level while the whole time Kramnik has been on a mission to make him seem average and “lucky” in nearly every interview when asked about Carlsen’s playing strength. At one point he even went as far to say that Carlsen was his “client” for lessons over the board when he HAD a plus score against him in classical chess (no longer the case now). All the greats in competitive-based environments have confidence with a HINT of cockiness to give them the psychological edge needed to stay at their best – Michael Jordan was notorious for these antics which kept him on fire when he needed inspiration to score, but everyone loved him and no one doubts he was one of the greatest to play the game. This is great for a game which most outsiders see as rather boring and not much of a sport… let ’em live – a little trash talk among rivals is exciting and never hurt anybody. Seriously everyone is always so phony and politically correct – its almost as if no one likes straight shooters anymore or just plain honest opinions from the minds of other individuals… Well I DO and If its too much – go play checkers with ya Grandma!
Amen to that!
Took the words right out of my mouth. These clowns on here don’t know what kramnik and nakamura have been saying. They are so eager to take something from carlsen, even if it’s his personality, just because they are so jealous. Everybody hates the best because it reminds them of how Much of a loser they are themselves.
Good for Magnus! Appropriate riposte to Kramnik’s trash talk.
Kramnik considered Anand as stronger than him as you could infer from his old interviews. So, your blame on that is incorrect.
Love the honesty. People complaining about Carlsen are the same ones who whine that athletes give boring interviews and never say what they really mean. King Magnus laughs at the haters from his throne!
Blimey. Hopefully some of this is a translation effect.
If this interview is true my comment is that Carlsen seems to be 23 years old…
It is too early to judge Carlsen over these translated comments. First, you don’t know the context. What were the questions? What else did Carlsen say? (I read that he also said that Kramnik was an interesting person to meet.) What was Carlsen’s body language? What had Kramnik been saying? The last quote can easily be seen as a compliment — Kramnik simply has great confidence in himself. I have heard Carlsen’s responses to questions about Nakamura’s recent little trash talking against him, and Carlsen’s responses were fair and level headed. I’ve read that Kramnik has made comments about Carlsen in interviews that weren’t very flattering. He apparently referred to Carlsen as one of his “clients,” as if Carlsen was just taking lessons from him in their games. Overall, it seems clear to me that Carlsen has been a very good guy. But if things come his way, he will say a little something back. He’s like Tiger Woods in that sense. In the end, I hope blatant trash talking stays rare in chess. I don’t think it is good for chess. It also leads to distracting bad press. Remember “tioletgate” between Topalov and Kramnik? People will focus on the nonsense, and chess will become associated with nonsense.
The translation is accurate. Little niggle: the sentence with “Ofte er det sånn at han tror…” is better rendered “Often the situation is such that he thinks he’s right, but actually I’m right.” There is some snark in the Norwegian.