Carlsen stays cool atop rankings
Magnus Carlsen of Norway is a distinctly modern chess phenomenon. At 20, he is the world’s highest-rated player.
He is also a millionaire — thanks to a lucrative sponsorship agreement with the G-Star apparel company — who can look forward to an expanding list of such commercial deals in the future.
Off the board and on the board, Carlsen seems to do it all with a minimum of storm and stress. Unlike the legendary Bobby Fischer, he is not — as he is happy to point out — obsessed with chess.
Last year, Carlsen surprised the chess community by turning down an invitation to take part in the cycle for the world championship.
After calling for changes in the selection process and format of the cycle, he clarified his intentions:
“Rest assured that I am still motivated to play competitive chess. My current plan is . . . to maintain the No. 1 spot on the rating list that I have successfully defended for most of 2010.”
Still ranked at the top, Carlsen seems to have progressed far along that road. Recently, he won the Chess Oscar — awarded by a vote of journalists from 36 countries — for the second year in a row.
Source: http://www.dispatch.com
I was a huge Nakamura fan. Unfortunately, his tweets and other comments have made me lost interest. He tweets things with little worries that young kids might be reading them (if they are a fan).
Carlsen on the other hand is a cool kid. He does his work, goes about his business and his blogs are well written with hardly any cause for concerns for children. You won’t hear him say “I’m driving at 120mph” etc… I hate to root against the American Nakamura, but I suppose now I have joined on the Carlsen ‘bandwagon’ if you want to call it such. A chess whiz with real class! No wonder he attracts sponsors.
Good job Carlsen!
It will still be hard to root against Anand! An equally classy guy and who also won chess oscars for sportsmanship and brilliance several years back to back.
Anish Giri and Karjakin are also excellent sportsmen.
Sure Carlsen is very very good;but he disappointed by chickening out of the candidates. He is the Wozniacki of chess,at least for now. I’m sure that eventually when he finds that despite winning tournaments,he is unable to win the World Championships,he will just say ” Well I’ve done everything! I’ve topped the rating charts! I’m bored now and moving on to other things…. etc etc”
Maybe Carlsen should be obsessed. There are no guarantees… lots of young talent coming. He probably think the crown is his for the taking.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well,young talents across globe much appreciated – Young talents should increase further – Good for the sport.
I haven’t read many of Carlsen’s games,so I am not sure about his strength but one thing is clear that,he should be one among the best available chess players – Good at his age.
Very much eager,to analysis the up coming tournament,where current top few are going to compete – Which includes our “Anand” The world champion.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]
Unfortunately, Carlsen lost some chess-focus last year with his G-star-appointments, but has (forunately) seemed to regain this focus by now.
Hopefully, he has now realized how motivation and focus must be balanced when other activities are stealing his time.