The new superstar in the making

Chess champ keeps his cool
Monday January 28 2008
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/sports/article2222983.ece

Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s teenaged chess whiz, is his game’s equivalent of a rock star. As fans swarmed around him in the Netherlands on Sunday, hoping for an autograph or photo, Carlsen showed that it hasn’t gone to his head.

“It’s okay,” was all he had to say about the buzz that surrounded him after he wound up among the world’s top 10 chess players over the weekend. He shared first place in the prestigious Corus tournament in the Netherlands, after the world’s top two players ended in a tie.

“I’m satisfied with the tournament, but not with the last part,” he told Aftenposten when it was all over. On the other hand, he said, the match on Sunday was the best he’d ever played.

He was ranked 13th in the world before Corus and now is probably ninth, said his father after Carlsen shared first-place honors with Levron Aronian. Carlsen has long been ranked the world’s best junior chess player (those under age 21) and he’s the Nordic country’s strongest chess player by a wide margin.

The 17-year-old Carlsen, who travels around 200 days a year, spent two weeks at the tournament in the Netherlands and was due to return to Norway’s special high school for top athletes and players (topp idrettsgymnaset) where he studies chess. But he’ll soon be traveling to Mexico and Spain for another major tournament.

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