Magnus Carlsen Quotes

“All I expect are wins and to get pleasure from the game. And if someone thinks something about me, if someone's dissatisfied with something... that's not my headache.

I hope someday I'll become World Champion – and I'll make all these people happy. But even if for some reason that doesn't happen it won't stop me getting pleasure from chess. I'm sure of that.”

“Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.”

“Contrary to many young colleagues, I do believe that it makes sense to study the Classics.”

“I am trying to beat the guy sitting across from me and trying to choose the moves that are most unpleasant for him and his style.”

“I don't look at computers as opponents. For me it is much more interesting to beat humans.”

“I don't think there is a thing like overconfidence in chess. It's always better to be too confident than too reluctant.”

“I enjoy hiking and skiing, like most Norwegians. In winter, there will be snow for months on end. In the summer, there are the long evenings to enjoy.”

“I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.”

“I got the travel bug when I was quite young. My parents took me and my sisters out of school and we travelled all over Europe. It was an eye-opening experience and, although I love Norway, I also enjoy visiting new countries. I don't get homesick.”

“I honestly don't read that much. Obviously I read chess books – in terms of favorites, Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' is pretty good.”

“I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.”

“I started by just sitting by the chessboard exploring things. I didn't even have books at first, and I just played by myself. I learnt a lot from that, and I feel that it is a big reason why I now have a good intuitive understanding of chess.”

“I was lucky enough to attend schools where they were understanding about when I needed to go abroad to play chess. Of course, socially it is important to go to school and interact with people your own age.”

“I'm more interested in the games than the people.”

“I've never been much of a computer guy at least in terms of playing with computers. Actually until I was about 11 I didn't use a computer for preparing for games at all. I was playing a bit online, was using the chess club mainly. Now, obviously, the computer is an important tool for me preparing for my games.”

“I've never really had a favorite player, past or present.”

“If you want to get to the top, there's always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.”

“It's easy for me to get along with chess players. Even though we are all very different, we have chess in common.”

“It's just not my nature to go around idolizing people.”

“It's nice to be financially secure. Apart from that, I really don't care too much about money.”

“Kids love games and chess is a game where you have to sit down and concentrate and it just helps in every way.”

“Maybe if I didn't have the talent in chess I'd find the talent in something else. The only thing I know is that I have talent in chess, and I'm satisfied with that.”

“My father, a fine chess player himself, has been a massive influence throughout my life.”

“My former coach, Simen Agdestein, used to be the best player in Norway.”

“Not winning a tournament is not an option for me, unless it's no longer theoretically possible – then of course winning becomes impossible.

But up to that point, not winning is just not an option.”

“Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.”

“Once you're a chess player, you spend a lot of time thinking about the game and you can't get it completely out of your head.”

“One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people – men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.”

“People ask what my goal is. I don't have a goal.”

“Right now I'm really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I'm not thinking of doing anything else.”