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Ten things you probably didn’t know about Magnus Carlsen

Photo: David Llada

  1. At the age of four, Magnus enjoyed assembling lego with instructions intended for 10 -14 year olds.

  2. Even though the outcome is pretty well determined, people still love to challenge Magnus. It took the World Champion just 90 seconds to beat Bill Gates back in January 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NwnSltHFo

  3. Carlsen is often referred to as the “Mozart of Chess”, because nobody, including himself, knows exactly how to explain how he does what he does - his talent seems to come from another world. They are both described as creative, brilliant and young, and according to Magnus himself, Mozart is not the worst person to be compared to.

  4. He has a sweater named after him - “The Magnus Sweater”, after the typical Norwegian “Marius Sweater”. The sweater was made by Moods Of Norway and became one of their most popular garments. The pattern is comprised of various chess pieces.

  5. During an interview on the YouTube channel SoulPancake, Carlsen said that the first line of his autobiography would be: “I am not a genius.”

  6. The longest Magnus’ has waited between moves? One hour and five minutes - “...and the move was horrible.”

  7. Carlsen has always said in interviews that he has developed his game by playing alone mostly, and thinking of various moves.

  8. Magnus was featured in Donald Duck - TWICE. In 2014 the Norwegian edition of Donald Duck decided to give their star a character in the comic book, and one more time in 2016, in a special tribute to the World Championship match. Magnus was part of the writing, with chess as the main story - dugh!

Magnus-in-DD
Photo: ChessBase

  1. Magnus once blundered a mate in one move against Merab Gagunashvili. Back then Magnus focused on the wrong piece and thereby missed a mate!

  2. Magnus’ ‘craziest game’: “There isn’t so much crazy about my games! I don’t like it when the games are crazy – I like it when they’re neat and tidy. There was my game with Topalov from Wijk aan Zee 2012. If I ever played a crazy game that was probably it.” - Magnus Carlsen at a FB live Q&A.