Magnus Carlsen Quotes

Before a match, I do not follow any chess news except the games.

Professional players work almost every day, for hours on end, and the emphasis is on the word 'work.' It can be with a partner or it can be alone, but professional chess is always a pursuit of something new and surprising.

When you watch chess, you don't see the four hours that the player spends preparing for a match ahead of time.

I did take part in a couple of Vishy Anand's training camps. The experience has truly been invaluable. I saw from up close the level of preparation that I should be striving for.

I don't know how many calories an average chess player burns per game, but it often exceeds that of a player in ball games. It is not only the chess as such: You need to be fit and undergo complicated preparation.

I started playing chess when I was five years old. I learned the moves from my mother, then worked with my father - and later trainers. My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I'd forget about my other pieces.

My challenge when I came back was to face the young talent, dissect their games, and show them maybe that they needed to learn more about the game than just the money aspect.

When I was about six, I saw my elder siblings play chess and pestered my mother into teaching me. Very soon, I was beating everyone at home, and they thought it would be good to join a club. So my sister would take me to the Tal chess club on Thursdays and weekends.

I think for me the main goal that I have, or at least what I really aspire to, is to raise the level of chess.

The Nanjing games are homework by Garry Kasparov and me, [...] Today's game was provided by Garry.

For us chess players the language of artist is something natural.

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of having an evil thought during the game.

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

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've been using a computer for quite some time, and I don't understand everything.

I was very lucky that while I was a chess player in a country where chess was not a big deal, I happened to be in the one city where there was a sprouting chess team: Chennai.

In chess, we have styles - like in any other field. There are also fashions in the kinds of systems that people play. So I'm trying to know my opponent as much as possible.

I've heard that, but since I'm computer illiterate I don't know how it all works. But since I'm on Prodigy tonight, I'm learning a lot through my typist, Peter.

Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences.

For example, computer defends well, but for humans its is harder to defend than attack, particularly with the modern time control.

Chess: It's like alcohol. It's a drug. I have to control it, or it could overwhelm me. I have a regular Monday night game at my home, and I do play a little online.

I'm not very technically minded. I mean, I don't know how to do e-mail on computers.

I love to play chess. The last time I was playing, I started to really see the board. I don't mean just seeing a few moves ahead - something else. My game started getting better. It's the patterns. The patterns are universal.

The most interesting thing to me in chess are not the gambits. Or the moves. It's the mental toughness.

That was something that shaped my thinking regarding Estonia: the idea that we should be getting our young people to work with computers.