The meteoric rise of Magnus Carlsen is simply amazing. While a number of other incredibly talented young players seem to hit their plateau after passing the 2700 mark, Magnus basically shot up to nearly 2800 and who knows what his ceiling will be.
But let’s examine his strengths and weaknesses if any. In your opinion, what are his strengths?
– Opening
– Middlegame
– Endgame
– Tactic
– Calculation
– Strong nerve
– Something else
What is/are his weakness(es)?
And how would you compare Magnus to Fischer, Kasparov, or Karpov at the same age?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
You left out his good looks!
His weakness is that haircut of his. Someone needs to tell his mother to quit cutting his hair.
Maybe he should grow a Topa beard, an Irina Krush hair-doo, a Kramnik smirk, a Vishy smile, a Chucky unibrow and a crazy Fischer hobo stare. Finish it with Akobian sunglasses and Irina’s leather jacket and we have one sexy chess player.
Then Magnus would be unbeatable until science finds a way to clone him and then he will have decent competition playing himself.
Feel free to download Magnus Carlsen’s ‘Wrap Myself In Paper’ from here, or the link below (for a limited time only). It’s fab!
http://rapidshare.com/files/7917818/Magnus_Carlsson_-_Wrap_Myself_In_Paper.mp3
The main strength of Magnus is his intuition. And for those who think it is his calculation skills, think again. If anything one gets the impression calculation is a weakness of Magnus. Simen talks about how Magnus doesn’t even calculate piece sacrifices much, but simply play them when they feel right, while he himself would calculate like crazy in a similar position before making the sacrifice.
His strength in endgame play has dramatically increased lately. I’ve also noticed that he has been very determined to win lately. These two strengths are sure signs of Magnus being made of World Champion caliber. He is not weak in anything, but still has some potential in the opening phase. My bet is that he will reach around 2850 before he is 20.
It’s a pity that Jeff Sonas isn’t updating his website anymore (http://db.chessmetrics.com/), but I’m quite sure that Magnus at 17 is better than Kasparov, Fischer, Karpov, etc.
His mentor(Agdestein) once said that one of his talents as a player was his overall intelligence.
http://db.chessmetrics.com/CM2/AgeLists.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S000000000000111000000000000017100 says it all. Magnus is the best player ever at age 17.
There’s an almost poetic irony about Fischer dying the very week that Magnus has his breakout tournament. As in “The King is Dead. Long Live the King.”
My death was a trick. I am livng in Cuba posing as Raul Castro.
Iceland was getting too cold for my old joints.
http://xkcd.com/249/
I liked the old xkcd linked above. As soon as I saw the chess photo I had to post it here.
I see it now! Magnus has some how smuggled Rybka into the Orange Juice! Call the chess police!
Maggy’s weak point is his courage. He is a very smart Norwiegen coward.
He tends to choke a late critical moments. He would not make a good soldier.
He fell apart against Kamsky. He succeeds on his great talent, but he still has the ability fall apart, especially late in a tourney.
Maggy’s will always under preform in long Match.
He simply does not have the stomach for the intensity of match play.
Maggy will become the highest rated player to never have won the world championship.
It is not his fault he was born and raised in a country of cowards.
“It is not his fault he was born and raised in a country of cowards.”
I would say “Takes on to know one”, but you don’t know Magnus.
You know cowardice though. I hope you get beat up by Norwegian transvestites. I hope they put you in a dress and name you Sally.
Cowardly Anon has Magnus envy. You can go blind from that you know…
If he broke Kasparov’s record : 2851 elo, maybe he could retires from professional chess.
And playing only versus good opponents like Rybka, Hiarc, etc …
The kid shows remarkable maturity as a player for someone only 17 years old. As much as I hate to say it, he’s better at this age than Fischer or Kasparov were – neither were quite capable at 17 of consistantly holding their own with the top 10 as Magnus is doing. Age & experience will smooth the rough edges and eliminate most of the minor weaknesses he has, which are just a result of youth & inexperience. It’s scary to think how good this guy can become in the next few years.
Strange comments…(above).
I think what I like the most about Mr Carlsen is his “stick to it” sort of play. When most GMs wold shakes hands and go home..this kid just grinds it out. I remember Gm’s being a little miffed about another guy who used to do that. Magnus is young///it’s amazing to realize that he’s still got 5 or 6 years to fully mature. He not only reminds me of Fischer….I think he’ll actually surpass everyone.
He still does get into trouble sometimes…..but it’s amazing the way he squirms out….He’s a fighter….and a worthy challenger for the title.
It’s sort of sad all the second rate GM’s all get their shots before him…I miss the old system…6 game matches….etc…and an actual 24 game match for the title.
3000 eventually?
His being best for age at 17 means little unless you realise that not even any 18 year old in history had the years of supertournament experience he had (not to mention computers help you reach your peak faster). I bet you that he will NOT be as good as Kasparov when all is said and done, just he reached close to his best at a younger age due to aforementioned reasons.
Note also his advantage of being so young scaring opponents will go down with length at the top, then we will see his reall mettle when players just see him as an adult player.
I think the age thing is not so important. Let’s see if he can win a match against the likes of Kamsky and Anand in say 3 years time…
When it comes to who is the greatest player ever- I will not care of age, but how they dominated and for how long. For all you know he might reach his (albeit 2800+ and number 1 in the world) peak at 19 and not be the greatest.
I think the most astounding thing about Magnus is how mature he is, although he’s only a teenager.
When you look at his games, you have the feeling that he’s full of talent, sure, but you also feel he’s not going to blunder. That is what amazes me most.
Everybody speaks of his powerful ending game, but I also consider his opening preparation is really good. A lot of players full of talent (Vallejo, for one, and so did Radjabov some time in the past, but not anymore) lack this preparation and that undermines their talent.
It is not easy that a young player has a good opening preparation but Magnus does.
And still he possesses all the intuition you are talking about.
It’s over 9000!!!
you know….Kasparov vs Carlsen would be a fun match….while we all wait for Fide to get its crap together…
I can see FIDE screwing Magnus over. They tried to destroy many great GM’s because their favorite robots were not winning.
All I’m saying is that I bet a Carlsen Kasparov exhibition match would probably fetch more money thean the actual (fractured) Fide WCC
Sad eh?
Mike Magnan
Why not have a Carlsen- Karjakin match as a warm up (they are born the same year and likely to have a rivalry of some sort) and at the same time they get match experience?
I think Magnus’ will to win is a crucial point here.
His openings aren’t exactly waterproof, but at least they let him float in the water…
I think his openings in Aerosvit 2008 has been much better than usual, he hasn’t come out of the opening with a -0,5 evaluation. 🙂
Seems that his intuition is extraordinary, if he calculates so little that someone claims, he must have the best intuition of any player in history. He just knows which piece to move.
The main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what.
“The main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what.”
His juice bottle? 😀
His future weakness could be “hair loss” (like his dad).
This is Kasparov premature retirement in fact (but people don’t know).
Anand had serious problem, but wig helps a lot.
to be honest, I don’t like Carlsen’s play. I’m his fan because he’s young, modest and he’s first Norwegian at the top ever. But I don’t remember any spectacular sacrifice in any of his games for a long, long time. His style of play is purely positional (so much different from Tal or Morphy for example)
I posted an number of advantages that I feel like Carlsen has over on others on the ChessVibes Carlsen Keeps On Winning post and most of them have been noted in this thread already except for the advantage he receives from his slight autism.
Autistic Advantage:
Also I think that Carlsens slight autistic provides him with the ability of intense concentration, preference of routine, ability to follow interests for extreme lengths. I feel these autistic attributes help Carlsen to study chess with greater easy and consistenecy and to be very focused while playing and be less effected by the extreem stress that is experience in super GM tourment play.
After having read all posts carefully, I still believe that the main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what.
Carlsen being autistic is complete hogwash. ive met carlsen several times and when he talks and interacts with his friends in norwegian he is very outgoing. people always tend to think of talent as some zero-sum feature, which is wrong. you can have extraordinary amazing talents without being deficiant in some other area.
to me – Magnus Carlsen’s chess strengths effectfully depends on his ENDGAME knowledge – squeeze it out – what a brain …
Anonymous10:25
>>>Carlsen being autistic is complete hogwash.
Carlsen was asked in an interview if he was autist and he answer yes. And note that there is different kinds of autism and different degrees of autism. Also as noted I stated he was “slight autist”. I don’t think Carlsen is deficiant nor does it seem to be socially dysfunctional. I think he is Wonderboy.
The size of your you know what matters the most. All World Chess Champions had a big one. Why are all avoiding the tabu theme?
Carlsen was asked in an interview if he was autist and he answer yes.
These days and ages one has to be careful how to interpret a psychological diagnosis on a youngster. Any kid in school behaves differently from the average, immediately get a “diagnosis”, let that be ADHD or autism or whatever else, in a high percentage of the cases some psychiatrist will prescribe some medication and presto, we have a generation who has an over 20% rate of “psychologically ill” children.
In a case like Carlsen, I can easily imagine (no, I don’t know) that when he got tangled up with chess, he “pathologically” ignored everything else and before it turned out that he is a chess genius, some psychiatrist stuck him with the “autistic” label. This way, even he believes he is one.
Carlsen was asked in an interview if he was autist and he answer yes.
I remember that interview. His answer was not yes, but isn’t that obvious. Only very lame people interpret that as a yes.
Anonymous12:07
It is reported in the press (which doesn’t make it true) that he said “yes isn’t that obvious”.
Do you remember what video that is. I would like to see what he readly said. I remember listening to that interview and didn’t where he did or didn’t say yes.
Also when some one answer a question with “isn’t that obvious” I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is lame to conclude that they were not be sarcastic. Some times it is hard to say. And personally I would be suprised if Carlsen would answer that question in a sarcastic manner by say 100% opposite to what the truth is.
I would be good to hear the audio on it again.
SEO Company
As far as I know the statement is not recorded. It was said in a “live meeting” arranged by a Norwegian internet newspaper. You know, readers send in questeins and the interviewee answers by typing the answers himself.
Unfortunately this is in Norwegian:
http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk/article1599185.ece
Q: er du autist?
(Are you an autist?)
A: Ja, er ikke det ganske åpenbart?
(Yes, isn’t that (pretty) obvious?)
Anyway, the statement is authentic, and it should not be interpreted as a Yes, nor as sarcasm. However, it is irony – and it is an irony that a true autistic person probably would be uanble to produce.
SEO Company FFS check your sarcasm meter. if you read that interview it was obvious that he was sarcastic. maybe you are the one with autism?
” the main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what.” Cranium or Grey matter in the frontal lobes.
I’m not sure it should be called a weakness, but like Kasparov, Carlsen sometimes plays unclear or questionable lines out of an apparent desire for the initiative or active play. His pawn sac today was a good example.
btw. the talk of him being obssesed with chess is not true. talking to him he sounds more passionate about soccer thatn chess 😛
Susan – can you please give us your evaluation – thank you
I’ve happened to know Magnus for more than 17 years and can assure you that he is never ironic nor sarcastic, (and certainly not when asked silly questions.)
You have known Magnus since he was a baby in other words (as he is only 17 now)
Being ironic is not bad! Rather it indicate verbal intelligence.
And – as irony may be defined as an intentional contradiction between what something appears to mean and what it really means – Magnus actually confirms that he is autistic if your claim that he’s never ironic is true.
I have never had the pleasure of meeting Magnus, but I happen to be 100% true that he was ironic – regardless of the degree of silliness exposed in the question.
“The main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what”
Brain! Look at how his forehead juts out in that picture. He looks almost like one of those
big-headed space aliens you used to see in the Science Fiction movies and TV of the 60’s in 70’s.
How then explain the merits of Topalov? His head certainly has none of these characteristics…
When looking at Magnus games, his great maturity in endgames gives a real comparaison with… Capablanca.
“Anonymous said…
How then explain the merits of Topalov? His head certainly has none of these characteristics…”
Topa’s remote controlled shaved hamster shoved so far up his butt that he tastes hamster everytime he opens his mouth…
sHe is really Swedish. Norwegians are not so smart.
CARLSEN KING OF CHESS
“The main strength of Magnus is his size of you know what”
Pedobear approves.
One of his strengths is that he is like those Vikings of old centuries aboard their fast ships, he attacks quickly with firing arrows, et cetera; but, who or what defeated the Vikings? Think carefully and you will find their weaknesses.