Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen first reached the top of the FIDE world rankings in 2010, and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak classical rating of 2882 is the highest in history. Carlsen also holds the record for the longest unbeaten run in classical chess. These Magnus Carlsen quotes will motivate you.
Best Magnus Carlsen Quotes
- “Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “You need to have that edge, you need to have that confidence, you need to have that absolute belief that you’re – you’re the best and you’ll win every time.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “When you have fun then you’re more interested in learning.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “Self-confidence is very important. If you don’t think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. You see the opportunity but also greater limitations than you should. I have always believed in what I do on the chessboard, even when I had no objective reason to. It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “What I admired most about him [Bobby Fischer] was his ability to make what was in fact so difficult look easy to us. I try to emulate him.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “You have to choose the move that feels right sometimes; that’s what intuition is.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“I don’t think there is a thing like overconfidence in chess. It’s always better to be too confident than too reluctant.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “If you want to get to the top, there’s always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen, Magnus Carlsen quotes on chess
- “Kids love games and chess is a game where you have to sit down and concentrate and it just helps in every way.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “Contrary to many young Colleagues, I do believe that it makes sense to study the Classics.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “There are certainly loads of players that I admire; I try to learn from all of the great masters both of the past and contemporary as well.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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. Now, obviously, the computer is an important tool for me preparing for my games. I analyze when I’m on the computer, either my games or my opponents. But mostly my own.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“I’ve never really had a favorite player, past or present.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “People ask what my goal is. I don’t have a goal.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I’m more interested in the games than the people.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “It’s easy for me to get along with chess players. Even though we are all very different, we have chess in common.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I am not some sort of freak. I might be very good at chess but I’m just a normal person.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I don’t really watch too many movies. I don’t have the patience usually to watch one, one, and a half or two hours in a row.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “It’s nice to be financially secure. Apart from that, I really don’t care too much about money.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I got the travel bug when I was quite young. My parents took me and my sisters out of school and we traveled 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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“I feel sorry for players who are always lying awake at night, brooding over their games.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “There are so many games that I’ve seen that I’ve learned from. I never – that’s also part of the same – never single out a particular player or a particular game.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “The Nanjing games are homework by Garry Kasparov and me, […] Today’s game was provided by Garry.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “For me, the most important thing is to continue to play well and to be a positive figure and hopefully a role model for kids as well.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“I think with chess as with everything, marketing is the main issue.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I’m definitely the first no.1 in the world since Fischer, and probably at least since Kasparov, who probably has the most potential to dominate for the foreseeable future.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I honestly don’t read that much. Obviously, I read chess books – in terms of favorites, Kasparov’s ‘My Great Predecessors’ is pretty good.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I learned an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun anymore. Outside of the chessboard, I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn’t worth it.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I don’t look at computers as opponents. For me, it is much more interesting to beat humans.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “You can feel the same thing in football or soccer – that for the best teams in Spain and England, for instance, the public… they’re not really going to cheer at all when they play against bad teams unless they do something spectacular. Even if they’re winning by a few goals they’ll probably just say, “Nah.” That’s normal and they’re not excited about it.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“Right now I’m really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I’m not thinking of doing anything else.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “Unfortunately I’m still not a fashion expert.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “There wasn’t any particular player I modeled my game after. I tried to learn from everyone and create my own style. I studied past players… Truth be told I never had a favorite player. It’s just not my nature to go around idolizing people. I just go try to learn.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “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.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“My father, a fine chess player himself, has been a massive influence throughout my life.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “In my experience, when I went to school, and especially in after-school, and during breaks, a lot of people wanted to sit down and play chess up till a certain age when it was not supposed to be cool anymore and people wanted to do other things.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I can’t count the times I have lagged seemingly hopelessly far behind, and nobody except myself thinks I can win. But I have pulled myself in from desperate [situations]. When you are behind there are two strategies – counter-attack or all men to the defenses. I’m good at finding the right balance between those.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I really enjoy the experience of playing humans. The psychological game is so much more important.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I don’t consider myself a particularly young chess player. I have been playing in the best tournaments in the world since I was 16 years old. In other sports, if you have been playing for seven years, you are not a young prodigy anymore. You’re one of the pros.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
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“It’s just not my nature to go around idolizing people.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I’m not really into rap.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “My former coach, Simen Agdestein, used to be the best player in Norway.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “For me right now I think being the world number one is a bigger deal than being the world champion because I think it shows better who plays the best chess. That sounds self-serving but I think it’s also right.” ~ Magnus Carlsen
- “I played like a child!” ~ Magnus Carlsen
