Magnus Carlsen: “I find it much harder to focus and stay disciplined in poker”

MAGNUS Carlsen is not yet 30 years old but he has already become a chess world champion in three formats and achieved the highest ever classical chess rating of 2882. In fact, the great Garry Kasparov is the only chess grandmaster to have spent more time as the world's highest rated player.

In December 2019, Carlsen incredibly lead a 7m-strong field of Fantasy Premier League players to top the official rankings, and now he's chancing his arm at poker. Unibet sat down with Magnus to discuss all that and more!  

I believe your dad was the one who taught you chess. What age did you start playing? And how old were you when you first beat him?  

I learned the moves the autumn I turned five but didn’t pick up a keen interest until three years later. I started to beat my dad at nine, and I think that made both of us proud and happy!  

When did you realise you were good enough to make a career out of chess?  

I relished competing from early on, and when I started making more progress than my Norwegian contemporaries it was a huge inspiration. At nine, I started to get somewhat ambitious, and when I became a Grandmaster at 13 I thought I could become a professional player at a high level. Playing elite tournaments in Moscow, Wijk aan Zee and Linares the winter I turned 16, I felt it would be realistic to compete successfully against the best in the world.

How do you train and prepare for a chess match? Is that something you mainly do alone or against an opponent?  

I’ve spent so much time playing, reading, watching, browsing through games, and thinking about chess that it has become second nature. It is almost always at a back of my mind. Training and preparation are always a combination of several different chess activities.  

Do you actually have a favourite chess piece that might have helped you out of a difficult situation in an important game?  

Favourite chess pieces are generally not an issue with top grand masters, but there are some slightly different preferences when it comes to knights versus bishops. I’m maybe more of a bishops guy, but I am not religious about it.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, many sports have suspended their operations. In chess, the Candidates 2020 Tournament has been cancelled. What are your thoughts on the current situation?  

Contrary to what some others think, in my opinion it was a brave move by FIDE to try to organize the Candidates tournament in March. If they had fully succeeded it would have been possible to keep the current (and future) World Championship cycles on track and provide entertainment to chess enthusiasts all over the world for nearly three weeks. When the Russian travel ban forced the postponement of the second half of the tournament, we are of course now in an unfortunate situation.

Hopefully the Candidates can be completed within half a year or so. Even if the 2020 World Championship Match is postponed to 2021 that is not a significant problem for me. I’m just following the development with interest, but in the meantime, I'm really excited to be launching Magnus Carlsen Invitational on Chess24, which hopefully will entertain fans and players in these difficult times.  

Speaking of the candidate tournaments, how did you follow this tournament? How do you use such a tournament to prepare yourself for potential opponents?   

Those who follow the Candidates might have seen me comment on the Candidates several days at Chess24, and I generally followed the games quite closely. It is interesting to see the opening novelties and ideas used by the players and to discuss it with my trainer Peter Heine Nielsen and others.

 

You hold the record in the ELO ranking with 2882 points. To what extent is it a goal for you to break your own world record in 2020?  

High ELO rating is more of a measurable recognition of your level of play and not that much a goal in itself. When I got back up to 2882 in 2019 (as I also achieved in 2014), it showed that I had succeeded in renewing and improving my game. My goal ahead is more about continuing to learn and understand more chess, and hopefully it will translate into concrete results also in the future.

Away from chess, you’re also a pretty good Fantasy Premier League player – no. 1 out of 7 million players in December 2019 in fact. How did that come about?  

It was something new and highly fascinating even though I know I needed a lot of luck to get there. Beating 2882 is more realistic than getting back.  

You’re a Real Madrid fan, aren't you? What made you start supporting them?  

Growing up, I mostly watched Champions League and Norwegian football, and I just decided to support the best team that played the most attractive, end to end football.  

After his brilliant year with Real Sociedad, are you expecting to see your countryman Martin Odegaard back at the Bernabeu next season?  

I don’t have any inside information about that, and irrespective of what club he’ll play for next season it will be exciting to follow him and the continuation of his career.

You've also taken a keen interest in poker? Are there any particular players you like to watch?  

Although I’ve played some poker, I´m not much of an expert. And, I think you have to be an expert to truly appreciate the nuances in playing style among the top players. Most fans are drawn to personalities, but from chess where I’ve tried to learn from all previous masters, I’m used to a more objective approach. I started out playing poker from time to time with friends from high school, and being a competitive person, the game was easy to like for me.  

During chess tournaments, you sit at the table for hours on end, just like poker. How do you stay focused and what similarities do you see between chess and poker?  

In classical chess one really poor move is enough to change the course of the game, and it is so important to stay focused throughout and not tilt. The same applies to poker as I experienced in the tournament last Sunday. I had a healthy stack after about 3 hours. Then I took too much risk in a couple of pots, and that was it. In general, I find it much harder to focus and stay disciplined in poker, probably that's one of the reasons I am not very good at it.

 

To be successful in chess, you must be able to think many moves ahead. Can you think as far ahead in poker?  

In that sense it is slightly different, but you could maybe compare thinking ahead in chess with choosing the right dynamic approach to risk dependant on tournament speed, your stack and the stack and playing style of players at your board etc.  

Are you a good poker player? Do you prefer to play online or in person?  

The poker tournament last Sunday was somewhat of a humbling experience. I’m maybe a decent amateur but no pro. Skills require dedication and interest and for the time being I have to focus mainly on chess. Playing with friends in person is fun, although not so easy right now.  

On Sunday you competed against Unibet users in a poker tournament. How did you find that?  

I was hoping to end up “in the money” but didn’t succeed particularly well. Next time.

 

What are the chances we see Magnus Carlsen as a grandmaster of poker one day?  

That’s not an immediate ambition but we’ll see. It would take a lot of luck, but if I do get lucky, it will not be a coincidence!