I cannot express why I am good at chess: Magnus Carlsen

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everybody,

This one's a real cool answer by the talented Mozart of chess: Magnus Carlsen, World No. 2 says he does not know what tangible thing makes him good at chess! In an interview with IOL Lifestyle, Carlsen struggles to answer one question: What makes him such a good player. “I think I have good intuition for the game, I understand it better than most people, but I cannot express exactly why that is, it's not really something tangible.”

Norwegian chess champion Magnus Carlsen on the red carpet with actress Liv Tyler as front-row special guests at the G-Star RAW Spring/Summer 2011 collection during
New York Fashion Week.

Carlsen's association with G-Star RAW came a couple of years ago when he was spotted playing chess on Dutch television by an executive at the fashion label. Since then he has become the face of the brand, appearing alongside actresses such as Liv Tyler and Gemma Arterton on billboards and at New York fashion week. The modelling career came as a “surprise”, having never thought of himself as a model. “It's been interesting, so different from chess,” he says.

Despite the differences, he has been able to draw similarities between the two during the long modelling shoots and also find an outlet for his desire to win. “Just to stand in the same position for a lot of time, it takes some concentration,” he says. “There is a certain competitiveness because when I'm told to do something, I want to do it right. I don't want to do a bad job.”

You can read the full article here.

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