The IQ of chess player Magnus Carlsen

[Crossroad]

Read this interview with Magnus Carlsen and you may get an answer

Question: Mr Carlsen, what is your IQ?
Carlsen: I have no idea. I wouldn’t want to know it anyway. It might turn out to be a nasty surprise.

Question: Why? You are 19 years old and ranked the number one chess player in the world. You must be incredibly clever.
Carlsen: And that’s precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that.

Question: How that?
Carlsen: At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess.

Question: Things are different in your case?
Carlsen: Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

Question: Aha. How many moves can you calculate ahead?
Carlsen: That depends on the game situation. Sometimes 15 to 20. But the trick is to correctly assess the position at the end of the calculation.

Question: You became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, four months and 27 days; and there has never been a younger number one than you before. What is that due to, if not to your intelligence?
Carlsen: I’m not saying that I am totally stupid. But my success mainly has to do with the fact that I had the opportunity to learn more, more quickly. It has become easier to get hold of information. The players from the Soviet Union used to be at a huge advantage; in Moscow they had access to vast archives, with countless games carefully recorded on index cards. Nowadays anyone can buy this data on DVD for 150 euros; one disk holds 4.5 million games. There are also more books than there used to be. And then of course I started working with a computer earlier than Vladimir Kramnik or Viswanathan Anand.

Question: When exactly?
Carlsen: I was eleven or twelve. I used the computer to prepare for tournaments, and I played on the Internet. Nowadays, children start using a computer at an even earlier age; they are already learning the rules on screen. In that sense I am already old-fashioned. Technological progress leads to younger and younger top players, everywhere in the world.

Here is the full interview: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6187

[jones14richard]

What a IQ his so young when he got the title grand chess master... WHAOOO
GReat JOB

[David]

If he could have a world championship match he would be the youngest world champion I am sure. But the next FIDE title match will be in 2012 as far as I know. The system is too

[Unregistered]

Chess is only about chess playing ability. IQ is a completely different thing all together.

[Crossroad]

Maybe a different thing, but I am sure you agree that a high IQ helps to win chess games no?

[Frezco]

He's a smart fellow, skilled in abstract reasoning and addicted to chess. All good things, I think.

Something I've been wondering about: tournament and match play chess introduce an element distinguishable from chess itself. Perhaps there are brilliant chess players who just don't perform well under highly competitive conditions.

[Unregistered]

I have read about Magnus Carlsen on IchessU ! If you are looking to play chess online, then IchesU is the best website for you. They offer chess lessons from their experienced team of chess coaches. I found their systematic approach very helpful for understanding chess strategies that were earlier complicated for me.