One small measure of how Magnus Carlsen has made chess cool came on Thursday afternoon, when the world’s best player walked through a London cafe tailed by school kids repeatedly shouting one word – “Magnus! Magnus!” – as they attempted to grab selfies on the run. Yet such is the ripple effect of the chess boom, fuelled by the pandemic and the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, that the game has been catapulted into far more unexpected spaces.
England’s Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon have all spoken about their love of chess. Chelsea’s manager, Enzo Maresca, wrote a 7,000-word thesis on how it can help train the mind of a football coach. Last year Mohamed Salah admitted he was “addicted to chess”, had a rating of around 1400 – well above average – and namechecked Carlsen. “I’m not Magnus, but I’m good,” he said. “No one has a chance with Magnus. But hopefully we will play one day.”
So would Carlsen be up for a game against the Liverpool striker? Of course he would. “I’m a huge football fan and definitely a fan of Salah,” he tells the Observer. “I’ve not met him yet but I would certainly love to – as well as other sports people who I admire who play chess.”
In 2018, the Norwegian routed Salah’s teammate Alexander-Arnold in 17 moves in a game that lasted five minutes. So is there anyone in the Premier League who might fare better? “Martin Ødegaard plays a little bit,” says Carlsen. “He was playing a lot for a while, and then not so much. He’s not a bad player, but he’s kind of private about it.
“As for the best, I don’t know. There are a lot of decent players. But I don’t know if there are any very good players among the sports people I have faced.”
Such is Carlsen’s love of football that in 2020 he even topped the official Fantasy Football rankings, ahead of 7.3m others, before ending the season in 10th. But this year, he concedes, isn’t going so well. “It’s horrible,” he says, smiling. “I don’t have Erling Haaland. I’m a bit of a casual these days.”
Carlsen is in the UK to play in the second edition of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the sport’s version of cricket’s Indian Premier League, with six franchise-based teams and a $1m prize fund. It is, he insists, “an awesome initiative” that he hopes will get even more people watching the game.
“Chess still has a lot more players than it has fans, as opposed to most other sports,” he says. “But it’s certainly getting better and the approach of GCL’s Sameer Pathak to bring in team owners and a professional setting is something I definitely want to be a part of.”
In last year’s tournament, Carlsen played a strategic masterpiece against the legendary Vishy Anand that some considered one of the finest endgames of his career. However, Carlsen insists that he has never played the perfect game. “Nooooo,” he replies, with a look of bemusement. “I always make mistakes, so no.”
But there have been plenty of times where computers say you were close to 100% accuracy? “Yes, but there is always something that I’m not happy with, so I cannot point to one game,” he counters. “Either my play was close to perfection but it was too easy, or I missed something at some point that I could have done better.”
It is an answer that speaks volumes about Carlsen’s honesty and he is just as frank when asked about whether he should be considered the greatest ever, given he has been world No 1 since July 2011 – longer than anyone else. “No,” he replies. “It is still Garry.” He is referring to Kasparov, the world champion from 1985 to 2000.
“But ask me after my career is done and I might have a different answer. There are probably only two players – or three if you include Bobby Fischer – with legitimate claims. And my name is in there. But being regarded as the greatest ever doesn’t really consume much of my day-to-day thinking.”
So if perfection or legacy doesn’t sustain him, how does he continue to stay so hungry as he approaches his mid-30s – especially with several players in their late teens and early 20s, such as India’s Gukesh Dommaraju as well as Alireza Firouzja, charging up the rankings?
One of Carlsen’s predecessors as world champion, the Russian Vladimir Kramnik, puts it down to the Norwegian’s preternatural desire to win as well as his talent. Carlsen doesn’t demur. “I’m not properly old by any means, but it is a fact that most of the guys I’m competing against are younger,” he says. “So if I don’t play for a couple of months, and I see these young guys winning tournaments, I’m always thinking: ‘Oh, maybe they’ve improved?’ So when I stay ahead of them it gives me a lot of pleasure.”
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He adds: “This is still my favourite hobby, as well as my work. I love playing. And I love winning. I still have moments where I’m thinking: ‘I love this. I don’t want to stop.’” As long as that’s the case, I am not going to quit.”
It helps, too, that defeat still hurts. “Honestly, I hate losing,” he says. “Whenever I lose an important game it still stings. But I think that’s a good thing. It shows I still want it. It shows that I still care.”
Carlsen is no longer the classical world champion, having voluntarily surrendered the title last year. But he will be watching next month’s match between the reigning champion, Ding Liren, of China, and Gukesh closely.
“I think Gukesh is improving a lot,” he says. “I was very impressed with what he did in the Olympiad, the candidates, and generally, most of the classical tournaments that he plays. He’s a significant favourite. But he’s never played in a world championship before and the pressure is different from all other tournaments, so we’ll see how he handles that.”
However, Carlsen is quick to play down a suggestion that he might be tempted to challenge Gukesh for the world title if he beats Ding. “I’m not ruling it out completely, but it’s very unlikely,” he says.
So what might Carlsen do after chess? Two former world champions, Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, have gone into politics – could he do the same? “That’s a good question,” he responds. “I think the main problem with politics for me is that I’m naturally an introvert, so I don’t know if dealing with people all the time is the right thing for me. I definitely want to settle down and have a family. But apart from that, I don’t really know.”
When that happens Carlsen admits that he is likely to move away from Norway to escape the focus on him as a celebrity. “There are people who have it a lot worse than I do,” he says. “But I’ve certainly lost some freedom in my life, both in Norway and in other countries. Sometimes it can be annoying, but overall, I’m very privileged to do what I do. But I’m not going to live in Norway full time, because I don’t want my future wife and kids to also have that pressure.”
Meanwhile there is one other thing he plans to work on: his golf swing. “I started last year, and I’m still not very good. But apart from that, I don’t know. Then again, I don’t feel like I need goals. Life is good.”