“Magnus”: biography of the current chess World
Champion Carlsen from Norway (only 26)
Name:“Magnus”
Director, writer: Benjamin Ree
Released: 2016
Format: 1.85:1, often 4:3
When and how viewed: 2016/12/4 on Amazon Prime
Length 78
Rating: NA
Companies: FilmRise
Benjamin Ree’s
biographical documentary “Magnus” (2016), presents the
26-year old chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen (the “Mozart of Chess”) from
Norway as a charismatic person. I covered yesterday, on another blog (link link) , the factual information on his retaining the World
Championship at a recent match in New York City, which may have caught the
admiration of Donald Trump (who personally likes winners).
The film shows his early childhood along the Norway
coast, where his parents noticed his fascination for patterns and numbers even
as his social skills languished, with the possible risk of autism. He quickly
learned to play chess, and his social, communication and athletic skills
started to catch up.
The film shirts to 2004 with a big win in an
international tournament at age 13. In 2013, at age 22, he eked out a win in a
major tournament despite losing a critical game with White (analogous to losing
a critical game at home in baseball or football despite “home field advantage”)
because a rival similarly lost. He traveled to India to play Anand on the World
Championship. He struggled with bad positions but managed to draw each of the
first four games, with Anand probably missing wins. He then went on two win the
next two and then a third later, in a turnaround.
Shortly before the World Championship, Magnus gave a
blindfold simultaneous exhibition against ten opponents, showing the ability to
remember 10 games at the same time.
Carlsen’s style evolved from aggressive attacks and
opening preparation (meaning the moves “are not mine anymore”) to positional
play, endgame skill, and combativeness in the middle game, and the ability to
fight when in inferior positions and coax opponents into errors, much as in
other sports (the “turnover” in football). In the recent World Championship, he
sometimes played systems with White regarded as less forcing and less “bookd” and simply outplayed his opponent in the middle game
(especially in the speed-controlled tie breaks). There is something
meritocratic and moralistic in the belief “the better player will win.”
Magnus also went to some training spas, where he
played volleyball, swam, and developed an obvious interest in big league
fitness (that would please Twitter’s “Blogtyrant”),
and would become a men’s clothing fashion model. All of this fits in with
Magnus’s present view of chess as a major athletic sport.
The film shows him with his family on holidays (you
sort of expect to see a dog or cat but don’t), but
does not get into his personal life as an adult.
Some of the family conversation in the film is in
Norwegian without subtitles, which are needed. Magnus speaks perfect English
with no accent, the way an actor could.
One wonders if NFL football coaches and players and
MLN managers, coaches, players (especially pitchers), and owners would benefit
from learning chess.
Picture: Rublevsky-Jakovenko,
1952, won in 50 moves by White, after move 23. This is
a little used line in the Petroff (5 d3 instead of d4) to force an unbalanced
pawn structure and possible active pawn majority and good knight v. bad bishop
syndrome in the ending. I’m surprised it isn’t played more; this looks like the
kind of play Carlsen likes.
(Originally posted: Monday, December 5, 2016 at 10 AM
EST)