Top 40 Magnus Carlsen Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless.”

— Magnus Carlsen

2. “You need to have that edge, you need to have that confidence, you need to have that absolute belief that you’re the best and that you’ll win every time.”

— Magnus Carlsen

3. “Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.”

— Magnus Carlsen

4. “If you want to get to the top, there’s always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.”

— Magnus Carlsen

5. “Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.”

— Magnus Carlsen

6. “I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.”

— Magnus Carlsen

7. “You have to choose the move that feels right sometimes; that’s what intuition is.”

— Magnus Carlsen

8. “I am trying to beat the guy sitting across from me and trying to choose the moves that are most unpleasant for him and his style.”

— Magnus Carlsen

9. “Once you’re a chess player, you spend a lot of time thinking about the game and you can’t get it completely out of your head.”

— Magnus Carlsen

10. “I started by just sitting by the chessboard exploring things. I didn’t even have books at first, and I just played by myself. I learnt a lot from that, and I feel that it is a big reason why I now have a good intuitive understanding of chess.”

— Magnus Carlsen

11. “It’s easy for me to get along with chess players. Even though we are all very different, we have chess in common.”

— Magnus Carlsen

12. “Not winning a tournament is not an option for me, unless it’s no longer theoretically possible – then of course winning becomes impossible. But up to that point, not winning is just not an option.”

— Magnus Carlsen

13. “People ask what my goal is. I don’t have a goal.”

— Magnus Carlsen

14. “I don’t consider myself a particularly young chess player. I have been playing in the best tournaments in the world since I was 16 years old. In other sports, if you have been playing for seven years, you are not a young prodigy any more. You’re one of the pros.”

— Magnus Carlsen

15. “I played like a child.”

— Magnus Carlsen

16. “I don’t think there is a thing like overconfidence in chess. It’s always better to be too confident than too reluctant.”

— Magnus Carlsen

17. “I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.”

— Magnus Carlsen

18. “I’m not really into rap.”

— Magnus Carlsen

19. “I am not some sort of freak. I might be very good at chess but I’m just a normal person.”

— Magnus Carlsen

20. “It’s nice to be financially secure. Apart from that, I really don’t care too much about money.”

— Magnus Carlsen

21. “Maybe if I didn’t have the talent in chess I’d find the talent in something else. The only thing I know is that I have talent in chess, and I’m satisfied with that.”

— Magnus Carlsen

22. “I really enjoy the experience of playing humans. The psychological game is so much more important.”

— Magnus Carlsen

23. “My father, a fine chess player himself, has been a massive influence throughout my life.”

— Magnus Carlsen

24. “Contrary to many young Colleagues, I do believe that it makes sense to study the Classics.”

— Magnus Carlsen

25. “Unfortunately I’m still not a fashion expert.”

— Magnus Carlsen

26. “There wasn’t any particular player I modeled my game after. I tried to learn from everyone and create my own style. I studied past players. Truth be told I never had a favorite player. It’s just not my nature to go around idolizing people. I just go try to learn.”

— Magnus Carlsen

27. “I got the travel bug when I was quite young. My parents took me and my sisters out of school and we travelled all over Europe. It was an eye-opening experience and, although I love Norway, I also enjoy visiting new countries. I don’t get homesick.”

— Magnus Carlsen

28. “I honestly don’t read that much. Obviously I read chess books – in terms of favorites, Kasparov’s ‘My Great Predecessors’ is pretty good.”

— Magnus Carlsen

29. “I feel sorry for players who are always lying awake at night, brooding over their games.”

— Magnus Carlsen

30. “I enjoy hiking and skiing, like most Norwegians. In winter, there will be snow for months on end. In the summer, there are the long evenings to enjoy.”

— Magnus Carlsen

31. “One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people – men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.”

— Magnus Carlsen

32. “I was lucky enough to attend schools where they were understanding about when I needed to go abroad to play chess. Of course, socially it is important to go to school and interact with people your own age.”

— Magnus Carlsen

33. “It’s just not my nature to go around idolizing people.”

— Magnus Carlsen

34. “The most helpful thing I learnt from chess is to make good decisions on incomplete data in a limited amount of time.”

— Magnus Carlsen

35. “For me right now I think being the world number one is a bigger deal than being the world champion because I think it shows better who plays the best chess. That sounds self-serving but I think it’s also right.”

— Magnus Carlsen

36. “Right now I’m really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I’m not thinking of doing anything else.”

— Magnus Carlsen

37. “My former coach, Simen Agdestein, used to be the best player in Norway.”

— Magnus Carlsen

38. “I don’t look at computers as opponents. For me it is much more interesting to beat humans.”

— Magnus Carlsen

39. “I learnt an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun any more. Outside of the chessboard I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn’t worth it.”

— Magnus Carlsen

40. “Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.”

— Magnus Carlsen

41. “Self-confidence is very important. If you don’t think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. You see the opportunity but also greater limitations than you should. I have always believed in what I do on the chessboard, even when I had no objective reason to. It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them.”

— Magnus Carlsen

42. “Sorry dude, I’m not that slow, nor that weak!”

— Magnus Carlsen