Carlsen says chess did not come easy to him at first

New Delhi, Sep 16 (PTI) Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in chess history, Norwegian superstar GM Magnus Carlsen says the game did not come naturally to him when he first picked it up as a child.

Carlsen said he had to spend considerable time studying the game on his own before it eventually became “my thing”.

“It’s hard for me to say. I think chess didn’t come super easy to me at first when I was being taught it at an early age. So it took a little bit of time, and then I started studying it a lot on my own.

“Eventually, it became my thing,” Carlsen said.

The 35-year-old, however, acknowledged that some players possess a greater natural aptitude for calculation, while years of experience have helped him develop an instinctive understanding of positions.

“But I feel that there are others who are kind of quicker in their calculations. They rely more on that, like, I don’t know, some kind of mathematical talent more than I do.

“But at the same time, all that I’ve done over the years has developed a very, very good natural feeling for the game. So, yeah, a bit of both,” he added.

Carlsen also revisited one of his most viral moments, when he banged the table in frustration during his classical game against D Gukesh at Norway Chess last year.

The Norwegian said the reaction was born out of “pure despair” after a tournament that had gone almost perfectly for him until that point.

“I’d won a couple of games without being close to losing, particularly. And if I won that game, I would have beaten Gukesh twice, the world champion,” he recalled during an interview with Firstpost.

Carlsen admitted the viral meme was “not my proudest moment”, but attributed the outburst to his fiercely competitive nature.

“Everything kind of came together at the same time,” he said.

Carlsen also opened up about balancing his professional career with fatherhood after he and wife Ella Victoria welcomed their first child in September last year.

“In the first few months, I was sleeping a lot less. And maybe that affected me at tournaments sometimes,” he said.

“But honestly, after that, I still have to play, I have to travel, I have kind of my work to do. But it makes it a little bit easier to kind of accept losses and so on.

“Because there’s always someone smiling at you at home.” Carlsen’s next tournament is the Carlsen Chess Challenge in Oslo from September 19 to 24, followed by the London Classic, part of the Grand Chess Tour, from November 15 to 24. PTI AH AH KHS

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