World Number One in the chess rankings (which is not the same thing as world champion) 19 year-old Magnus Carlsen gives an interesting interview. 

A highlight:

SPIEGEL: 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.

SPIEGEL: 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.

SPIEGEL: 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.

SPIEGEL: Things are different in your case?

Carlsen: Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

Also covered: impact of computers on training, Kasparov, work ethic, family, and girls.

Now that Magnus Carlsen is known to be training with Kasparov, he has appeared not his customary teenager habit of hooded sweatshirt, but in an ascot.  This form of dress has been favored by Kasparov.  We approve.

"Does this look okay?"

"No."

"Better?"

[Chessbase on the Tal Memorial.]

Good overview by Mig Greengard of the Kasparov-Karpov blast from the past match in Valencia.  (Chess journalist Greengard is a long-time ghostwriter and booster of Kasparov.)

More interesting, however, is the news in recent weeks that Kasparov is training 18 year-old Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen, who has very good chances of being world champion.  Photos emerged of Carlsen and Kasparov training in Kasparov’s summer home in Croatia.  Here’s an interview on Norwegian TV.

"Snatch the pebble from my hand."