Magnus plays to win: Espen Agdestein

Espen Agdestein, who knows Magnus Carlsen better than most people, was a bit surprised to see Game 10 of the World championship taking so long to finish.

Carlsen could have drawn it earlier and he had just needed a draw to win the title.

“So I asked Magnus why he didn’t draw sooner,” Carlsen’s manager told The Hindu on Saturday. ‘He replied: because I am a chess player’. That is his attitude. He plays to win.”

How did Carlsen celebrate his victory?

“His sponsors from Norway had thrown a party at the poolside,” Espen said.

“We all threw him into the pool. It was five in the morning when Magnus went to bed.”

He said Magnus had felt ready for the world championship. “He was a bit nervous in the first two games, but he became confident after the third and fourth games,” he said. “The world championship match is always tough and it was no different here.”

Did Espen, himself a player, think that Carlsen would win the world championship at such a young age?

“I knew he had the potential to be the world champion, but maybe he became one a little earlier than I would have thought,” he said.

“I had heard about him from my brother Simen, who had trained him at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport. I saw him when he was 13; he was already quite good. I decided to become his full-time manager, leaving my job, because I was convinced he was a special talent.”

Source: www.thehindu.com