How Norway shaped Magnus Carlsen

Kids watching: Children watching Magnus Carlsen play at the Norway Chess tournament on TV. (Credit: Amit Kamath)

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Magnus’s father Henrik Albert Carlsen is often asked how he turned the prodigy into a world-champion. Henrik, who has fielded these questions for over two decades, usually settles for some variation of: “I never pushed him… Just stayed out of his way… This is his own path.”

Henrik: Magnus’ father Henrik Albert Carlsen. (Credit: Amit Kamath)

Magnus was only five years old when Henrik first taught him the sport. But on seeing that his son’s interest was waning, Henrik stepped back rather than forcing the love of the game upon him. A few years later, he himself returned to the chessboard. This time, he fell head over heels in love.

He grew to become a grandmaster — the highest formal title a chess player can achieve — at the age of 13. By 2010, Magnus was the World No 1, becoming the youngest player ever to climb to the top of the world rankings (a position he has never relinquished since 2011). He has five classical world championship titles, besides five World Rapid Championship and seven World Blitz Championship titles. Nicknamed the Mozart of Chess in his younger days, Magnus, 33, has the distinction of being the highest-rated chess player in history and only one of 17 world champions in the open category.

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Born in Tønsberg, Magnus’s parents Henrik and Sigrun Øen were both engineers. In 2003-04, the family took an unusual step of going on a year-long road trip around Europe with their four kids so that Magnus — who was an International Master (a title just below grandmaster) at that stage — could compete in tournaments around the continent. Magnus’s sisters Signe (6), Ingrid (8) and Ellen (14) spent a whole year out of school, being homeschooled during this trip.

“Nobody has ever pushed him to do anything,” says grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer, one of Carlsen’s friends and chess analyst for Norwegian television, “Magnus has always done what he enjoys. He’s been encouraged, supported, enabled, but never actually pushed. That is, in many ways, a Norwegian mentality.” What Hammer is referring to is a culture where no one really keeps scores in sporting events for children until they are 13 years of age. The country prioritises fun over competition. Not just Magnus, Norway has produced many elite athletes like Jakob Ingebrigtsen (middle- and long-distance runner, world-record holder and an Olympic champion); Karsten Warholm (a world-record holding 400m hurdler and Olympic gold medallist) and World No 7 tennis ace Casper Ruud, besides footballers such as Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, and a line-up of Winter Olympics ski legends.

“Bringing up children is different in Norway, people usually don’t compete. Until the age of 13, you’re not allowed to get a reward that suggests you are better than others, so you cannot be put on a podium,” says Julien S Bourrelle, who has written books on Norwegian culture.

Podium: An illustration from Julien S Bourrelle’s book, The Social Guidebook to Norway that shows how competition is viewed in the country. (Credit: Julien S Bourrelle & Elise H Kollerud)

Peter Heine Nielsen — the Danish grandmaster who has helped both Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and Magnus win multiple world championship titles — has known Magnus since his pre-teens. “I was with him when he was 15 and did really well at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in 2005 and ended up qualifying for the Candidates (held in a different format then). But since his father had to go for his job, I ended up staying with Magnus. But before that, they told me: ‘We have to explain to you the principles. One of them is that if Magnus wants to play chess, he can do it. But if he doesn’t want to, you’re not allowed to push him in any way. If he wants to play table tennis, he will do that instead.’ Chess was something Magnus did (from a young age) because he finds it interesting,” says Nielsen.

While Magnus’s parents adopted a hands-off approach regarding his career, Bourrelle links Magnus’s rise to the support he got from the society. “Their children are supported from a young age. The Norwegian government invests in those sorts of things. Magnus’s parents noticed he was good at chess and enrolled him in a chess club. Soon, Magnus was also learning at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport (an elite school for athletes). His motivation comes from within as he loves to play rather than win prizes. That’s another typical quality of Scandinavian culture where you really try to be the best at something because you love what you do rather than for money or fame,” says Bourrelle, whose books such as The Social Guidebook to Norway (2014), Cracking the Scandinavian Code (2021) and Working with Swedes (2024) decode Scandinavian culture for outsiders.

“And you cannot ignore the life-work balance in general where the big focus is to be able to disconnect in order to continue to be good at it. You need your brain to have other experiences,” adds Bourrelle.

Hammer agrees. “It helps that Norwegians are quite well off. So we don’t have these concerns that if you lose your job your family is not going to have health insurance, that kind of thing. That’s why the good thing about being Norwegian is that you don’t stress too much in terms of survival. So it helps. You have the freedom to pursue your interests,” he says.

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Even on the chess board, there is a distinctively Norwegian trait that Magnus prefers. In recent years, he has been a vocal proponent of unique formats used at Casablanca Chess and Freestyle GOAT Chess events which force players to innovate over the board rather than rely too much on theory they’ve prepared in advance. This need to “fight on the board” is also what Agdestein calls the Norwegian style of chess.

“Magnus’s chess playing style is very similar to Agdestein,” says Nielsen, who is still Magnus’s trainer. He points out that while Magnus might ignore some of the opening ideas, he is always up for a rumble in the jungle of 64 squares. “When he’s at the board, he’s giving his absolute best. He’s extremely professional,” adds Nielsen.

All things considered, Magnus can be quite modest, another Norwegian trait that the country imbibed in him. Norway, like most Scandinavian nations, puts great stock in individuals being modest about their achievements. Why?
Janteloven or Jante’s Laws.

These are a set of unofficial rules that dictate how a person should behave. Call it a series of unspoken social norms or societal expectations of behaviour from citizens across Scandinavian countries, Janteloven originated in the fictional works of Danish-turned-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose.

“You’re not to think you’re anything special or smarter than others or better than others or know more than others,” is the rough gist of the 10 laws.

“Refrain from showing success or achievements. Never brag, except in sports. Be humble, if you do well and pretend to be average, society will praise you for this,” Bourrelle writes in his book The Social Guidebook
to Norway.

Yes, Magnus does proclaim in interviews that he’s the best player in the world, but his coach Nielsen has an explanation for it.

“For someone that strong, Magnus is still a decently nice person. Of course, when he gives interviews, he’s chosen to say things like ‘I’m completely aware that I am the best player in the world’. That’s not Janteloven. But he’s just giving his opinion. Generally, he’s quite honest. You can say it’s immodest, but he’s been the No 1 player in the world for 10-plus years… I don’t think he was cocky (in his early days). I don’t think when Magnus was the World No 5 he ever proclaimed that he was the best (like others have done). He became the best and then he just acknowledged that. He could be more modest, but that would actually conflict with what he thinks,” reasons Nielsen.
Magnus has never been short of praise. And it has not always come from people who follow his progress on the 64 squares. In 2013, Time magazine named him in its 100 most influential people list and called him the world’s sexiest chess player. Cosmopolitan UK agreed. Often enough during his career, there have been headlines about his ‘sexiness’, the sort that you won’t see for other world champions or male grandmasters.

“Of course, Magnus is not completely grounded. I don’t think you can be, with the tension he’s lived with for 20 years. There are definitely parts about him where he’s not used to getting ‘no’ for an answer,” says Hammer, “But if you compare him to others who have had his experience, he’s extremely grounded. The life that he has led, you have to be special.”