Hacker Cinema
Magnus
2016 · Film · documentary · 76 min
Directed by Benjamin Ree
From a young age Magnus Carlsen had aspirations of becoming a champion chess player. While many players seek out an intensely rigid environment to hone their skills, Magnus’ brilliance shines brightest when surrounded by his loving and supportive family. Through an extensive amount of archival footage and home movies, director Benjamin Ree reveals this young man’s unusual and rapid trajectory to the pinnacle of the chess world. This film allows the audience to not only peek inside this isolated community but also witness the maturation of a modern genius.
3 positive2 neutralfrom 5 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
5 comments on Hacker News
Aside from watching the Magnus documentary about a younger Magnus while I was in high school, I have almost no knowledge about competitive chess. What sorts of things do chess players engage in during the course of the six months leading up to a match? Is there something that they're trying to remember or a video that they're studying (what would they be looking for)? From the beginning, I was under the impression that they might be played at any moment. This sounds like a really difficult situation.
I know next to nothing about competitive chess, other than watching the Magnus documentary about a younger Magnus. What kinds of things are chess players doing to prepare for a match for 6 Months? Is there something they're memorizing, studying video (what would they be looking fro)? I'd have always just thought they were good to play at any time. This sounds super stressful.
I can't find a video on it now but chess world champ Vishy Anand has a big computer analysis system (super computer?) and team that analyses opponent matches and then he does intense preparation with this data. The documentary Magnus has a great segment on Anand and his appeoach before he and Magnus Carlsen play in finals.
It does make sense.
Generally, I agree that some people clearly have a lot of raw talent.
But also I think we’re very attracted to this idea of the “natural,” who becomes a virtuoso almost effortlessly. In my experience, most people who reach the very highest skill levels have both raw talent and a tremendous work ethic. And a lot of people who show early promise never reach their potential because they won’t put in the time.
Sometimes the distinction between talent and effort isn’t even clear. There’s a documentary called Magnus about the chess champion Magnus Carlsen. It shows him as a kid, thinking about chess from the moment he wakes up to the moment he sleeps (and he probably dreamt about chess too). While others are playing, he’s staring off into space thinking about chess. That is some kind of talent, the ability to maintain complete focus like that over many years.
I’d bet some of these Dota2 players in the top 0.5% spend an extreme amount of time playing or thinking about the game.
A really good documentary about his road to world champion came out a few days ago [1]. Worth a watch if you have Swedish VPN access (it's in English but with Swedish subtitles).
[1] http://www.svt.se/dox/se-program/dox-magnus-schackgeniet-magnus?autostart=true