Magnus Carlsen, Chess Prodigy
September 1, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Diagnosis
Not that it matters—does it matter?—or not, might this (future) chess grandmaster, 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen, be on the autism spectrum? “Magnus’s parents have not had their son tested for developmental disorders because he is well-enough adjusted socially,”, the New York Times writes. And:
Henrick Carlsen said his son’s progress in chess was typical for him. “Sometimes, he’s been thought to be slow,” he said. But when he gets interested in something, “then he accelerates.” He added, “I don’t think he is conscious of this approach. It is innate.” He said that his son, from a young age, exhibited an ability to focus single-mindedly. One day, the father recalled, when Magnus was 4, he spent six hours building a train out of Legos. A half-hour after he went to bed, Mr. Carlsen found him in the dark “wide awake and staring into space, and I thought, ‘O.K., this is too much.’ ”
Regardless, will be routing for Magnus to win.
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
The quote “Magnus seems to be fortunate enough to have the right characteristics to be considered normal despite the fact that he has some traits that might lead others to call him abnormal” from the NYT article brought to mind <a href=”http://autism.gbrettmiller.com/2008/04/normal-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder-2/”something I posted a while back after reading the book Bobby Fischer Goes to War:
There is nothing abnormal about a chess player being abnormal. This is normal.