I enjoy hiking and skiing, like most Norwegians. In winter, there will be snow for months on end. In the summer, there are the long evenings to enjoy.

People ask what my goal is. I don't have a goal.

Once you're a chess player, you spend a lot of time thinking about the game and you can't get it completely out of your head.

I don't consider myself a particularly young chess player. I have been playing in the best tournaments in the world since I was 16 years old. In other sports, if you have been playing for seven years, you are not a young prodigy any more. You're one of the pros.

I've never been much of a computer guy at least in terms of playing with computers. Actually until I was about 11 I didn't use a computer for preparing for games at all. Now, obviously, the computer is an important tool for me preparing for my games. I analyze when I'm on the computer, either my games or my opponents. But mostly my own.

I don't really watch too many movies. I don't have the patience usually to watch one, one and a half or two hours in a row.

Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.