‘Magnus Carlsen always took the idiot test before…': Russian GM reveals huge secret behind Norwegian's success
Recently, Daniil Dubov, who worked with the Norwegian for two of his World C'ship titles, revealed that Carlsen used to take something called an 'idiot test'. It was taken to decide whether an idea in the opening should be played in a World C'ship match.
Magnus Carlsen's 'idiot test'
Speaking on a Russian podcast, he said, 'Magnus always had that method to try out ideas which we called the 'idiot test'. The 'Idiot Test' is that if you have found an (opening) idea, you have to play it against an unprepared Laurent Fressinet (French grandmaster) and beat him. If you don't win, the idea is refuted.'
'(If you don't win with that idea against Laurent Fressinet) The idea doesn't work! I can tell you that it's a 90%-reliable piece of statistic! That's how it is.'
He further revealed, 'Earlier, the certified idiot would be Hans-Ludvig Hammer, but when I joined the team Hammer was no longer there, so this was Fress (Fressinet). But thank God I played much better than Fress, so the majority of the ideas passed the test, regardless of their quality.'
Commenting on a member of Carlsen's team, Dubov said, 'That was the problem with Jorden van Foreest's ideas later on, because as it turned out, Jorden is a desperate case in blitz, and strangely enough Fress was better than him in blitz. Jorden would tell me 'Come on, let me show you the idea, and you go ahead and play it yourself!'
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