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Genius can appear anywhere, but the origins of Carlsen's talent are particularly mysterious. In November, Carlsen, then 18, became the youngest world No. 1 in the game's history. He hails from Norway - a "small, poxy chess nation with almost no history of success," as the English grand master Nigel Short sniffily describes it - and unlike many chess prodigies who are full-time players by age 12, Carlsen stayed in school until last year. His father Henrik, a soft-spoken engineer, says he has spent more time urging his young son to complete his schoolwork than to play chess...
Even pro chess players - a population inured to demonstrations of extraordinary intellect - have been electrified by Carlsen's rise. A grand master at 13 (the third youngest in history) and a conqueror of top players at 15, he is often referred to as the Mozart of chess for the seeming ease of his mastery. In September, he announced a coaching contract with Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest player of all time, who quit chess in 2005 to pursue a political career in Russia. "Before he is done," Kasparov says, "Carlsen will have changed our ancient game considerably." (See pictures...
...teach" and that his pupil "has a natural feel for where to place the pieces." According to Kasparov, Carlsen has a knack for sensing the potential energy in each move, even if its ultimate effect is too far away for anyone - even a computer - to calculate. In the grand-master commentary room, where chess's clerisy gather to analyze play, the experts did not even consider several of Carlsen's moves during his game with Kramnik until they saw them and realized they were perfect. "It's hard to explain," Carlsen says. "Sometimes a move just feels right...
...unusually long, thin fingers of the young nobleman in Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man, which is displayed at the National Gallery in Washington, indicates that the subject suffered from Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder of the connective tissue. The professor even performed a checkup on the master of the masters, Michelangelo, who is depicted in the foreground of Raphael's The School of Athens with swollen knees, which Franco says were likely caused by kidney stones...
...this slow economy, the Census has been overwhelmed by both the quantity and quality of applicants. "We're getting a lot of people who are professionals, people who have been laid off from the large companies, people with master's degrees and higher," says Lillie Eng-Hirt, who manages the Census office in Memphis, Tenn. One man was so grateful at being offered work, she relates, that he had the Census employee hiring him in tears after hearing his story of going without a job for so long. (See 10 ways your job will change...