國(guó)際象棋天才卡爾森：是棋手，更是明星

Marketing Strategy. Check.

國(guó)際象棋天才卡爾森：是棋手，更是明星

LONDON — After 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen dispatched him in 36 deadly moves over three speedy hours in their first match at the 2013 Candidates’ Tournament here, the Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler spent a moment musing on why, to be blunt about it, Carlsen receives so much more attention than he does.

倫敦——在此地舉行的2013年世界冠軍挑戰(zhàn)者資格賽(Candidates' Tournament)上，22歲的馬格努斯·卡爾森(Magnus Carlsen)僅用了三小時(shí)，就以致命的36招棋戰(zhàn)勝了俄羅斯國(guó)際象棋大師彼得·斯維德勒(Peter Svidler)，這是雙方的第一場(chǎng)比賽。賽后，斯維德勒花了點(diǎn)時(shí)間思考一個(gè)問題，直白地說，就是為什么卡爾森所吸引的關(guān)注大大超過他?

He is not jealous, he said, of Carlsen’s high profile, No. 1 ranking and lucrative sponsorship deals (“Should I be?”). Svidler is 36, ranked 14th, but has no companies clamoring to shower him with cash.

他說，他并不嫉妒卡爾森的高調(diào)、世界第一的排名和誘人的贊助協(xié)議(“我應(yīng)該嫉妒嗎?”)。斯維德勒今年36歲，排名第14，沒有任何公司吵著要給他送錢。

“He’s exceptionally good, and so he gets extra opportunities,” Svidler said. “Somehow, I’m less marketable than Magnus. I’m somewhat less young, and somewhat more Soviet.”

“他特別出色，所以他得到更多機(jī)會(huì)，”斯維德勒說，“出于某種原因，我沒有馬格努斯好推銷。我也沒他年輕，而且有些前蘇聯(lián)的烙印。”

Chess has its superstars, but on a wider stage, there is no one like Carlsen, of Norway, who won the tournament and remains the first world No. 1 from a Western country since Bobby Fischer.

國(guó)際象棋領(lǐng)域有著自己的一些超級(jí)巨星，但是，在一個(gè)更大的舞臺(tái)上，沒有一個(gè)人像挪威的卡爾森吸引了那么多的注意，他贏得了這場(chǎng)資格賽，并仍是自鮑比·菲舍爾(Bobby Fischer)以后第一位來自西方國(guó)家、排名世界第一的國(guó)際象棋大師。

Carlsen sits at the center of a carefully constructed campaign by him and his handlers to use his intelligence, looks and nimble news-media-charming skills to increase his profile outside the sport, as if he were a tennis or golf star. Not since the days of Fischer, Kasparov and Karpov has a player managed to move so deftly beyond the world of chess into the world at large.

卡爾森和他的經(jīng)理人們利用他的高智商、外表和能迅速取悅于新聞媒體的技能來提升他在這項(xiàng)競(jìng)技領(lǐng)域之外的曝光度，就好像他是網(wǎng)球或高爾夫明星，他正處于這一系列精心打造的商業(yè)運(yùn)作的中心。菲舍爾、卡斯帕羅夫、卡爾波夫之后，就沒有一位棋手能如此巧妙地跨出國(guó)際象棋領(lǐng)域，在世界范圍引起如此多的關(guān)注。

“Magnus probably sees himself more like a modern sports star who wants to have fun than like a traditional stereotype of a chess player,” said his manager, Espen Agdestein. “Magnus is becoming more a global person.”

“馬格努斯可能更多地將自己看做是一位現(xiàn)代體育明星，想要享受生活，而不是一名傳統(tǒng)意義上的國(guó)際象棋手，”他的經(jīng)理人埃斯彭·阿德斯特恩(Espen Agdestein)說，“馬格努斯正在成為一位國(guó)際名人。”

Carlsen has been profiled on “60 Minutes”; has modeled (along with Liv Tyler) for a major clothing label; has met Jay-Z at a Nets game; and has been offered a role, as a chess player, in the coming “Star Trek” film (the role fell through because of work-permit issues).

《60分鐘》(60 Minutes)節(jié)目曾介紹過卡爾森;他曾(和麗芙·泰勒[Liv Tyler]一起)為一個(gè)大型服裝品牌擔(dān)任模特;曾在一場(chǎng)籃網(wǎng)隊(duì)(Nets)的比賽上與Jay-Z見面;還曾受邀在新的《星際迷航》(Star Trek)電影中扮演一位國(guó)際象棋手(后來因?yàn)楣ぷ髟S可的問題，他的角色被取消)。

Much of the attention is because Carlsen has accomplished so much so young; the word prodigy has been trailing behind him for more than a decade. His chess rating — which reflects a player’s relative standing and is calculated according to a complicated win-loss formula — is 2872, the highest ever for any player. (The previous record was 2851, set by Garry Kasparov in 1999.) Viswanathan Anand, a Bollywood-level celebrity back home in India and the current world champion, has a rating of 2784.

人們對(duì)卡爾森的關(guān)注很大程度上是由于他這么年輕就取得了這樣的成就，天才這一字眼十多年來一直如影隨形。根據(jù)一個(gè)復(fù)雜的輸贏公式計(jì)算的國(guó)際象棋評(píng)分反映一位棋手的相對(duì)等級(jí)，而他的評(píng)分是2878，是有史以來最高的。(之前的最高紀(jì)錄是2851，由加里·卡斯帕羅夫[Garry Kasparov]于1999年創(chuàng)下。)維斯瓦納坦·阿南德(Viswanathan Anand)在家鄉(xiāng)印度可媲美寶萊塢(Bollywood)明星，也是現(xiàn)在的世界冠軍，他的評(píng)分是2784。

With his Candidates’ Tournament victory, Carlsen will now challenge Anand in the next World Chess Championship, to be played in the fall. His presence is sure to generate new levels of interest in the contest, or so the organizers are hoping.

在贏得了世界冠軍挑戰(zhàn)者資格賽后，卡爾森將在秋季舉行的國(guó)際象棋世界冠軍賽(World Chess Championship)上挑戰(zhàn)阿南德。他的出場(chǎng)一定會(huì)吸引更多人關(guān)注此次比賽，起碼比賽的組織者是這樣希望的。

“With the exception of Magnus, sponsors in general are not interested in individual players — they’re interested in being associated with the sport as a whole,” said Andrew Paulson, the chief executive of Agon, which develops and markets the World Chess Championship and other tournaments. For a sport hoping to find a way to attract spectators, Paulson said, Carlsen presents a corrective to the stereotype of chess stars as “old, cranky, strange Russians whose names all start with K,” Paulson said.

“通常來說，贊助商對(duì)個(gè)人不太感興趣，他們更希望能與這項(xiàng)運(yùn)動(dòng)產(chǎn)生聯(lián)系，但馬格努斯是例外，”發(fā)展并推廣國(guó)際象棋世界冠軍賽及其他比賽的Agon公司的執(zhí)行總裁安德魯·保爾森(Andrew Paulson)說。保爾森說，對(duì)一項(xiàng)希望吸引觀眾的運(yùn)動(dòng)來說，卡爾森改變了人們對(duì)典型國(guó)際象棋明星的看法，根據(jù)這些看法，此類人往往是，“年齡較大的、壞脾氣的、奇怪的俄羅斯人，他們的名字都以K打頭。”

It would probably help even more if Carlsen were charting a path that others were capable of following.

如果卡爾森能鋪就一條其他棋手可以跟隨的道路，那可能會(huì)更有助益。

But that does not seem to be happening particularly quickly. Few chess players have managers; fewer still have sponsors, meaning they depend entirely on tournament money. Except for whoever wins the world championship, which carries a sizable cash prize, even the world’s dozen best players cannot hope to make more than several hundred thousand dollars a year. Almost all make considerably less.

但這種情況看來不會(huì)很快出現(xiàn)。多數(shù)國(guó)際象棋手都沒有經(jīng)理人，有贊助商的就更少，這意味著他們完全依靠比賽獎(jiǎng)金。除了那些能成為世界冠軍的棋手能拿到豐厚的獎(jiǎng)金，其他就算是世界上頂尖的十幾位棋手，都不能指望一年的收入超過幾十萬美元。絕大多數(shù)棋手的收入則遠(yuǎn)低于這個(gè)數(shù)字。

But in large part because of the companies — a Norwegian law firm, an investment bank, a Norwegian newspaper — whose logos decorate the blazers and shirts he wears in official appearances, golf-pro style, Carlsen earned about $1.2 million last year, some 60 percent to 70 percent of it from sponsorship deals, Agdestein said. That carried obligations, of course: hobnobbing with sponsors’ clients at business conventions; playing simultaneous matches against multiple (laughably bad, compared with him) opponents at recruiting fairs; dinners and cocktails and small talk.

對(duì)于卡爾森而言，企業(yè)起到了很大的作用，他在正式場(chǎng)合亮相時(shí)那一身職業(yè)高爾夫球手打扮，從外套到襯衫都點(diǎn)綴著企業(yè)標(biāo)志，其中包括一家挪威律師事務(wù)所，一家投資銀行，還有一家挪威報(bào)紙。阿德斯特恩說卡爾森去年的收入是120萬美元，其中60%到70%來自贊助商合同。當(dāng)然也要承擔(dān)相應(yīng)的義務(wù)：在商務(wù)大會(huì)上和贊助商的客戶交談;在招聘會(huì)上跟一些和他比起來水平差到?jīng)]邊的對(duì)手玩車輪戰(zhàn);晚宴、雞尾酒會(huì)、閑聊。

“Being a genius, people think they can discuss anything with him — oil prices, the Middle East — even if he’s not interested,” said Stine Korsen, the marketing director at Simonsen, the Norwegian law firm that sponsors Carlsen and that hosted the night’s events. “But if I see that he’s starting to get tired or bored or thinking about his chess game, I whisper in his ear and he can go home.”

斯蒂娜·科爾森(Stine Korsen)說：“他是天才，人們認(rèn)為什么事情都可以跟他聊，油價(jià)啊，中東啊，哪怕他不感興趣。”科爾森是一名市場(chǎng)總監(jiān)，來自西蒙森 (Simonsen)，也就是贊助卡爾森的那家挪威律師事務(wù)所以及當(dāng)晚活動(dòng)的主辦者。“但是如果我看到他感到疲倦或無聊，或者開始想象棋的事，我會(huì)耳語(yǔ)告訴他可以回家去。”

Carlsen recently signed a sponsorship deal with Parallels, a cloud computing company based in Seattle, which flew him over to impress its customers at a conference. There, Carlsen played chess against large groups — 20 people in one session, 30 in another (he won).

卡爾森最近和西雅圖云計(jì)算公司Parallels簽了贊助合同，公司想在客戶面前風(fēng)光一下，因而讓他去參加一個(gè)交流會(huì)?？柹跁?huì)上和一大群人下棋——一組20人，另一組30人(他贏了)。

“There was even one guy who came in late and was really sad because he missed it,” said Birger Steen, the company’s chief executive, who is Norwegian and has known Carlsen for years. “But Magnus played him, and the guy lost in 25 moves. And then Magnus spent the next half-hour explaining the game and coaching him.”

公司的首席執(zhí)行官比爾格·史迪恩(Birger Steen)說，“有個(gè)人來晚了，因?yàn)殄e(cuò)過了感到很傷心。”史迪恩是挪威人，認(rèn)識(shí)卡爾森很多年了。“但是馬格努斯還是跟他下了，下了25手那人就輸了。然后馬格努斯又花了半個(gè)小時(shí)說棋，教他。”

Whether Carlsen should be devoting his energy to such things is another matter. Agdestein says he turns down deals all the time, like when random rich people offer him tens of thousands of dollars to play against them. Carlsen says he does only things he finds interesting and that his concentration on his more serious pursuits is unaffected.

至于卡爾森該不該把精力放在這種事情上就是另一個(gè)問題了。阿德斯特恩說他經(jīng)常會(huì)拒絕一些合約，比如一些不知從哪來的有錢人會(huì)出幾萬美元要跟卡爾森下幾盤?？柹f他只會(huì)去做他覺得有意思的事，并且不能影響他集中注意力做一些更重要的事。

“As long as the schedule is well organized, I have plenty of time for chess and other activities, as well as spare time,” he said via e-mail.

“只要日程安排合理，我還是有足夠的時(shí)間去下棋和干別的事的，也有空閑時(shí)間，”他在電子郵件中說。

But there have been low-grade grumblings.

但有人對(duì)此還是有些微詞。

“Some people find these kinds of activities rather vulgar and think that players who dilute their energies and start running after money risk becoming like Liberace,” Agon’s Paulson said. “But Magnus has incredible integrity. I think he’s interested in expanding his fan base out of Norway to America, but I really don’t think he’s interested in money.”

“有人認(rèn)為這些活動(dòng)很庸俗，他們覺得棋手分散精力去追逐金錢，搞不好會(huì)變成利布拉奇(Liberace)，”亞鞏公司的保爾森說，“但是馬格努斯非常有操守。我想他是樂意看到自己的棋迷群體從挪威擴(kuò)展到美國(guó)的，但我真不覺得他對(duì)錢感興趣。”

There is no worry that Carlsen is being exploited, according to his father, Henrik, a former oil executive, who says he could not make his self-assured son do anything even if he tried. Four years ago, for example, Carlsen lost interest in high school and dropped out. “We didn’t want him to do it, but he was capable of making his own decisions,” Henrik Carlsen said in an interview.

在他的父親、前石油業(yè)高管亨里克(Henrik)看來，用不著擔(dān)心卡爾森被人剝削，他說他這個(gè)兒子很有主意，自己都休想強(qiáng)迫他做任何事。例如四年前，卡爾森對(duì)高中失去興趣后就退學(xué)了。“我們不想他那樣，但是他就是能自己做決定，”亨里克·卡爾森在一次采訪中說。

As for Magnus’s extra-chess activities, Henrik said that he trusts his son’s judgment, and that anyway: “He’s generally always done what he’s wanted to do.”

至于馬格努斯在象棋以外的活動(dòng)，亨里克說他相信兒子的判斷力，而且無論如何：“他基本上永遠(yuǎn)都是在做自己想做的事情。”