On 1 January, 2010, a first will be recorded. The FIDE will officially place Magnus Oen Carlsen, aged 19 years and 32 days, as the number one ranked Chess player in the World… and the youngest ever to acquire that post, with an Elo rating of 2810. There are only four other players – Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, and Topalov – who have achieved a rating of 2800. (Bobby Fischer’s highest rating was calculated at 2885 by Chessmetrics, a weighted calculation based on historical performance. The Elo rating system was introduced in 1970 and most of Fischer’s playing career preceded that date, so any calculation of his playing strength would be speculative.)

The rating isn’t important, however. Ratings are only snapshots of how well a person is playing during a moment in time. Carlsen won a very strong Nanjing-Pearl Tournament this past Fall and tied for second in the very strong Tal Memorial Tournament in Moscow in November and then won the London Chess Classic in Kensington! I’m more interested in what happened leading up to these amazing performances. Is it serendipity that has suddenly fallen upon Magnus? Wheaties? Double Capuccino Ristrettos?

In July 2009, the story broke that Magnus had been training with Garry Kasparov for six months prior. Talent will only take you so far… to nurture talent, everyone needs a mentor. Someone to help you not only learn from, but to be motivated by. Magnus had remarked in late summer in an interview with Vremya that,

“Until recently I was a schoolboy,” says a candid Magnus Carlsen, “I am not very accustomed to rigid, hard and painstaking work. Only by working with Garry Kasparov have I become aware of just how important it is.”

Refreshing to hear coming from a 19 year old… and not one gripe of the necessity of a government needing to pay his way, unlike Wesley So in an interview recently.

Garry Kasparov has been teaching and mentoring Carlsen. He has, according to an interview of Magnus, been available night and day to answer questions and, I’m sure, to be an encouragement and friend during the hard times of seeming to get no where. After a year, God-given talent coupled with a great mentor and persevering labor, has resulted in such great performance. Mentors are important… vital. One cannot think of Helen Keller without the corresponding Anne Sullivan… oftentimes it’s a parent or a relative. The crazy adage of those who can’t do, teach, is absurd in the extreme.

Jesus of Nazareth took twelve men and walked with them daily for three years. Teaching them in words and in actions. When you are a teacher – a GOOD teacher – you find that the most important moments for your students are those times when you are simply available… present for them and to them.

Woody Allen once quipped that 98% of success in life was just showing up, goes not only to our own lives, but to the lives of those we mentor as well. Will you make a difference in someone’s life this year by being a mentor to them? Bringing them not only to the Cross of Christ where they can find forgiveness and life eternal, but being available to them so that they see and smell what slogging with perseverance can produce? Mentors are those special people who tell us that life is not a half-hour sitcom or a montage of quick cuts that only show hard work, but they show us that life is hard and wonderful and if we suffer through the labor required, great results can come.