captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> stahl: jack abramoff is the most notorious and corrupt lobbyist washington has ever seen, buying congressional votes with lavish gifts and large campaign contributions. i'm sick to my stomach. >> right. evil, yeah. terrible. >> stahl: because it's hurting our country. >> absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. >> stahl: i'm mad at you. >> i was mad at me. >> stahl: i'm not kidding. i'm not kidding. >> i was mad at me. >> stahl: abramoff has become a symbol of how money corrupts washington. and tonight, he opens up his playbook. >> safer: it used to be that everyone started kindergarten at age five. today, nearly a quarter of some

kindergarten classrooms are populated by six-year-olds. kindergarten red-shirting has more than tripled since the 1970s. boys are twice as likely to be held back as girls, whites more than minorities, and rich more than poor. >> i don't think it's really cheating the system. i view whatever i think, within my realm as a parent, to make sure that my child is as prepared as they can be for life's challenges. >> safer: and has every advantage. >> yes. >> simon: magnus carlsen is the best in the world. just look at what he's doing-- competing against ten players simultaneously. that, in itself, is not extraordinary. but magnus cannot see the boards; he's facing the other way. so he has to keep track of the positions of 320 pieces blind. and the number of possible moves?

infinite. it transcends chance. i mean, i just can't fathom what you've just done. it seems like it's supernatural. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. just $14.99. start with soup, salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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i love the fact that quicken loans provides va loans. quicken loans understood the details and guided me through every step of the process. i know wherever the military sends me, i can depend on quicken loans. >> stahl: jack abramoff may be the most notorious and crooked lobbyist of our time. he was at the center of a massive scandal of brazen corruption and influence

peddling. as a republican lobbyist, starting in the mid-1990s, he became a master at showering gifts on lawmakers in return for their votes on legislation and tax breaks favorable to his clients. he was so good at it, he took home $20 million a year. as we first reported last november, it all came crashing down six years ago, when jack abramoff pled guilty to corrupting public officials, tax evasion, and fraud, and served three and a half years in prison. today, he's a symbol of how money corrupts washington. in our interview, he opened up his playbook for the first time, and explained exactly how he used his clients' money to buy powerful friends and influence legislation. >> jack abramoff: i was so far into it that i couldn't figure out where right and wrong was. i believed that i was among the top moral people in the

business. i was totally blinded by what was going on. >> stahl: jack abramoff was a whiz at influencing legislation, and one way he did that was to get his clients, like some indian tribes, to make substantial campaign contributions to select members of congress. >> abramoff: as i look back, it was effective. it certainly helped the people i was trying to help, both the clients and the republicans, at that time. >> stahl: but even that, you're now saying, was corrupt? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: can you quantify how much it costs to corrupt a congressman? >> abramoff: ( laughs ) i was actually thinking of writing a book, "the idiot's guide to buying a congressman," as a way to put this all down. but first, i think most congressmen don't feel they're being bought. most congressmen, i think, can, in their own mind, justify the system. >> stahl: rationalize. >> abramoff: rationalize it. and, by the way, we wanted, as lobbyists, for them to feel that way. >> stahl: abramoff would provide freebies and gifts, looking for favors for his clients in return. he'd lavish certain congressmen

and senators with access to private jets, and junkets to the world's great golf destinations, like st. andrew's in scotland; free meals at his own upscale washington restaurant; and access to the best tickets to all the area's sporting events, including two sky boxes at washington redskins games. >> abramoff: i spent over a million dollars a year on tickets to sporting events and concerts and what not at all the venues. >> stahl: a million dollars? >> abramoff: yeah. yeah. >> stahl: for the best seats? >> abramoff: the best seats. i had two people on my staff whose virtual full-time job was booking tickets. we were ticketmaster for these guys. >> stahl: and the congressman or senator could take his favorite people from his district to the game. >> abramoff: the congressman or senator could take two dozen of his favorite people from their district. >> stahl: was all that legal? >> abramoff: we would certainly try to make the activity legal, if we could. at times, we didn't care.

>> stahl: but the "best way" to get a congressional office to do his bidding, he says, was to offer a staffer a job that could triple his salary. >> abramoff: when we would become friendly with an office and they were important to us, and the chief-of-staff was a competent person, i would say or my staff would say to him or her at some point, "you know, when you're done working on the hill, we'd very much like you to consider coming to work for us." now, the moment i said that to them, or any of our staff said that to them, that was it, we owned them. and what does that mean? every request from our office, every request of our clients, everything that we want, they're going to do. and not only that, they're going to think of things we can't think of to do. >> neil volz: jack abramoff could sweet-talk a dog off a meat truck, that's how persuasive he was. >> stahl: neil volz was one of the staffers abramoff was talking about. he was chief-of-staff to congressman bob ney, who, as chairman of the house administration committee, had considerable power to dispense favors.

abramoff targeted volz and offered him a job. you're the chief-of-staff of a powerful congressman, and jack owns you and you haven't even left working for the congressman. >> volz: i have the distinct memory of, you know, negotiating with jack at a hockey game. so we're, you know, just a few rows back, the crowd's going crazy. and jack and i are having a business conversation. and, you know, i'm... i'm wrestling with how much i think i should get paid. and then, five minutes later, we're... he's asking me questions about some clients of his. >> stahl: when you look back, was that the corrupting moment? >> volz: i think we were guilty of engaging in a corrupt relationship. so there were several corrupting moments. there isn't just one moment, there were many. >> abramoff: at the end of the day, most of the people that i encountered who worked on capitol hill wanted to come work on "k" street, wanted to be lobbyists. >> stahl: you're telling me this, the genius of figuring out you could own the office by

offering a job to the chief of staff, say. i'm having two reactions-- one is "brilliant," and the other is i'm sick to my stomach. >> abramoff: right. evil, yeah. terrible. >> stahl: because it's hurting our country. >> abramoff: shameful. absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. all parts of the system. >> stahl: i'm mad at you. >> abramoff: i was mad at me. >> stahl: i'm not kidding. i'm not kidding. >> abramoff: look, i did things and i was involved in the system i should not have been in. i'm ashamed of the fact i was there. the very reason why now i'm speaking about it, and now, i'm trying to do something, in recompense, is the fact that i thought it was... it was wrong of me to do it. >> stahl: one of the offices he keyed on was that of his good friend, the majority leader, tom delay, eventually hiring his deputy chief-of-staff and his press secretary, and going into business with delay's chief-of- staff. did you own his staff? >> abramoff: i was... i was as close to his staff as to any staff. i had a very strong personal relationship with a lot of his staff.

>> stahl: how many congressional offices did you actually own? >> abramoff: we probably had very strong influence in 100 offices at the time. >> stahl: ( gasps ) come on. >> abramoff: no. >> stahl: a hundred offices? >> abramoff: in those days, i would view that as a failure, because that leaves 335 offices that we didn't have strong influence in. >> stahl: did he own you? >> bob ney: oh, i don't believe jack abramoff owned me. but were we involved in the culture of corruption together? absolutely. >> stahl: former republican congressman bob ney was ambitious, and looked at abramoff as a way to build alliances with the white house and the majority leader. >> ney: i wanted to be speaker of the house, and jack abramoff was the beautiful light of day for me to get to the person who i had had some conflicts with, tom delay. >> stahl: abramoff began inviting ney on golf trips, including one to scotland, and

to his restaurant, signatures, where ney was given food and drinks on the house, a violation of the congressional gift-limit laws. ney says he was hardly the only one crossing the line. >> ney: but i will still tell you, at that point in time, in order to get a drink at signatures, you had to shove white house staffers of george bush the heck away from the bar. and it was packed with people. and there were members. now, that doesn't mean everybody did everything for jack. but if you want to talk about strict interpretation of violation of the... of the laws of drink and food-- katie, bar the door. she was wide open, two shotguns blaring. >> stahl: after months of taking handouts, ney was approached by neil volz, his former chief-of- staff-- by then, a lobbyist for abramoff. >> volz: i let you down, man, and i'm sorry. >> stahl: volz asked ney to insert some language into a reform bill that would give a backdoor license to an indian casino owned by one of abramoff's clients. you often hear about lobbyists getting special secret deals for

their clients like this. it's an insidious technique that abramoff perfected. >> abramoff: so what we did was we crafted language that was so obscure, so confusing, so uninformative, but so precise to change the u.s. code. >> stahl: here's what you tried to get tacked onto this reform bill. >> abramoff: yeah. >> stahl: "public law 100-89 is amended by striking section 207 (101 stat. 6668-672)." >> abramoff: right. now, isn't that obvious what that means? ( laughs ) it was perfect. it was perfect. >> stahl: so that's what you tried to get inserted? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and that was going to provide for a casino? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and who on earth is going to know that? >> abramoff: no one except the chairmen of the committees. >> stahl: who stuck it in there. >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and that's one of the things you used to do? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and it was deliberately written like that? >> abramoff: precisely. yes.

>> stahl: and that's done a lot? >> abramoff: members don't read the bills. >> stahl: you didn't even know what it was for? >> ney: had no idea. and then, when we got the written language... >> stahl: well, why didn't you know what it was for? >> ney: i didn't... i didn't care. >> stahl: oh! >> ney: it was a great big shell game, and i was in the middle of it, whether, you know, knowing or not. i... i was dumb enough to not say, "what's this thing do?" >> stahl: ney would eventually serve 17 months in federal prison, the only congressman who was ever charged in the scandal. but abramoff says there were many other members that did his bidding that could have been charged. was buying favors from lawmakers easy? >> abramoff: i think people are under the impression that the corruption only involves somebody handing over a check and getting a favor. and that's not the case. the corruption-- the bribery, call it, because ultimately that's what it is-- that's what the whole system is. >> stahl: the whole system's bribery? >> abramoff: in my view. i'm talking about giving a gift to somebody who makes a decision

on behalf of the public. at the end of the day, that's really what bribery is, but it is done every day and it is still being done. the truth is, there were very few members who i could even name or could think of who didn't, at some level, participate in that. >> stahl: abramoff prided himself on being a man who did good. he was devoutly religious and exorbitantly charitable, and he says he gave away 80% of his earnings. when he fell from grace, his reputation was in tatters, because it was not just that he had corrupted congress; it was found he had cheated his clients, like the indian tribes. >> abramoff: most of the money i made, i gave away to either communal or charitable causes. so i thought, frankly, i was one of the most moral lobbyists out there. >> stahl: things began to unravel for abramoff when the "washington post" published a largely unflattering portrait of

him in 2004, reporting that he charged his clients ten times more than any other lobbyist in town. >> abramoff: my first response was, "what's the big deal? i don't understand what this is about. this is what lobbyists do." >> stahl: what he didn't understand was the part that said he and a former aide to tom delay had over-billed four of his indian casino clients by $45 million. in the end, he was brought up on federal charges of tax evasion and ripping off indian tribes. on the day he went to court and pled guilty, abramoff looked grim. the judge sentenced him to four years. i really think what you were doing was... was subverting the essence of our system. >> abramoff: yes, absolutely right. but our system is flawed and has to be fixed. human beings populate our system; human beings are weak. >> stahl: you preyed on that? >> abramoff: i did. i was one of many who did.

i did and i'm ashamed of that fact. >> stahl: he was sent to a medium security facility in cumberland, maryland. when he was released last june, he began working as an accountant at a kosher pizza parlor. turns out jack abramoff was broke, partly because he is paying off nearly $24 million in restitution to the indian tribes. today, he lives in his old house in maryland with his wife, five children, and the two doberman pinschers mrs. abramoff bought to protect the family while he was away. after the scandal, congress instituted a package of reforms making what abramoff did, like plying members of congress with free expensive meals, illegal. but he doesn't see the new reforms as being very effective. >> abramoff: the reform efforts continually are these faux- reform efforts where they'll change... they'll tweak the system. they'll say, "you can have a meal with a congressman if

they're standing up, not sitting down." >> stahl: is that serious, or are you joking? >> abramoff: oh, no, i'm not joking at all. >> stahl: so, it's okay if you pay for lunch, as long as you stand up? >> abramoff: well, it's actually worse than that. you can't take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak of something like that. but you can take him to a fundraising lunch, and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fundraiser. and have all the same access and all the same interaction with that congressman. so the people who make the reforms are the people in the system. >> stahl: could you do the same thing today? i'm asking you whether you think the system's been cleaned up? >> abramoff: could do the same thing that i...? yeah. no, the system hasn't been cleaned up at all. >> stahl: at all. >> abramoff: there's an arrogance on the part of lobbyists, and certainly there was on the part of me and my team, that no matter what they come up with, we're smarter than they are and we'll overcome it. we'll just find another way through, that's all. >> stahl: he says the most important thing that needs to be done is to prohibit members of congress and their staff from ever becoming lobbyists in washington.

>> abramoff: if you make the choice to serve the public, public service, then serve the public, not yourself. when you're done, go home. washington's a dangerous place. don't hang around. >> glor: good evening. after falling 12 weeks in a row, gas prices have jumped five cents to an actual average of $3.38 a gallon. jpmorgan chase hit by a multimillion dollar trading loss this spring will report second-quarter results this week. and the new "spider-man" took in $65 million to win the weekend box office. i'm jeff glor, cbs news. chase freedom gives you 5% cash back?

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i was worried about 'em, you know? i mean for instance my mom went to bed tonight before making my dinner. which is fine, i mean i, i know how to make dinner. it just starts to make you wonder. is this what happens when you age? my friends used to say i was the lucky one. i had the fun parents. where's the fun now? night guys! [ sighs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] venza. from toyota. [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible.

>> safer: kindergarten was once milk, cookies, and finger paints. in a countrywide epidemic of hyper-parenting, it's becoming blood, sweat, and tears.

so maybe you played mozart for your baby while he was still in the womb and gave him chinese lessons at age two, tried everything to give your kid an edge. and then, when he's five, well, you don't exactly cheat, but you game the system. as we first reported last march, it's called "red-shirting"-- holding your five-year-old back from kindergarten till he's six, so he'll be among the oldest, and smartest, kids in class. parents of a five-year-old with a late birthday despair that little johnny will forever be a failure if he has to compete with kids six or eight months older. so they put the fix in, hold him back a year so he has the edge in class, and ultimately, an edge in life. in the high stakes world of early education, barrett hoffecker was unlucky enough to have a summer birthday. if he'd started kindergarten

just after turning five in august of 2009, barrett would have been among the youngest in his class, so his mother megan played the numbers game and put him in a canton, georgia, preschool. he went to kindergarten at age six. >> megan hoffecker: we wanted to give him that extra year of growth for both size for later on, as well as maturity for him. >> safer: but do you think that gives him an... an advantage, not just in school, but in life? >> megan hoffecker: i think it does. i would prefer him to be an older in the class and become a leader in his environment, rather than a younger and be more of a follower. >> safer: barrett is now seven, a first grader, oldest in his class and among the brightest. >> megan hoffecker: he was already reading when he started kindergarten, and was pretty ahead of a lot of the people in the... in his class when he started. >> safer: and she has few qualms about giving barrett a leg up on the competition. >> megan hoffecker: i don't think it's really cheating the system. i'd do whatever i think within my realm as a parent to make sure that my child is as

prepared as they can be for the life challenges. >> safer: and have every advantage. >> megan hoffecker: yes. >> safer: she's hardly alone. it used to be that everyone started kindergarten at age five. today, nearly a quarter of some kindergarten classrooms are populated by six-year-olds. kindergarten red-shirting has more than tripled since the 1970s. boys are twice as likely to be held back as girls, whites more than minorities, and rich more than poor. >> so how was your day? >> safer: holly korbey had never heard of red-shirting when she and her family moved to dallas. she assumed her son holden would start kindergarten shortly after he turned five in august of 2008, but she was shocked when her son's pre-school teacher urged her to hold him back. >> holly korbey: and i said, "what? why?" and i said, "he's... he reads. he's fully reading. he has no behavioral issues."

and she said, "well, he's the very youngest, and here, all the youngest boys are... are held back." >> safer: and then, there were the other parents. >> holly korbey: they started asking me, "are you going to... what are you going to do with holden next year?" and i said, "well, i think we're going to send him to kindergarten." and they would go, "hmm, i don't know about that. you know, that's not a good idea." and they gave me all kinds of reasons. >> safer: like? >> holly korbey: like he'll be the last to drive and he won't get to go on dates like the other kids. there's a lot of talk of, "i want my son to be a leader." i mean, academics were never mentioned. >> safer: any suggestion that, "you can get an edge up on the other kids." >> holly korbey: yes, i think that there is a subtle message that we're going to have an advantage over everyone else. >> safer: korbey says much of the talk among parents centered upon the work of malcolm gladwell, whose best-selling book, "outliers," has become the bible for parents of four- and five-year-olds.

in your book, you argue that the month you were born in can well dictate your success or failure in later life. >> malcolm gladwell: in that part of the book, i'm talking about a concept called cumulative advantage, and that is the idea that a little extra nudge ahead when you're six can mean that you're slightly better positioned when you're seven, and that means you're slightly better positioned when you're eight, and so on. and you can see this pattern in one field after another. >> safer: like hockey. gladwell reported that a majority of canadian junior all- stars had one thing in common. >> gladwell: the overwhelming number of kids are born in the first half of the year. >> safer: so, january, february, march. >> gladwell: yeah, it's kind of amazing. look at the list-- it's like, january, january, january, february, february, february, and there's, like, one kid from december, you know. >> safer: gladwell says there's a simple explanation-- in canada, the birthday cutoff for junior hockey is january 1. >> gladwell: if the cutoff's january 1, and you're born january 5, you're an awful lot bigger than the kid born in

december. and so, you... everyone thinks you're better. >> safer: and if you're better from the outset, you attract far more interest from coaches and get more practice. gladwell says that the predominance of winter birthdays extends into the pros. >> gladwell: you think that, at some point, these early advantages would dissipate. they don't, they... they snowball. >> safer: okay, but that's a sport. but how about in... in academics? >> gladwell: yeah, in academics, we see the same effect. the kids who are born closest to the cutoff date, who are the... relatively speaking, the eldest in their class, have a small but not insignificant advantage, not just in first grade, but throughout their schooling history. >> safer: gladwell cites the work of economist elizabeth dhuey at the university of toronto, who analyzed the data of hundreds of thousands of students in 19 countries. even as late as the eighth grade, the older kids had higher test scores than their classmates.

she believes that's because the older kids got more attention from the start. >> elizabeth dhuey: they're just older, but they look more able, so they get in the higher reading group in kindergarten, so they learn how to read a little better. and then in first grade, they know to read a little better, so they're put in the higher reading group again, and then they know how to read a little better in the first grade. and it perpetuates over time. >> safer: she says the data also show that older kids are more likely to attend college. and then, there is the issue that haunts so many parents-- popularity. >> dhuey: i have a study looking at leadership effects, and i find that, if you're relatively old in kindergarten and that... that you're more likely to be a high school leader or... or a sports team captain, a club president. and so i think a lot of this works in this confidence- boosting leadership kind of capacity. >> safer: when you completed this, dare i say, rather arcane university study, did you think it would get the kind of attention that it got? >> dhuey: no, not, at all. not at all. >> safer: but if you had a five-

year-old, would you hold him back? >> dhuey: if they were the very youngest, probably. yes. >> samuel meisels: the funny thing is that, in the past, if you wanted your kid to get ahead, you would want him to skip a grade. now, in order to get ahead, you want him to stay back a year. >> safer: samuel meisels, president of chicago's erikson institute, says while red- shirting may be appropriate for some kids, it mostly amounts to educational quackery. >> meisels: i think that, as children get older, that whatever advantage is conferred by starting school a year older decreases dramatically. >> safer: he says kids develop at different rates. he points to studies that show negative consequences of red- shirting, including increased behavioral problems in older kids who may be bored in classes that are just too easy for them. >> meisels: we see more dropouts among children who are held out. we see less achievement. despite the fact that some research shows it one way, more

research shows it the other way. at best, we could conclude that the research is split on this. and there's another moral lesson for the parents which i know most parents don't want to hear, and that is, this is inequitable. >> safer: poor families can't afford the luxury of holding kids back-- the sooner they get them into school, the less child care they have to deal with. but with red-shirting, their children must now compete with kids who can be as much as 18 months older. >> meisels: i'd like to see everyone have a level playing field. then, maybe we could stop some of the panic that we're seeing among parents who are rushing to do this. >> safer: and when everybody holds back, we start all over again, correct? >> meisels: well, i suppose so, if everyone does it. >> safer: so they'll be shaving in kindergarten? >> meisels: this is called the "graying" of the kindergarten. >> safer: some school systems are cracking down on red- shirting. heather wasilew tried to hold her son jacob back, but the chicago public school system said "no way." she was told he would have to go

to first grade. >> heather wasilew: and i was stunned. the policy is, five by september 1 goes into kindergarten, six by september 1 goes into first grade, no matter what. >> safer: so when you got this absolute "no," what did you decide to do? >> wasilew: i cried a lot. i was prepared to move to the suburbs. >> safer: really? >> wasilew: really. >> safer: over the issue of kindergarten? >> wasilew: over the issue of kindergarten. >> safer: wasilew was so determined, she considered suing, but in the end, she enrolled jacob in a private school. >> wasilew: are you going to have fun today? >> safer: he started kindergarten, at age six, this past fall. >> wasilew: he's a little tall. but he's not any taller than the other... you know, some of the other boys in the class. and i love the school. it's very small and intimate. >> safer: and expensive, no doubt. >> wasilew: and more expensive than public school, yes. >> safer: you're spending a lot of money on this issue that, i guess, some people would say

will solve itself. i mean, if you may... he doesn't do well at kindergarten, by the time he's in third grade, he'll be shining like the rest of the kids. so, what's the big deal? >> wasilew: well, actually, i think it's the opposite. i think he would be okay if he got pushed ahead, but i think come third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade, he would not be okay socially. i think he would be too young. >> safer: the chicago public schools met with great resistance from parents, but so far, they are sticking to their policy. elsewhere, red-shirting continues to rise. malcolm gladwell believes that most parents need to take a deep breath. >> gladwell: parents are grasping at every straw available to them to try and maximize their children's chances of doing well in the world. i wonder whether we'll look back on the way children were raised in our particular time and place and say, "what were we thinking?" >> safer: one of the effects of your book has been an epidemic of people holding their kids back from kindergarten.

do you feel a responsibility in this? >> gladwell: yeah, well, i mean, first of all, i'll take this to my grave but, if everyone does it, then the effect is cancelled out. the irony, of course, is that the kinds of parents who are doing this are the parents whose children are the least at risk. >> safer: and then there is the "jock effect"-- holding kids back to give them a sporting edge or, more accurately, an unsporting edge. did the issue of athletics play into your decision as well? >> megan hoffecker: it did. that one year has made a huge difference for him. >> safer: megan hoffecker insists that all is fair when it comes to the game of life. >> megan hoffecker: i want to give him an advantage in every aspect that he has. and if that's in the sports realm, then i'll give him the advantages that he can have. i'm not trying to make others disadvantaged, but it does benefit him. >> safer: holly korbey also believes that the advantage of being not just older, but bigger, was the real motivation behind red-shirting.

>> holly korbey: several parents said to me, "don't you want him to be competitive?" and i said, "he's four! i don't even know if he likes sports." >> safer: despite all the pressure to hold her son back, korbey felt holden was ready to start kindergarten just after he turned five. >> holly korbey: and everything went fine. nothing exploded. >> safer: now age eight and in the third grade, holden korbey seems to be thriving, despite being the youngest in his class. >> holly korbey: he gets excellent grades. he has never had a behavioral issue. he has lots of friends. he's absolutely normal. >> safer: having been through this experience, how would you advise young parents? >> holly korbey: okay, i have one message-- have your babies in the wintertime. if you are thinking about becoming a parent, have your babies in the wintertime, and then you will get to avoid this issue completely.

>> go to 60minutesovertime.com to hear the story behind our red-shirting piece from morley safer and his producers. there's a place where the sky is always blue and the kids always eat their vegetables. because the salad there is always served with the original hidden valley ranch. lt's the way ranch is supposed to taste. and try new italians and vinaigrette's from hidden valley.

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also get 0% apr financing with up to 5 years to pay on qualified purchases. to learn more, visit tempurpedic.com. don't wait. these offers end july 8th. tempur-pedic -- the most highly recommended bed in america. >> simon: magnus carlsen is the best in the world. he is a 21-year-old norwegian, reigns supreme in a sport played by 500 million people. it is chess. many don't think of it as a sport because nobody moves, but chess masters will tell you it can be more brutal than boxing. that's because, at the championship level, the objective is not only to win, but to demolish your opponent. that can take hours, so the best players need extraordinary endurance, so most of them are young.

magnus is the youngest number one ever. and no one can explain to you how he does what he does. as we reported in february, it seems to come from another world, which is why he's become known as the "mozart of chess." just look at what he is doing-- competing against ten players simultaneously. that, in itself, is not extraordinary. but magnus cannot see the boards; he's facing the other way. so he has to keep track of the positions of 320 pieces blind. and the number of possible moves? infinite. ( applause ) magnus comes out on top. that's the most amazing thing i've ever seen.

do you have any idea how extraordinary this looks to... >> magnus carlsen: no. it's one of the amazing things in chess that you can... you don't really need the board. you can just keep it... >> simon: but it... it transcends chess. i mean, i just can't fathom what you've just done. it's just... >> carlsen: uh-huh. >> simon: ...it seems like it's supernatural. last december, we caught up with him at the london chess classic. he arrives with his constant companion, his father. magnus will play against eight other top-ranked players. but he is the star, as celebrated in this world as eli manning is in his. >> the world number one player-- from norway, magnus carlsen. ( applause ) >> simon: today, magnus is playing america's number one, hikaru nakamura. the match will last four hours, and there will be no breaks. magnus will go on a stroll now and then, but his mind won't be

going anywhere. he says he's concentrating not only on this game, but on other games played by other masters at other times, which he might want to draw on now-- 10,000 of them. we gave him a test. >> carlsen: it was played right here in london-- simpson's on the strand in 1859. i don't know the month or day. >> simon: you got it wrong. >> carlsen: not '59? >> simon: '51. >> carlsen: wow. >> simon: you see, mem... your memory isn't... >> carlsen: it's not... it's not what it used to be. ( laughs ) >> simon: chess players are pretty poker-faced. but occasionally, magnus will flash the smile of someone who knows it's all over but the handshake, while nakamura dives deeper into doom. magnus was playing brilliantly and he knew it. is there anything in life more satisfying than that feeling when you're playing brilliantly?

>> carlsen: i don't know. but it's... it's really, you know, up there. ( laughter ) >> simon: it's pretty good. >> carlsen: yes. >> simon: the spectators seem as mesmerized as the competitors. they're all chess players, of course. if they weren't, it would be like watching paint dry. worldwide, 100,000 are watching on their computers. the suspense keeps building until endgame, by which time, it's cutthroat. but do you enjoy it when you see your opponent squirm? >> carlsen: yes. i... i do. i enjoy it when i see my opponent, you know, really suffering when he knows that i've outsmarted him. if i lose just one game, then usually, you know, i just want to really get revenge. >> simon: this is war, isn't it? >> carlsen: yeah. >> simon: for 50 years, chess was war. it was a battleground in the cold war with the russians, who were dominant.

but then, an american came along. his name was bobby fischer. in 1972, he took on the russian champion boris spassky, and he won. it was an international spectacle. and the enthusiasm has not waned. back in london, just down the corridor from where magnus is playing, 500 novices are learning how to master kings and queens. do you ever play any grownups? >> yes. yes, i do play grownups. in fact, i'm getting the hang of playing grownups. >> simon: who's your favorite chess player? >> bobby fischer. >> simon: bobby fischer? >> yeah. >> and i like magnus carlsen. >> simon: you like magnus. chess is now routinely taught in schools all over the world, including the united states. in some countries, it's compulsory. chess can be taught, but not

genius. magnus seemed like a normal enough kid growing up outside oslo. but wait a minute-- when he was five, he could name almost all the countries in the world and their capitals and their populations. magnus's father, henrik, didn't think that was terribly unusual. >> henrik carlsen: he did have a good memory, and the ability to concentrate for hours at a time on the specific topic. and he seemed to be interested in a lot of things, new things, all the time. but i thought that was normal. >> simon: what got him into chess? sibling rivalry. his older sister started to play, so he wanted to beat her, which he did, quickly. then, he started winning tournaments. before long, he became a celebrity, one of the first norwegians to excel in a sport that did not involve snow. people lined up in shopping malls to play him. when he won, magnus said it was just a game, no big deal.

he couldn't understand why people were making such a fuss. >> carlsen: why does... why do all people want to talk with little me? >> simon: magnus's parents took him and his sisters out of school for a year, rented out their house, sold their car. it was part holiday, mostly chess. they went to reykjavik, iceland, which is where magnus took a leap into legend when he was matched against gary kasparov, the russian considered by many to be the greatest ever. and how did magnus prepare? by reading up. kasparov kept the 13-year-old kid waiting for half an hour, and when he did arrive, he didn't even say hello. it was speed chess, the formula- one of the sport, a race against the clock. kasparov started slow. magnus started getting bored.

>> carlsen: i sat there for a few seconds, and then i thought to myself, "you know what? i don't know why he's thinking. but i know what my response is going to be, anyway. so i'll just walk off and watch the other games." kasparov had never played anyone so young. but he did not exude confidence or happiness, and he did not win. magnus played him to a draw. it was a sensation. kasparov left quickly. no "nice game, kid", nothing. how did magnus react? guess. he thought he had blown it. >> carlsen: when i actually got to winning position, i... i had little time, i was nervous, and i couldn't finish him off. >> simon: why were you nervous? >> carlsen: i was playing kasparov. i was in... intimidated. >> simon: you were... you were intimidated by playing the world's champion when you were already 13 years old? >> carlsen: yeah. go figure. ( laughter ) >> simon: it warranted a

celebration, of course, and magnus got to choose. >> carlsen: yes. i went to my family and had some ice cream at mcdonald's. >> simon: by the time he was 19, the boy with the ice cream had become number one in the world. >> frederic friedel: he has a very deep understanding of chess. >> simon: frederic friedel's company, chess base, publishes the world's most popular chess program. is this an indication of genius? >> friedel: of genius and raw talent. now, magnus has... still hasn't reached his peak. he hasn't really worked yet. >> simon: i've heard him described as lazy, which i find quite extraordinary. >> friedel: i mean, that's an impolite term, but it's probably appropriate. >> simon: except when it's not. magnus plays soccer whenever he can break away from the board. he's got a mean backhand, and he is also moonlighting as a model. there's never been much money in

chess, but magnus is changing that. sponsors are lining up to endorse him. he's making about a million and a half dollars a year. but it's a solitary life. magnus is on the road 200 days a year now. between matches, he is alone in his hotel room getting ready for tomorrow's game. he works out almost every day, knows he can't concentrate for what's often seven hours unless he's in shape. magnus says he wouldn't be able to tolerate this life if it weren't for his father, who is always there for him. when you travel with magnus, what's your role? >> henrik carlsen: i'm a servant and a chess fan. >> simon: you enjoy the games? >> henrik carlsen: yes. >> simon: and so, he says, does magnus. boy, when you look at him, when i look at him, "enjoyment" is not the word that comes to mind. ( laughter ) >> henrik carlsen: it should.

maybe you have to compare it to a writer or a painter. i mean, probably, if you see them at work, they... they're not smiling or having an easy time. they're exploiting their mind to the utmost. and the same with the chess players. >> simon: but that level of concentration is not danger- free. a fair number of grandmasters have gone mad, which is what happened to bobby fischer in his later years. >> bobby fischer: this was not an arrest. this was a kidnapping. it was all cooked up. >> simon: do you ever think about that? >> magnus carlsen: yes, i do. you know, when i was watching the... the recent film about bobby fischer, i was thinking, you know, "is this going to be me in... in a few years?" i don't think that's going to happen. but... but, you know, it made me... made me think a little bit that, you know, i have to... to

be aware of this, at least. >> simon: people have described you as the "mozart of chess." how do you react to that? >> magnus carlsen: yeah. maybe. but... but was mozart ever asked how he does this? i... i don't... i... i would be very impressed if... if he had a good answer to that. because i think what he would say is that just... "it just comes natural to me... natural to me. it's what i do." >> simon: which is what you say. >> magnus carlsen: yeah. >> simon: it's what he does for fun, too, at the oslo chess club where he started. he is playing a norwegian grandmaster here. it's called bullet chess and magnus has a handicap. his opponent is given three minutes to make his moves; magnus has one. it's just a friendly match, but magnus always hates to lose, so he doesn't.

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