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Magnus Carlsen
Carlsen in 2012
Full name	Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen
Country	Norway
Born	(1990-11-30) 30 November 1990 (age 34) Tønsberg, Vestfold, Norway
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2831 (January 2025)
Peak rating	2872 (February 2013)
Ranking	No. 1 (January 2025)
Peak ranking	No. 1 (January 2010)

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (Norwegian: [sʋɛn mɑgnʉs øːn kɑɾlsɛn]; born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster and former chess prodigy who is the No. 1 ranked player in the world. His peak rating is 2872, the highest in history. Carlsen was the 2009 World Blitz chess champion.

On 26 April 2004, Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 148 days, making him at that time the second youngest Grandmaster in history, though he has since become the third youngest. On the November 2009 FIDE rating list, Carlsen had an Elo rating of 2801, becoming the fifth player to achieve a rating over 2800. Aged 18 years, 336 days at the time, he was by far the youngest to do so. On 1 January 2010, at the age of 19 years, 32 days, he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world No. 1, breaking the record held by Vladimir Kramnik. On the January 2013 FIDE rating list, Carlsen reached an Elo rating of 2861, thus surpassing Garry Kasparov's rating record of 2851 (set in July 1999). Based on several of his FIDE rankings, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament that will determine the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2013. He previously qualified for the 2011 Candidates Tournament, but withdrew.

Known for his attacking style as a teenager, Carlsen later developed into a more universal player. He does not focus on opening preparation as much as other top players, and plays a variety of openings, which makes it harder for his opponents to prepare for him. His positional mastery and endgame prowess have drawn comparisons to those of former world champions Anatoly Karpov, José Capablanca and Vasily Smyslov. Beyond chess, Carlsen has modelled for G-Star Raw's Autumn/Winter 2010 advertising campaign.

Childhood

Carlsen was born in Tønsberg, Norway on 30 November 1990 to Sigrun Øen and Henrik Albert Carlsen, both engineers by profession. The family spent one year in Espoo, Finland, and then in Brussels, Belgium, and in 1998 the family returned to Norway and settled in Lommedalen, Bærum. They later moved to Haslum. Carlsen showed an aptitude for intellectual challenges at a young age. At two years, he could solve 50-piece jigsaw puzzles, and at four, enjoyed assembling lego sets with instructions intended for children at a 10–14 year age group. His father taught him to play chess at the age of five, although he initially showed little interest in the game. The first chess book he ever read was Bent Larsen's Find the Plan. Carlsen developed his early chess skills by playing alone for hours at a time—moving the pieces around the chessboard, searching for combinations, and replaying games and positions shown to him by his father. He participated in his first tournament—the youngest division of the 1999 Norwegian Chess Championship—at the age of eight years and seven months, and scored 6½ out of 11 points.

Carlsen was later coached at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein. In 2000, Agdestein introduced Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, an International Master (IM) and former Norwegian junior champion, to Carlsen, and they started weekly training sessions in March. Carlsen made remarkable progress with Hansen, gaining over a thousand rating points in little more than a year. His "breakthrough" tournament occurred in the Norwegian junior teams championship in September of 2000, where Carlsen scored 3½/5 against the top junior players of the country, and a tournament performance rating (TPR) of about 2000. Apart from chess, which Carlsen studied about three to four hours a day, his favourite pastimes included football, skiing, and reading Donald Duck comics.

From autumn 2000 to the end of 2002, Carlsen played almost 300 rated tournament games as well as several blitz tournaments and other minor events. After this, he obtained three IM norms in relatively quick succession: the first was at the January 2003 Gausdal Troll Masters (score 7/10, 2345 TPR); the second was at the June 2003 Salongernas IM-tournament in Stockholm (6/9, 2470 TPR); and the third IM norm was obtained at the July 2003 Politiken Cup in Copenhagen (8/11, 2503 TPR). He was officially awarded the IM title on 20 August 2003. After finishing primary school, Carlsen took a year off to participate in international chess tournaments held in Europe during the fall season of 2003. That same year, he finished in a tie for third in the European Under-14 Boys Championship.

Chess career

2004

Carlsen made headlines after his victory in the C group at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen had a score of 10½/13, losing just one game (against the highest-rated player of the C group, Duško Pavasovič). As a result of the victory, he earned his first GM norm and achieved a performance rating of 2702. Particularly notable was his win over Sipke Ernst in the penultimate round, when Carlsen sacrificed material to give mate in just 29 moves. The first 23 moves in that game had already been played in another game—Almagro Llanas–Gustafsson, Madrid 2003 (which ended in a draw)—but Carlsen's over-the-board novelty immediately led to a winning position. Carlsen's victory in the C group qualified him to play in the B group in 2005, and it led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, to give him the title "Mozart of chess". Agdestein said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of openings. Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft, which became his sponsor.

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Carlsen obtained his second GM norm in the Moscow Aeroflot Open in February. In a blitz chess tournament in Reykjavík, Iceland, Carlsen defeated former World Champion Anatoly Karpov on 17 March. The blitz tournament was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day. In that event, Carlsen was paired with Garry Kasparov, then the top-rated player in the world. Carlsen achieved a draw in their first game and lost the second one, and was thus knocked out of the tournament.

In the sixth Dubai Open Chess Championship, held 18–28 April, Carlsen obtained his third and final GM norm. He thus became the world's youngest GM and the second-youngest GM ever at the time (after Sergey Karjakin, who earned the title at the age of 12 years and 7 months), although his record was later surpassed by Parimarjan Negi. Carlsen played in the FIDE World Chess Championship, thus becoming the youngest player ever to participate in one, but was knocked out in the first round by Levon Aronian.

In July, Carlsen and Berge Østenstad (then the reigning Norwegian champion) tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship, each scoring 7/9. A two-game match between them was arranged to decide the title. Both games were drawn, which left Østenstad the champion because he had superior tiebreaks in the tournament.

2005

In Smartfish Chess Masters at the Drammen International Chess Festival 2004–05 (Norway) Carlsen defeated Alexei Shirov, ranked No. 10 in the world. In June, in the Ciudad de León rapid chess tournament, Carlsen played a four-game semifinal against Viswanathan Anand, who was ranked second in the world at the time. Anand won 3–1.

In the Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen again finished in a shared first place, this time with his mentor Simen Agdestein. A playoff between them was arranged between 7 and 10 November. This time Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the player with better tiebreak scores the title in the event of a 1–1 draw had been revoked previously. The match was closely fought—Agdestein won the first game, Carlsen won the second, so the match went into a phase of two and two rapid games until there was a winner. Carlsen won the first rapid game, Agdestein the second. Then followed a series of three draws until Agdestein won the championship title with a victory in the sixth rapid game.

At the end of 2005 Carlsen participated at the World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the knockout tournament, he upset the 44th-ranked Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round one, and proceeded to beat Farrukh Amonatov and Ivan Cheparinov to reach the round of 16. There Carlsen lost to Evgeny Bareev, which prevented him from finishing in the top eight. Carlsen then won against Joël Lautier and Vladimir Malakhov, securing himself at least a tenth place and therefore a spot in the Candidate Matches. Carlsen thus became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate. In October, he took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal with 8/9 and a performance rating of 2792.

2006

Carlsen qualified for a place in the Corus B group from his 2004 first place in Corus group C. His shared first with Motylev with 9/13 (+6−1=6) qualified him to play in the Corus A group in 2007.

In the Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen was close to winning outright, but a last-round loss to Berge Østenstad again tied him for first place with Agdestein. The last-round loss deprived Carlsen of beating Agdestein's record of becoming the youngest Norwegian champion ever. Nonetheless, in the playoff held 19–21 of September, Carlsen won 3–1. After two draws in the initial full-length games, Carlsen won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship.

Carlsen won the Glitnir Blitz Tournament in Iceland. He won 2–0 over Viswanathan Anand in the semifinals, and achieved the same score in the finals. He scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad against opponents averaging 2627 Elo, thus achieving a rating performance of 2820 points.

In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament, Carlsen finished second, behind Sergei Shipov. In the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, he placed second, beating the tournament winner Alexander Morozevich twice.

In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam in August, Carlsen participated in an "Experience" v "Rising Stars" Scheveningen team match. The "Rising Stars" won the match 22–28, with Carlsen achieving the best individual score for the youngsters, 6½/10 and a 2700 Elo performance, thus winning the right to participate in the 2007 Melody Amber tournament.

With a score of 7½/15 points, Carlsen placed 8th out of 16 participants at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon LeZion, Israel. In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs in Cap d'Agde, France, he got to the semifinal, losing to Sergey Karjakin. In November, Carlsen achieved a shared 8th place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. He scored ninth place in a group of 18 participants in the associated blitz tournament, which was won by Anand.

2007

Playing in the top group of the Corus chess tournament for the first time, Carlsen placed last with nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½/13. In the prestigious Linares chess tournament, Carlsen met the following top-rated players: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, and Vassily Ivanchuk (replacing Teimour Radjabov). With the significantly lowest Elo rating, he achieved second place (on tiebreaks) with 7½/14 after four wins, seven draws and three losses, and an Elo performance of 2778.

Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo in March. In the 11 rounds he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold, and three wins, seven draws and one loss in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared ninth place in the blindfold, shared second place in the rapid (behind Anand), and a shared 8th place in the overall tournament.

In May–June, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. The six-game match with top seed Levon Aronian was drawn (+2−2=2), with Carlsen coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (+1−1=2), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Finally, Aronian eliminated Carlsen from the Championship after winning both tiebreak blitz games.

In July–August, Carlsen won the Biel Grandmaster Tournament with a +2 record and an Elo performance of 2753. His score was equalled by Alexander Onischuk and by the tie-breaker rule of the tournament, they played a match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two blitz games, Carlsen won the armageddon game. Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, but his fourth place result with +5=4 was a slight underperformance (in Elo terms). In the first round, Carlsen surprisingly conceded a draw to his classmate Brede Hagen (rated 2034) after having a lost position at one point. A game which attracted some attention was his sixth round win over his own father, Henrik Carlsen.

Carlsen reached the semifinal round of the World Chess Cup in December after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16 and Ivan Cheparinov in the quarter-finals. In the semifinal, he was eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky, ½–1½.

2008

Competing for the second time in the top group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen showed a big improvement over his 2007 performance. His final score was 8/13, and he achieved an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including as Black against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik), two losses and six draws, sharing first place with Levon Aronian. At the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring 8/14. He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

In March, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, which was held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, two losses, and six draws in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared fifth place in the blindfold, shared third place in the rapid and a shared second place in the overall tournament.

Carlsen was one of 21 players in the six-tournament FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2009, a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2012. In the first tournament, in Baku, Azerbaijan, he finished in a three-way tie for first place, with another 2800 Elo performance. Carlsen later withdrew from the Grand Prix cycle despite his initial success, citing "dramatic change to ... regulations".

Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko held in Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5–3. In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event. In his strongest tournament performance at that point in his career, he finished undefeated with 8/11 in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2877. Playing in the category 18 Biel Grandmaster Tournament, Carlsen finished third with 6/10, with an Elo performance of 2740.

In the Mainz World Rapid Chess Championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3–1. To reach the final Carlsen played against Judit Polgár scoring 1½/2, against Anand scoring 1/2 and against Morozevich scoring 1/2. In the category 22 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen tied for second with a 2768 performance rating.

2009

Playing in Group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 performance. In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen finished third with a 2777 performance. Carlsen tied for second place with Veselin Topalov at the M-Tel Masters (category 21) tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. He lost to eventual winner Alexei Shirov in their final game, dropping him from first.

Carlsen won the category 21 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament, 2½ points ahead of second-place finisher Topalov, the world's highest-rated player at the time. He scored an undefeated 8/10, winning every game as White (against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Radjabov, and Jakovenko), and also winning as Black against Jakovenko. By rating performance, this was one of the greatest results in history, with a performance rating of 3002. Chess statistician Jeff Sonas has declared it one of the 20 best tournament performances of all time, and the best chess performance of all time by a teenager.

In the Tal Memorial, played from 5 to 14 November, Carlsen started with seven straight draws, but finished with wins over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko. This result put Carlsen in shared second place behind Kramnik and equal with Ivanchuk. After the Tal Memorial, Carlsen won the World Blitz Championship, played from 16 to 18 November in Moscow, Russia. His score of 28 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses left him three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second place.

Carlsen entered the London Chess Classic as the top seed in a field including Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Ni Hua, Luke McShane and David Howell. He defeated Kramnik in round one and went on to win the tournament with 13/21 (three points were awarded for a win, and one for a draw; using classical scoring he finished with 5/7) and a performance rating of 2844, one point ahead of Kramnik. This victory propelled him to the top of the FIDE rating list, surpassing Veselin Topalov.

Based on his average ranking from the July 2009 and January 2010 FIDE lists, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament that would determine the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2012. In November 2010, however, Carlsen announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates tournament. Carlsen described the 2008–12 cycle as " sufficiently modern and fair", and wrote that "Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion."

In early 2009 Carlsen engaged former World Champion Garry Kasparov as a personal trainer. In September their partnership was confirmed in Norwegian newspapers.

In an interview with Time magazine in December 2009, responding to a question whether he used computers when studying chess, Carlsen explained that he does not use a chess set when studying on his own.

2010

Carlsen won the Corus chess tournament played 16–31 January with 8½ points. His ninth-round loss to Kramnik ended a streak of 36 rated games undefeated. Carlsen appeared to struggle in the last round against Fabiano Caruana, but saved a draw, leaving him half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov.

In March it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer, although this was put into different context by Carlsen himself in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, in which he stated that they would remain in contact and he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov. Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber blindfold and rapid tournament. Scoring 6½/11 in the blindfold and 8/11 in the rapid, Carlsen accumulated 14½ from a possible 22 points. In May it was revealed that Carlsen had helped Viswanathan Anand prepare for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov, which Anand won 6½–5½ to retain the title. Carlsen had also helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championships in 2007 and 2008.

Carlsen played in the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania on 14–25 June. The tournament was a double round robin involving Wang Yue, Boris Gelfand, former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. He finished with 7½/10 and a 2918 performance rating, winning the tournament by two points ahead of Radjabov and Gelfand. Carlsen then played in a rapid tournament 28–30 August at the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament in Kristiansund, Norway. The field featured World Champion Viswanathan Anand, female world No. 1 Judit Polgár, and Jon Ludvig Hammer. In the preliminary round robin, Carlsen scored 3½/6 to qualify for the final, second behind Anand. In the final, Carlsen defeated Anand 1½–½ to win the championship. Following this event, Carlsen suffered setbacks in his next two tournaments. In the 39th Chess Olympiad from 19 September to 4 October, he scored 4½/8, losing three games, to Baadur Jobava, Michael Adams and Sanan Sjugirov; these were his first losses with the black pieces in more than a year. His team, Norway, finished 51st out of 149 teams.

Carlsen's next tournament was the Grand Slam Masters Final on 9–15 October, which he had qualified for automatically by winning three of the previous year's four Grand Slam chess events (2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring, 2010 Corus, 2010 Bazna Kings). Along with Carlsen, the finals consisted of World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the highest two scorers from the preliminary stage held in Shanghai in September: Kramnik and Shirov. The average Elo of the participants at the time was 2789, making the Grand Slam Final the strongest chess tournament in history. In the first round, Carlsen lost with black to Kramnik; this was Carlsen's second consecutive loss to Kramnik, and placed his hold on the world No. 1 ranking in serious jeopardy. In his second round, Carlsen lost with the white pieces to Anand; this was his first loss as White since January 2010. Carlsen recovered somewhat in the latter part of the tournament, achieving a win over Shirov, and finishing with 2½/6. The tournament was won by Kramnik with 4/6. Carlsen finished this tournament with a rating of 2802, two points behind Anand at 2804 who temporarily ended Carlsen's reign at world No. 1. These setbacks called into question from some whether Carlsen's activities outside chess, such as modelling for G-Star Raw, were distracting him from performing well at the chessboard. Carlsen said he did not believe there was a direct connection.

Carlsen's next tournament was the Pearl Spring chess tournament on 19–30 October in Nanjing, China, against Anand, Veselin Topalov, Vugar Gashimov, Wang Yue, and Étienne Bacrot. This was the only tournament in 2010 to feature Anand, Carlsen and Topalov, at the time the top three players in the world, and was the first tournament in history to feature three players rated at least 2800. With early wins over Bacrot, Yue, and Topalov with white, Carlsen took the early lead, extending his winning streak with white in Nanjing to eight. This streak was halted by a draw to Anand in round seven, but in the penultimate round Carlsen secured first place by defeating Topalov with black. This was his second victory in the tournament over the former world No. 1; his final score of 7/10 (with a performance rating of 2903) was a full point ahead of runner-up Anand.

In the World Blitz Championship, held in Moscow on 16–18 November, Carlsen attempted to defend his 2009 title. With a score of 23½/38, he finished in third place behind Teimour Radjabov and winner Levon Aronian. After the tournament, Carlsen played a private 40-game blitz match against Hikaru Nakamura, winning with a score of 23½–16½.

Carlsen won the London Chess Classic on 8–15 December in a field comprising World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, and British players Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane. Carlsen had a rocky start, losing his games to McShane and Anand in rounds 1 and 3, but winning with white against Adams and Nakamura in rounds 2 and 4. He joined the lead with a win over Howell in round 5, and managed to stay in the lead following a harrowing draw against Kramnik in round 6, before defeating Short in the last round. Since the tournament was played with three points for a win, Carlsen's +4–2=1 score put him ahead of Anand and McShane who scored +2=5 (a more traditional two-points-for-a-win system would have yielded a three-way tie, with Carlsen still on top, having the better tiebreaker due to four games with black—Anand and McShane had to play only three times with black).

2011

Carlsen competed in the GM-A group of the Tata Steel Chess (Corus) tournament on 14–30 January in Wijk aan Zee in an attempt to defend his title; the field included World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Hikaru Nakamura, and former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov, among others. Despite losing games with white against Anish Giri and reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen finished with 8/13, including victories over Kramnik and tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura. Although Carlsen's performance raised his rating from 2814 to 2815, Anand's 8½/13 score elevated his rating to 2817, making him the world No. 1 for the March 2011 FIDE rating list.

The first tournament victory of the year came in the Bazna Kings tournament, a double round robin played in Medias on 11–21 June. Carlsen finished with 6½/10, equal with Sergey Karjakin but with a better tiebreak score. Carlsen won his White games against Nakamura, Nisipeanu, and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games.

The Grand Slam Chess Final was held as a double round robin with six players, in São Paulo (25 September – 1 October) and Bilbao (5–11 October). Although Carlsen had a slow start, including a loss against bottom-ranked Vallejo Pons, he finished +3−1=6, equal with Ivanchuk (whose +4−3=3 finish was equal due to three points for a win). Carlsen then won the blitz tiebreak against Ivanchuk. The other players were Anand, Aronian, Nakamura, and Vallejo Pons.

Another tournament victory was achieved in the Tal Memorial in Moscow 16–25 November as a round robin with ten players. Carlsen won two games, against Gelfand and Nakamura, and drew the rest. Although he finished equal on points with Aronian, he placed ahead since the tiebreak was determined by the number of Black games; Carlsen had five Black games while Aronian only had four.

In the London Chess Classic, played 3–12 December, Carlsen's streak of tournament victories ended when he finished third, behind Kramnik and Nakamura. Carlsen won three games and drew five. Although he did not win the tournament, Carlsen continued to gain rating points, and rose to a new personal record of 2835.

2012

At the Tata Steel Chess Tournament held 14–29 January in Wijk aan Zee, Carlsen finished in a shared second place with 8/13, behind Aronian, and equal with Radjabov and Caruana. Carlsen defeated Gashimov, Aronian, Gelfand, and Topalov, but lost against Karjakin. At the Blitz chess tournament at Tal Memorial, Moscow 7 June, Carlsen shared the first place with Morozevich. In the main event (a category 22 ten-player round robin), he replicated his performance from 2011, winning two games and drawing seven. This time, it was enough for the sole first place, ahead of Teimour Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana.

Carlsen then went on to finish second in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, with 18 points, just one point behind Wang Hao using the 3–1–0 scoring system. As in the Tal Memorial earlier in 2012, Carlsen managed to finish the tournament without any losses (+4−0=6). He also defeated the winner Wang Hao in both of their individual games. In the exhibition blitz tournament at Biel before the GM tournament, Carlsen was eliminated (+1−2=0) in the first round by Étienne Bacrot. Bacrot deprived Carlsen of a win in the classical tournament by holding him to a draw in the final round. Carlsen would have won the classical tournament on the traditional 1–½–0 scoring system, with 7/10.

The Grand Slam Chess Final was again held as a double round robin with six players, in São Paulo and Bilbao. Carlsen started with a loss against Caruana, but after three wins in the second (Bilbao) round, finished +4−1=5, equal first with Caruana, and ahead of Aronian, Karjakin and Anand. Carlsen won the tournament by winning both tie-break games against Caruana.

From 24 to 25 November, Carlsen took part in the chess festival Segunda Gran Fiesta Internacional de Ajedrez in Mexico City. As part of it, Carlsen took on an online audience (dubbed as "The World") with the white pieces and won. He then took part in the knockout exhibition event Cuadrangular UNAM. Carlsen first beat Lázaro Bruzón 1½–½, thus qualifying for a final against Judit Polgár (who had in turn beat Manuel León Hoyos 1½–½). Carlsen lost the first game, but won the second one, and in the tiebreak defeated Polgár 2–0.

Carlsen won the London Chess Classic in December with five wins (over McShane, Aronian, Gawain Jones, Adams and Judit Polgár) and three draws (against Kramnik, Nakamura and Anand). This win, the third time Carlsen had won the tournament in the past four years, increased his rating from 2848 to a new record of 2861, breaking Kasparov's 13-year record of 2851. By rating performance, this was one of the best results in history, with a performance rating of 2994.

2013

Carlsen played in the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament from 11–27 January in Wijk aan Zee. In the 13 round tournament, he scored 10 points (+7−0=6), winning clear first 1½ points ahead of second-place finisher Aronian. On February 1, Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen joined the team of assistants who will help Carlsen prepare for the Candidates tournament in March. Before this, Nielsen was on Viswanathan Anand's team.

Honours

Carlsen won the Chess Oscars for 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Chess Oscar, conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64, is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists. The Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang awarded him "Name of the Year" (Årets navn) and "Sportsman of the year" in 2009. That year he also won the Folkets Idrettspris, a people's choice award from the newspaper Dagbladet. In 2011, he was given the Peer Gynt Prize, a Norwegian honour prize awarded annually to "a person or institution that has achieved distinction in society." Carlsen repeated as winner of Folkets Idrettspris in 2012.

Playing style

As a youth, Carlsen was known for his aggressive style, and, according to Agdestein, his play was characterised by "a fearless readiness to offer material for activity." His win over Sipke Ernst in the 2004 Wijk aan Zee C-group, which ended with an epaulette mate, was admired by several other chess players. As he matured, Carlsen found that this risky playing style was not as well suited against the world elite. When he started playing in top tournaments, he was struggling against top players, and had trouble getting much out of the opening. To progress, Carlsen became a more universal player, capable of handling all sorts of positions well. In the opening, Carlsen starts with both 1.d4 and 1.e4, as well as 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 on occasion, thus making it harder for opponents to prepare against him.

has been known to say that he isn't all that interested in opening preparation; his main forte is the middlegame, in which he manages to outplay many of his opponents with positional means. ... Carlsen's repertoire is aimed at avoiding an early crisis in the game. He invariably aims for middlegames that lend themselves to a strategic approach.

Garry Kasparov, who coached Carlsen from 2009 to 2010, said that Carlsen has a positional style similar to that of past world champions such as Anatoly Karpov, José Capablanca and Vasily Smyslov, rather than the tactical style of Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and himself. According to Carlsen, however, he does not have any preferences in terms of playing style. Viswanathan Anand said of Carlsen: "The majority of ideas occur to him absolutely naturally. He's also very flexible, he knows all the structures and he can play almost any position. ... Magnus can literally do almost everything." Kasparov expressed similar sentiments: " has the ability to correctly evaluate any position, which only Karpov could boast of before him." In a 2012 interview, Vladimir Kramnik attributed much of Carlsen's success against other top players to his "excellent physical shape" and his ability to avoid "psychological lapses", which enables him to maintain a high standard of play over long games and at the end of tournaments, when the energy levels of others have dropped.

Carlsen's endgame prowess has been described as among the greatest in history. Jon Speelman, analysing several of Carlsen's endgames from the 2012 London Classic (in particular, his wins against McShane, Aronian, and Adams), described what he calls the "Carlsen effect":

... through the combined force of his skill and no less important his reputation, he drives his opponents into errors. ... He plays on for ever, calmly, methodically and, perhaps most importantly of all, without fear: calculating superbly, with very few outright mistakes and a good proportion of the 'very best' moves. This makes him a monster and makes many opponents wilt.

Rating

Rating achievements

In the January 2006 FIDE list, at the age of 15 years, 32 days, he attained a 2625 Elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2600 Elo barrier (the record has since been broken by Wesley So at the age of 14 years, 358 days). In the July 2007 FIDE list, at the age of 16 years, 213 days, Carlsen attained a 2710 Elo rating, which made him the youngest person to break the 2700 Elo barrier. On 5 September 2008, after winning round 4 in the Bilbao Grand Slam chess championship, Carlsen, just 17 years, 280 days old, briefly became No. 1 on the unofficial live ratings list. Carlsen's September–October 2009 victory in the Nanjing Pearl tournament raised his FIDE rating to 2801, making him at age 18 years, 336 days, the youngest player ever to break 2800. The youngest before him was Vladimir Kramnik at age 25. Before Carlsen, only Kasparov, Topalov, Kramnik, and Anand had achieved a 2800+ rating (Levon Aronian later accomplished the feat in November 2010). After the Tal Memorial (November 2009) he became No. 1 on the unofficial live chess rating list with his new peak rating of 2805.7, 0.6 point over the No. 2 ranked player, Veselin Topalov.

The FIDE rankings from January 2010, which took into account the 16 games played at the Tal Memorial and the London Chess Classic, were enough to raise Carlsen's rating to 2810. This meant that Carlsen started 2010 by being, at the age of 19 years, 32 days, the youngest ever world No. 1, and also the first player from a Western nation to reach the top of the FIDE rating list since Bobby Fischer in 1971. The press coverage of this feat included an interview and article in Time magazine.

The March 2010 FIDE rating list showed Carlsen with a new peak rating of 2813, a figure that only Kasparov had bettered at that time. On the November 2012 rating list published by FIDE, Carlsen reached 2848, the second highest in history (after Garry Kasparov's 2851 set July 1999 to January 2000). On the January 2013 FIDE rating list, Carlsen reached 2861, thus surpassing Garry Kasparov's 2851 record from July 1999.

Standing on each top 100 FIDE list

• bold, new peak rating

Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters

(Rapid, blitz and blindfold games not included; listed as +wins −losses =draws as of 27 January 2012.)
Players who have been undisputed world champions in boldface

• Michael Adams +8−1=4
• Evgeny Alekseev +0−2=7
• Viswanathan Anand +2−6=19
• Levon Aronian +8−4=21
• Étienne Bacrot +3−0=7
• Ferenc Berkes +0−1=0
• Lázaro Bruzón +1−1=1
• Fabiano Caruana +2−1=5
• Leinier Domínguez +5−0=5
• Vugar Gashimov +1−0=3
• Boris Gelfand +2−1=8
• Anish Giri +0−1=4
• Alexander Grischuk +1−0=6
• Wang Hao +3−1=1
• Pentala Harikrishna +1−1=2
• Vassily Ivanchuk +8−2=13
• Dmitry Jakovenko +4−0=2
• Baadur Jobava +1−2=2
• Gata Kamsky +1−2=6
• Sergey Karjakin +2−1=10
• Vladimir Kramnik +3−4=11
• Peter Leko +2−3=10
• Vladimir Malakhov +0−0=4
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov +1−1=5
• Luke McShane +3−1=2
• Alexander Morozevich +3−0=7
• Sergei Movsesian +0−1=2
• Arkadij Naiditsch +3−0=7
• Hikaru Nakamura +6−0=14
• David Navara +1−1=3
• Ian Nepomniachtchi +0−2=1
• Judit Polgár +2−0=1
• Ruslan Ponomariov +2−1=3
• Teimour Radjabov +6−1=16
• Krishnan Sasikiran +0−0=3
• Alexei Shirov +6−2=8
• Nigel Short +2−0=3
• Sanan Sjugirov +0−1=0
• Peter Svidler +0−2=9
• Evgeny Tomashevsky +0−0=1
• Veselin Topalov +8−3=4
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave +2−1=2
• Loek Van Wely +5−2=5
• Andrei Volokitin +0−4=2

Notable games

All links in this section lead to an external site.

• Carlsen–Garry Kasparov, Reykjavík Rapid (2004), Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Variation (D52), ½–½ At the age of just 13 years, Carlsen had serious winning chances against Garry Kasparov, ranked No. 1 in the world at that time, and considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time.
• Carlsen–Veselin Topalov, M-Tel Masters (2009), Semi-Slav Defense: General (D43), 1–0 This was Carlsen's first win against a 2800+ player.
• Carlsen–Boris Gelfand, Tal Memorial (2011), Slav Defense: Quiet Variation. Schallopp Defense (D12), 1–0 The No. 1 Israeli player and future World Championship challenger creates a seemingly decisive rook invasion into White's position, but Carlsen vanquishes his threats. Carlsen called it "one of the most interesting games I have played in recent times".
• Carlsen–Hikaru Nakamura, London Chess Classic (2011), Italian Game: Classical Variation. Giuoco Pianissimo (C53), 1–0 Facing the No. 1 American player, Carlsen demolishes Black's pawn structure.
• Carlsen–Viswanathan Anand, Bilbao Masters (2012), Sicilian Defense: Canal Attack. Main Line (B52), 1–0 Playing against the World Champion in a game he considers one of the best in his career, Carlsen sacrifices a pawn to leave Black with a cramped position, and forces him to resign on move 30.

Beyond chess

Carlsen modelled for G-Star Raw's Autumn/Winter 2010 advertising campaign with actress Liv Tyler. Noted Dutch personality Anton Corbijn was the photographer. The campaign was coordinated with the RAW World Chess Challenge in New York, an event where Carlsen played an online team of global chess players who voted on moves suggested by three GMs: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, and Judit Polgár. Carlsen, playing White, won in 43 moves. Film director J. J. Abrams offered Carlsen a role in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness as a "chess player from the future", but he had to decline, unable to get a US work permit in time for shooting. In 2012, Carlsen was featured in a 60 Minutes segment, and appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report. He was also interviewed by Rainn Wilson for SoulPancake.

As of 2012, Carlsen is the only active chess professional with a full-time manager. Espen Agdestein, brother of Carlsen's former trainer Simen, and himself a master-level player and twice member of the Norwegian team at the Chess Olympiads, began working as an agent for Carlsen in late 2008. His work consisted initially of finding sponsors and negotiating media contacts, but since 2011, he has taken over management tasks formerly performed by Carlsen's father Henrik. Carlsen reportedly earns €1m (£870,000) a year.

Books and films

• Valaker, O; Carlsen, M. (2004). Lær sjakk med Magnus . Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. ISBN 978-82-05-33963-7.
• Agdestein, S. (2004). Wonderboy: How Magnus Carlsen became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World. Interchess. ISBN 90-5691-131-7.
• The Prince of Chess, a film about Magnus Carlsen (2005). Directed by Øyvind Asbjørnsen.
• Opedal, Hallgeir (2011). Smarte trekk. Magnus Carlsen: Verdens beste sjakkspiller . Kagge. ISBN 978-82-489-1050-3
• Mikhalchishin, Adrian; Stetsko, Oleg. (2012). Fighting Chess with Magnus Carlsen (Progress in Chess). Edition Olms. ISBN 978-3-283-01020-1.

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161. Moss S. (10 March 2013). "Chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen enters endgame for world title". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
162. The Prince of Chess at IMDb

Sources

• Agdestein, Simen (2004). Wonderboy: How Magnus Carlsen became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World. Interchess. ISBN 90-5691-131-7.

External links

• Official website
• Official blog
• Magnus Carlsen on Twitter
• "The Mozart of Chess" 60 Minutes segment
• Carlsen and Kasparov in a chat show YouTube, 18 September 2009 – Kasparov recalls his first encounter with Carlsen in Reykjavík 2004
• Magnus Carlsen player profile and games at Chessgames.com

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