Magnus Carlsen
Encyclopedia
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian
chess
Grandmaster and chess prodigy
who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list. His peak rating
is 2826, the second highest peak rating in history after Garry Kasparov
.
On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of , making him the third-youngest Grandmaster in history. On 1 January 2010 the new FIDE rating list was published, and at the age of he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world number one, breaking the record previously held by Vladimir Kramnik
. Carlsen was also the 2009 World blitz chess
champion.
His performance at the September–October 2009 Nanjing
Pearl Spring tournament has been described as one of the greatest in history and lifted him to an Elo rating of 2801, making him the fifth player to achieve a rating over 2800 – and aged 18 years 10 months at the time, by far the youngest to do so.
Based on his rating
, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament
which determined the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand
in the World Chess Championship 2012. However in November 2010 he announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates tournament; he was replaced by Alexander Grischuk
.
, Vestfold
, Carlsen currently lives in Haslum, Bærum
, near Norway's capital, Oslo
. He played his first chess tournament at the age of eight and was later coached at a Norwegian high school (for athletes) by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein
. Agdestein introduced his civil worker Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, currently an International Master, to Carlsen, and they had one training session every week, along with one of Carlsen's close friends. Becoming an International Master, Carlsen was given a year off from elementary school to participate in international chess tournaments during the fall season of 2003. In that same year, he finished third in the European Under-12 Boys Championship.
in Wijk aan Zee
. He had a score of 10½/13, losing just one game (against the highest rated player of the C group, Dusko Pavasovic
). As a result of the victory, he took his first Grandmaster 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 mate him in just 29 moves. Carlsen won the Audience Prize for that game, as the best game of the round (including the games played in the A and B groups). 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 also led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, to give him the title "Mozart
of chess". Agdestein, who was once a young GM at 18, said in an interview that Carlsen was a significantly better player than he was himself at the same age. He also said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of different openings. Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft
, who became his sponsor.
Carlsen obtained his second GM norm in the Moscow Aeroflot Open
in February 2004. In a blitz chess
tournament in Reykjavík
, Iceland
, Carlsen defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov
on 17 March 2004. The blitz tournament was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day, where Carlsen achieved one draw against Garry Kasparov
, who was then the top-rated player in the world, before losing to Kasparov after 32 moves of the second game, thus being knocked out of the tournament.
In the sixth Dubai
Open Chess Championship, held 18–28 April 2004, Carlsen obtained his third Grandmaster norm (enough for getting the GM title), after getting four wins and four draws before the last game was to be played. As a result of this he was at the time the world's youngest Grandmaster and the second youngest person ever to hold GM status, after Sergey Karjakin
of Ukraine
who attained the feat at 12 years and 7 months of age in 2002.
Carlsen was the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
, but was knocked out in the first round on tie breaks by Levon Aronian
.
In July 2004, Carlsen and Berge Østenstad
(then the reigning Norwegian champion) tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship
, each scoring seven out of nine possible points. 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.
, ranked number 10 in the world. In June 2005 in the Ciudad de Leon rapid chess tournament Carlsen played a four-game semi-final against Viswanathan Anand
, who was ranked second in the world at the time. Magnus lost 3–1. Carlsen was invited to the tournament as the most promising young chess player in 2005.
In the 2005 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 November and 10 November. This time Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the player with better tiebreaks 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 he participated at the World Chess Cup 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk
, Russia. In the knock-out tournament, Carlsen upset the 44th-ranked Georgian
Zurab Azmaiparashvili
in round one, winning 2–0 at rapid chess after a 1–1 tie in the normal length games, and proceeded to beat Tajik
Farrukh Amonatov
and Bulgaria
n Ivan Cheparinov
(also after rapid chess) to reach the round of 16. There he lost 1½–2½ to Evgeny Bareev
, which prevented him from finishing in the top eight. He then won against Joël Lautier
1½–½ and Vladimir Malakhov 3½–2½ securing him at least a tenth place and therefore a spot in the Candidate Matches
. Carlsen became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.
In October 2005 he took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal
with eight out of nine points and a performance rating of 2792 at the age of 14.
broke that record.
Carlsen qualified for a place in the Corus B group from his 2005 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 2006 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 Magnus of beating Agdestein's record of becoming the youngest Norwegian champion ever. Nonetheless, in the play-off 19–21 November Carlsen won 3–1. After two draws in the initial full time games, Magnus won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship.
Magnus won the 2006 Glitnir Blitz Tournament in Iceland
. He won 2–0 over Viswanathan Anand
(2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, 2004 Amber Rapid Chess Champion, 2007 FIDE Classical World Champion) in the semi finals. Carlsen also won 2–0 in the finals.
Magnus scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 against opponents averaging 2627 Elo, gaining 18 Elo (a rating performance of 2820 points). One of his notable wins was against top English grandmaster Michael Adams.
In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament, Carlsen had some misses and came in second, beaten by Sergei Shipov
(FIDE-Elo: 2576).
In the 2006 Biel
grandmaster tournament he achieved second place, after having beaten the eventual winner Alexander Morozevich
twice (once with each color).
In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam
in August 2006, 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.
In the World Blitz Championship at Rishon LeZion, Israel
in September 2006, he was number 8 of 16 participants with 7½/15 points.
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
.
Carlsen achieved a shared eighth place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal
Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. In the associated blitz tournament Tal Blitz Cup he received 17½/34 points and ninth place in a group of 18 participants.
Carlsen, playing in group A for the first time, had to settle for the last place after nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½ points in 13 rounds.
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 a second place (on tiebreaks) with 7½ points after four wins, seven draws and three losses, and an Elo performance of 2778.
In March 2007, Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber
blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo
. 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 (beaten only by Anand), and an eighth place in the overall tournament.
In May–June 2007, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. He was paired with the top seed Levon Aronian
. The six-game match was drawn (two wins, two draws, and two losses), with Carlsen coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (one win, two draws, and one loss), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Finally, Aronian won both tiebreaker (blitz) games, to eliminate Carlsen from the Championship.
In the July 2007 FIDE list, at the age of 16 years and 7 months, he officially attained 2710 Elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2700 Elo barrier. As of January 2011, this record has not been broken.
In July–August 2007, he won the International Chess Festival Biel Grandmaster Tournament 2007, with a +2 record (an Elo performance of 2753). His score was equalled by Alexander Onischuk
and by the tie-breaker rule of the tournament, they played a tie-breaker match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two blitz
games, Carlsen won the armageddon game. He became the youngest person ever to win a category 18 tournament.
Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø
, but his +5=4 and fourth place result was somewhat disappointing. 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.
In December 2007, he reached the semi-final round of the World Chess Cup 2007, after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16, and Ivan Cheparinov
in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, he was eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky
, ½:1½.
Playing 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 eight points in 13 rounds, an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including as Black
against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik
), two losses and six draws. He shared first place with Levon Aronian
, becoming the youngest person ever to win a category 20 tournament.
At the 2008 Linares chess tournament
, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring eight out of fourteen (five wins, three losses and six draws). He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner, world champion Viswanathan Anand
.
In March 2008, 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, six draws and two losses 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
, in April–May 2008, 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[s] to ... regulations."
Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko
held at Miskolc
, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (two wins, six draws).
In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event. In his strongest tournament performance at that point in his career, he finished undefeated with eight out of eleven (five wins, six draws) in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2878.
Playing in a category 18 Biel tournament, Carlsen finished third with six points out of ten (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008.
In the Mainz
World Rapid Chess Championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgár
scoring 1½ point out of two (one win, one draw), against Anand scoring one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scoring one point out of two (two draws).
In the category 21 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen finished second with a 2768 performance rating (three wins, three losses, four draws).
, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 performance (two wins, one loss, ten draws).
In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen finished third with a 2777 performance (three wins, two losses, nine draws). In this tournament, he defeated World Champion Viswanathan Anand
and the eventual winner Alexander Grischuk
for the first time under classical time controls.
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 8/10 (six wins, four draws, no losses), 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. This lifted his FIDE rating to 2801, making him the 5th and youngest player to ever surpass 2800.
In the Tal Memorial
2009, played from 5 November 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 2009 World Blitz Championship, played from 16 November 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 2009 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 has propelled him to the top of the FIDE rating list, surpassing Veselin Topalov
.
Carlsen's average rating from the July 2009 and January 2010 FIDE lists will enable him to qualify for the Candidates Tournament
of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle.
In early 2009 Carlsen engaged former world champion Garry Kasparov
as a personal trainer. In September 2009 their partnership was confirmed in Norwegian newspapers.
In a December 2009 interview with TIME Magazine, in response to a question whether he used computers when studying chess, Carlsen revealed that he does not use a chess set when studying on his own.
He won the Chess Oscar
for 2009. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64
.
Carlsen won the Corus chess tournament
played January 16–31 with 8½ points (five wins, seven draws, one loss). 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.
The March 2010 FIDE rating list showed Carlsen with a new peak rating of 2813, a figure that only Kasparov has bettered. In the same month 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
stating that they would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov.
Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber 2010 blindfold and rapid tournament. Carlsen scored 6½ points in the blindfold and 8 points in the rapid, giving 14½ points from a possible 22 points.
In May 2010 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 Championship 2007
and World Chess Championship 2008
.
In his first tournament since his announced departure from Kasparov, Carlsen played in the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania from June 14 through June 25. The tournament was a double round robin event involving Wang Yue
, Boris Gelfand
, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov
, Teimour Radjabov
, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
. After drawing his first three games, Carlsen won his next four and set a personal livechess rating peak of 2825.1. He finished with 7½/10 and a 2918 performance rating, winning the tournament by two points over Radjabov and Gelfand. The victory ensured that Carlsen remained at the top of the Elo rating list. His official rating hit 2826, a figure exceeded only by Kasparov and just 25 points shy of tying Kasparov's all-time record.
Carlsen then played in a rapid tournament from August 28 to August 30 at the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament in Kristiansund, Norway. The field featured world champion Viswanathan Anand
, female world #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 September 19 to October 4, 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
from October 9 to October 15, 2010, 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, which featured Vladimir Kramnik
, Levon Aronian
, Alexei Shirov
, and Wang Hao
; Shirov and Kramnik qualified. The official September 2010 ratings of Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik and Shirov made the Grand Slam final the strongest tournament in chess history, with an average ELO of 2789. In the first round, Carlsen lost on the black side of the Queen's Indian Defense
to Kramnik; this was Carlsen's second consecutive loss to Kramnik, and placed his hold on the world #1 ranking in serious jeopardy. In his second round, Carlsen lost with the white pieces to Anand in the Ruy Lopez
; this was his first loss as white since January 2010, and dropped him to world #2 in the live rankings behind Anand. Carlsen recovered somewhat in the latter part of the tournament, finishing with 2½/6, including a win over Shirov; 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 officially ended Carlsen's reign at world #1. These setbacks called into question from some whether Carlsen's activities outside chess, such as modelling for G-Star Raw, was distracting him from performing well at the chess board. Carlsen said he did not believe there was a direct connection, and that he was looking forward to the Pearl Spring tournament, where he had scored 8/10 in 2009.
Following the Grand Slam Masters Final
, Carlsen's next tournament was the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament
, from October 19 to 30 in Nanjing, China, against Anand, world #2 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 the black pieces. This was his second victory in the tournament over the former world #1, and improved his score to 6½/9. The victory clinched Carlsen a place in the 2011 Grand Slam Chess Masters final, his final score of 7/10 (with a performance rating of 2903) was a full point ahead of runner-up Anand, and moved him back to world #1 on the live rankings.
Carlsen next played in the 2010 World Blitz Championship, in Moscow from November 16 to 18, attempting to defend his 2009 title. With a score of 23.5/38, he finished in third place behind Teimour Radjabov
and winner Levon Aronian
.
Carlsen won the 2010 London Chess Classic
from December 8 to 15 in a field comprising world champion Viswanathan Anand
, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik
, American number one Hikaru Nakamura
, and British players Michael Adams, Nigel Short
, David Howell
, and Luke McShane
. Carlsen had a rocky start, losing his Black 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 Black win over Howell in round 5, and managed to stay in the lead following a harrowing draw with Black against Kramnik in round 6, before defeating Short in the last round with White. Since the tournament was played with three points for a win
, Carlsen's +4=1-2 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).
Carlsen won the Chess Oscar
for 2010 by narrowly beating Viswanathan Anand
.
, reigning world blitz champion 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 8.0/13, including victories over Kramnik and tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura. Although Carlsen's performance raised his rating from 2814 to 2815, Anand's 8.5/13 score elevated his rating to 2817, making him the official world #1 for the March 2011 FIDE rating list.
The first tournament victory of 2011 came in the Bazna Kings tournament, a double round-robin played in Medias
from June 11 to June 21. Carlsen finished with 6.5 points (+3=7), 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. This result raised Carlsen's rating by six points to 2821, and returned Carlsen to first place on the live rating list.
, Carlsen is again #1 on the official FIDE rating list with a 2826 rating.
The Grand Slam Chess Final
was held as a double-round robin with six players, in São Paulo (September 25th to October 1st) and Bilbao (5th to 11th October). Although Carlsen had a slow start, including a loss against bottom ranked Vallejo Pons, he finished +3=6-1, 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 16th-25th November 2011 as a round robin with ten players. Carlsen won two games, against Gelfand and Nakamura, and drew the rest. He finished equal on points with Aronian, and finished ahead since the first tiebreak was the number of Black games; Carlsen had five Black games while Aronian only had four.
Since the announcement that he was coaching Carlsen, Garry Kasparov
has repeatedly stated that Carlsen has a positional style, similar to that of past world champions such as Anatoly Karpov
, José Capablanca and Vassily Smyslov, rather than the tactical style of Alexander Alekhine
, Mikhail Tal
and himself.
He was placed sixth in the July 2008 list, but if his Aerosvit result had been included he would have been ranked second. The omission of the Aerosvit result, which finished after the cut-off date for the July 2008 list, caused some controversy.
On 5 September 2008, after winning round 4 in the Bilbao Grand Slam chess championship, Carlsen, still under 18, briefly became number one on the unofficial live ratings list.
Carlsen's September–October 2009 victory in the Nanjing Pearl tournament raised his official rating to 2801, making him at age 18 the youngest player ever to break 2800. The youngest before him was Vladimir Kramnik
at age 25. Besides Carlsen, only Kasparov, Topalov, Kramnik
, and Anand
had achieved a 2800 rating (Levon Aronian
later accomplished the feat in October 2010). Carlsen said that he hoped his victory would mark the "beginning of a new era."
After the Tal Memorial (November 2009) he became number one in the unofficial live chess rating list with his new peak rating of 2805.7, 0.6 point over the number 2, Veselin Topalov.
The official FIDE rankings were published on 1 January 2010, and the 16 games played at the Tal Memorial and the London Chess Classic
were enough to raise his rating by 8.6 rating points to 2810. This meant that Carlsen started 2010 by being the official (and, at the age of , the youngest ever) world number one, and also the first player from a western nation to reach the top in the FIDE rating list since Bobby Fischer
in 1972. The press coverage of this feat included an interview and article in Time magazine
.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster and chess prodigy
Chess prodigy
Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults on equal ground; it is thus one of the few skills in which true child prodigies exist...
who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list. His peak rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
is 2826, the second highest peak rating in history after Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
.
On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of , making him the third-youngest Grandmaster in history. On 1 January 2010 the new FIDE rating list was published, and at the age of he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world number one, breaking the record previously held by Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
. Carlsen was also the 2009 World blitz chess
Blitz chess
Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60 to 180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...
champion.
His performance at the September–October 2009 Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
Pearl Spring tournament has been described as one of the greatest in history and lifted him to an Elo rating of 2801, making him the fifth player to achieve a rating over 2800 – and aged 18 years 10 months at the time, by far the youngest to do so.
Based on his rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
which determined the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
in the World Chess Championship 2012. However in November 2010 he announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates tournament; he was replaced by Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....
.
Childhood
Born in TønsbergTønsberg
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, southern Norway, located around north-east of Sandefjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg....
, Vestfold
Vestfold
is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...
, Carlsen currently lives in Haslum, Bærum
Bærum
is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandvika. Bærum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. A suburb of Oslo, Bærum is located on the west coast of the city....
, near Norway's capital, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. He played his first chess tournament at the age of eight and was later coached at a Norwegian high school (for athletes) by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein
Simen Agdestein
Simen Agdestein is a Norwegian chess grandmaster and ex-football star. He has won seven Norwegian chess championships, including the 2005 title....
. Agdestein introduced his civil worker Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, currently an International Master, to Carlsen, and they had one training session every week, along with one of Carlsen's close friends. Becoming an International Master, Carlsen was given a year off from elementary school to participate in international chess tournaments during the fall season of 2003. In that same year, he finished third in the European Under-12 Boys Championship.
2004
Carlsen was brought to the attention of the international chess world after his victory in the C group at the Corus chess tournamentCorus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
in Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee is a small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel chess tournament formerly Corus chess tournament and before that called Hoogovens tournament takes place there every year.Due...
. He had a score of 10½/13, losing just one game (against the highest rated player of the C group, Dusko Pavasovic
Duško Pavasovic
Duško Pavasovič is a Slovenian chess player and Grandmaster.Pavasovič was born in Split, Croatia, but later took Slovenian citizenship. He became a FIDE grandmaster in 1999. On the April 2007 FIDE rating list he has an Elo rating of 2567, making him Slovenia's second highest-rated player after...
). As a result of the victory, he took his first Grandmaster 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 mate him in just 29 moves. Carlsen won the Audience Prize for that game, as the best game of the round (including the games played in the A and B groups). The first 23 moves in that game had already been played in another game Almagro Llanas-Gustafsson, Madrid 2003 (which ended in a draw
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
), 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 also led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, to give him the title "Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
of chess". Agdestein, who was once a young GM at 18, said in an interview that Carlsen was a significantly better player than he was himself at the same age. He also said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of different openings. Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, who became his sponsor.
Carlsen obtained his second GM norm in the Moscow Aeroflot Open
Aeroflot Open
The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament. The first event had around 80 grandmasters, while in the second event 150 grandmasters participated...
in February 2004. In a blitz chess
Blitz chess
Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60 to 180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...
tournament in Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Carlsen defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
on 17 March 2004. The blitz tournament was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day, where Carlsen achieved one draw against Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, who was then the top-rated player in the world, before losing to Kasparov after 32 moves of the second game, thus being knocked out of the tournament.
In the sixth Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
Open Chess Championship, held 18–28 April 2004, Carlsen obtained his third Grandmaster norm (enough for getting the GM title), after getting four wins and four draws before the last game was to be played. As a result of this he was at the time the world's youngest Grandmaster and the second youngest person ever to hold GM status, after Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master, eleven years and eleven months, and grandmaster in history, at the age of twelve years and seven months...
of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
who attained the feat at 12 years and 7 months of age in 2002.
Carlsen was the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13.It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½-3½...
, but was knocked out in the first round on tie breaks by Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
.
In July 2004, Carlsen and Berge Østenstad
Berge Østenstad
Berge Østenstad is a Norwegian chess player and Norway's sixth International Grandmaster. Østenstad plays for the chess club in Asker. He appears on the official FIDE rating list as "Ostenstad, Berge"....
(then the reigning Norwegian champion) tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship
Norwegian Chess Championship
The Norwegian Chess Championship is an annual tournament held in Norway during the month of July, in order to determine the national chess champion. The tournament is held at different venues each year as part of the Landsturnering...
, each scoring seven out of nine possible points. 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 chess festival 2004–05 (Norway) Carlsen defeated Alexei ShirovAlexei Shirov
Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
, ranked number 10 in the world. In June 2005 in the Ciudad de Leon rapid chess tournament Carlsen played a four-game semi-final against Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, who was ranked second in the world at the time. Magnus lost 3–1. Carlsen was invited to the tournament as the most promising young chess player in 2005.
In the 2005 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 November and 10 November. This time Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the player with better tiebreaks 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 he participated at the World Chess Cup 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk experiences a subarctic climate . The climate is extreme, with temperatures as low as -49 C° and as high as 34.5 C°. On average, however, the region is very cold, with an average tempurature of -1.1 C°...
, Russia. In the knock-out tournament, Carlsen upset the 44th-ranked Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
Zurab Azmaiparashvili
Zurab Azmaiparashvili
Zurab Azmaiparashvili is a chess Grandmaster from Georgia. In the September 2010 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2637, making him 114th in the world and Georgia's number two.-Career:He became a Grandmaster in 1988...
in round one, winning 2–0 at rapid chess after a 1–1 tie in the normal length games, and proceeded to beat Tajik
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
Farrukh Amonatov
Farrukh Amonatov
Farrukh Amonatov is the only chess grandmaster in Tajikistan. He is also the winner of many international tournaments...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n Ivan Cheparinov
Ivan Cheparinov
Ivan Cheparinov is a Bulgarian chess player, who won the Bulgarian Chess Championship in 2005.-Topalov's second:Until 2007, he was best known as the second of former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov...
(also after rapid chess) to reach the round of 16. There he lost 1½–2½ to Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Bareev is a Russian chess Grandmaster and chess coach. In October 2003, he was in fourth place in the world rankings, with an Elo rating of 2739....
, which prevented him from finishing in the top eight. He then won against Joël Lautier
Joel Lautier
Joël Lautier is a French chess grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer .Born in Canada, of French father and Japanese mother, Lautier is one of the strongest grandmasters from France. He won the 1988 World Junior Chess Championship on tiebreak at Adelaide, and the French Chess Championships in 2004...
1½–½ and Vladimir Malakhov 3½–2½ securing him at least a tenth place and therefore a spot in the Candidate Matches
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
. Carlsen became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.
In October 2005 he took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal
Gausdal
Gausdal is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru...
with eight out of nine points and a performance rating of 2792 at the age of 14.
2006
In the January 2006 fide list, at the age of 15 years and 31 days, he officially attained 2625 elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2600 elo barrier. In 2008, Wesley SoWesley So
Wesley So is a Filipino chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess. Before becoming a Grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino...
broke that record.
Carlsen qualified for a place in the Corus B group from his 2005 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 2006 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 Magnus of beating Agdestein's record of becoming the youngest Norwegian champion ever. Nonetheless, in the play-off 19–21 November Carlsen won 3–1. After two draws in the initial full time games, Magnus won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship.
Magnus won the 2006 Glitnir Blitz Tournament in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. He won 2–0 over Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
(2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, 2004 Amber Rapid Chess Champion, 2007 FIDE Classical World Champion) in the semi finals. Carlsen also won 2–0 in the finals.
Magnus scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 against opponents averaging 2627 Elo, gaining 18 Elo (a rating performance of 2820 points). One of his notable wins was against top English grandmaster Michael Adams.
In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament, Carlsen had some misses and came in second, beaten by Sergei Shipov
Sergei Shipov
Sergei Shipov is a Russian chess grandmaster with a peak FIDE rating of 2662 , chess journalist and author. He is the man behind the popular chess-website crestbook.com, where, among other services, he provides online-comments to current chess events...
(FIDE-Elo: 2576).
In the 2006 Biel
Biel/Bienne
Biel/Bienne is a city in the district of the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.It is located on the language boundary and is throughout bilingual. Biel is the German name for the town, Bienne its French counterpart. The town is often referred to in both...
grandmaster tournament he achieved second place, after having beaten the eventual winner Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich is a Russian chess Grandmaster. In the November 2011 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2762, making him the 9th-highest rated player in the world, although he has previously ranked as high as second, in the July 2008 list....
twice (once with each color).
In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in August 2006, 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
Melody Amber
The Amber chess tournament was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo...
tournament.
In the World Blitz Championship at Rishon LeZion, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in September 2006, he was number 8 of 16 participants with 7½/15 points.
In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs in Cap d'Agde
Cap d'Agde
Cap d'Agde is the seaside resort of the town of Agde, France, on the Mediterranean sea in the département of Hérault, within the région of Languedoc-Roussillon. Agde can be reached by TGV SNCF train direct from Paris or Lille whilst the closest airports are Béziers-Cap d'Agde en Languedoc, with...
, France he got to the semifinal, losing to Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master, eleven years and eleven months, and grandmaster in history, at the age of twelve years and seven months...
.
Carlsen achieved a shared eighth place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. In the associated blitz tournament Tal Blitz Cup he received 17½/34 points and ninth place in a group of 18 participants.
2007
In the 2007 Corus chess tournamentCorus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
Carlsen, playing in group A for the first time, had to settle for the last place after nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½ points in 13 rounds.
In the prestigious Linares chess tournament
Linares chess tournament
The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...
Carlsen met the following top-rated players: Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
, Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler
Peter Veniaminovich Svidler is a Russian chess grandmaster.He is six-time Russian champion ....
, Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich is a Russian chess Grandmaster. In the November 2011 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2762, making him the 9th-highest rated player in the world, although he has previously ranked as high as second, in the July 2008 list....
, Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Peter Leko
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
, and Vassily Ivanchuk (replacing Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov
Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...
). With the significantly lowest Elo rating, he achieved a second place (on tiebreaks) with 7½ points after four wins, seven draws and three losses, and an Elo performance of 2778.
In March 2007, Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber
Melody Amber
The Amber chess tournament was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo...
blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
. In the 11 rounds he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold
Blindfold
A blindfold is a garment, usually of cloth, tied to one's head to cover the eyes to disable the wearer's sight. It can be worn when the eyes are in a closed state and thus prevents the wearer from opening them...
, 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 (beaten only by Anand), and an eighth place in the overall tournament.
In May–June 2007, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. He was paired with the top seed Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
. The six-game match was drawn (two wins, two draws, and two losses), with Carlsen coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (one win, two draws, and one loss), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Finally, Aronian won both tiebreaker (blitz) games, to eliminate Carlsen from the Championship.
In the July 2007 FIDE list, at the age of 16 years and 7 months, he officially attained 2710 Elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2700 Elo barrier. As of January 2011, this record has not been broken.
In July–August 2007, he won the International Chess Festival Biel Grandmaster Tournament 2007, with a +2 record (an Elo performance of 2753). His score was equalled by Alexander Onischuk
Alexander Onischuk
Alexander Onischuk is an American chess grandmaster. Originally from Ukraine, he immigrated to the US in 2001 and currently lives in Northern Virginia. He was the 2006 U.S. Chess Champion...
and by the tie-breaker rule of the tournament, they played a tie-breaker match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two blitz
Blitz chess
Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60 to 180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...
games, Carlsen won the armageddon game. He became the youngest person ever to win a category 18 tournament.
Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø
Tromsø
Tromsø is a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population, and the seventh largest city in Norway by population...
, but his +5=4 and fourth place result was somewhat disappointing. 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.
In December 2007, he reached the semi-final round of the World Chess Cup 2007, after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16, and Ivan Cheparinov
Ivan Cheparinov
Ivan Cheparinov is a Bulgarian chess player, who won the Bulgarian Chess Championship in 2005.-Topalov's second:Until 2007, he was best known as the second of former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov...
in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, he was eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion. He is also the current United States Chess Champion. As of September 2011, he is rated No. 1 in the United States and No...
, ½:1½.
2008
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
, Carlsen showed a big improvement over his 2007 performance. His final score was eight points in 13 rounds, an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including as Black
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
), two losses and six draws. He shared first place with Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, becoming the youngest person ever to win a category 20 tournament.
At the 2008 Linares chess tournament
Linares chess tournament
The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...
, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring eight out of fourteen (five wins, three losses and six draws). He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner, world champion Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
.
In March 2008, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber
Melody Amber
The Amber chess tournament was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo...
blind and rapid chess tournament, which was held in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, six draws and two losses 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
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, in April–May 2008, 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[s] to ... regulations."
Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
held at Miskolc
Miskolc
Miskolc is a city in northeastern Hungary, mainly with heavy industrial background. With a population close to 170,000 Miskolc is the fourth largest city of Hungary It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern Hungary.- Geography :Miskolc is located...
, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (two wins, six draws).
In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event. In his strongest tournament performance at that point in his career, he finished undefeated with eight out of eleven (five wins, six draws) in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2878.
Playing in a category 18 Biel tournament, Carlsen finished third with six points out of ten (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008.
In the Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
World Rapid Chess Championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
scoring 1½ point out of two (one win, one draw), against Anand scoring one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scoring one point out of two (two draws).
In the category 21 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen finished second with a 2768 performance rating (three wins, three losses, four draws).
2009
Playing in Group A of the Corus chess tournamentCorus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 performance (two wins, one loss, ten draws).
In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen finished third with a 2777 performance (three wins, two losses, nine draws). In this tournament, he defeated World Champion Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
and the eventual winner Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....
for the first time under classical time controls.
Carlsen tied for second place with Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
at the M-Tel Masters
M-tel Masters
M-Tel Masters is an annual super-GM chess tournament held since 2005 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the leading Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. According to the regulations, each of the six participants plays two games against every other, thus making it a...
(category 21) tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. He lost to eventual winner Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov
Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
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 8/10 (six wins, four draws, no losses), winning every game as White
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
(against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Radjabov, and Jakovenko), and also winning as Black
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
against Jakovenko. By rating performance, this was one of the greatest results in history, with a performance rating of 3002. This lifted his FIDE rating to 2801, making him the 5th and youngest player to ever surpass 2800.
In the Tal Memorial
Mikhail Tal Memorial
The Tal Memorial is a chess tournament played in Moscow each year since 2006, to honour the memory of the former World Champion Mikhail Tal who died in 1992....
2009, played from 5 November to 14 November, Carlsen started with seven straight draws, but finished with wins over Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
and Peter Leko
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
. This result put Carlsen in shared second place behind Kramnik and equal with Ivanchuk.
After the Tal Memorial, Carlsen won the 2009 World Blitz Championship, played from 16 November 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 2009 London Chess Classic
London Chess Classic
The London Chess Classic is a festival of the game of chess held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters...
as the top seed in a field including Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
, Michael Adams, Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
, Ni Hua
Ni Hua
Ni Hua is one of China's top chess grandmasters and is the national team captain. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. On April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi both became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue...
, Luke McShane
Luke McShane
Luke James McShane is an English chess player. A former World Youth Champion and prodigious talent in chess, he has become one of England's leading players and a member of the Olympiad team. He has also been a trader in London's financial sector.- Early career :McShane won the World Under-10...
and David Howell
David Howell (chess player)
David Wei Liang Howell is an English chess player. He is the youngest chess Grandmaster in the United Kingdom, a title he earned when he came second during the 35th Rilton Cup in Stockholm on 5 January 2007 when he was 16...
. 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 has propelled him to the top of the FIDE rating list, surpassing Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
.
Carlsen's average rating from the July 2009 and January 2010 FIDE lists will enable him to qualify for the Candidates Tournament
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle.
In early 2009 Carlsen engaged former world champion Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
as a personal trainer. In September 2009 their partnership was confirmed in Norwegian newspapers.
In a December 2009 interview with TIME Magazine, in response to a question whether he used computers when studying chess, Carlsen revealed that he does not use a chess set when studying on his own.
He won the Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar is an international award given to the best chess player every year. The winner is selected by a poll of chess experts across the world, including Grandmasters...
for 2009. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64
64 (chess magazine)
The magazine 64 is a Russian chess and draughts publication, published in Moscow. Its name refers to the number of squares on a chessboard. The magazine awards the Chess Oscar annually.-History:...
.
2010
Ahead of 2010, Carlsen said that he would be playing in fewer tournaments the coming year. The cooperation with Kasparov continued until March that year.Carlsen won the Corus chess tournament
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
played January 16–31 with 8½ points (five wins, seven draws, one loss). 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
Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Luigi Caruana is Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States.On 15 July 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States.In the November 2011...
, but saved a draw leaving him half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov.
The March 2010 FIDE rating list showed Carlsen with a new peak rating of 2813, a figure that only Kasparov has bettered. In the same month 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
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
stating that they would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov.
Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber 2010 blindfold and rapid tournament. Carlsen scored 6½ points in the blindfold and 8 points in the rapid, giving 14½ points from a possible 22 points.
In May 2010 it was revealed that Carlsen had helped Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
prepare for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
, which Anand won 6½-5½ to retain the title. Carlsen had also helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championship 2007
World Chess Championship 2007
The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in Mexico City, from September 12, 2007 to September 30, 2007 to decide the world champion in the board game chess. It was an eight-player, double round robin tournament....
and World Chess Championship 2008
World Chess Championship 2008
The World Chess Championship 2008 was a best-of-twelve-games match between the World Chess Champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the previous World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik...
.
In his first tournament since his announced departure from Kasparov, Carlsen played in the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania from June 14 through June 25. The tournament was a double round robin event involving Wang Yue
Wang Yue
Wang Yue is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. He is China's highest-ever rated player with a peak Elo rating of 2751. In 2004, he became China's 18th Grandmaster at the age of 17....
, Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
, Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov
Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...
, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is a Romanian chess grandmaster. His peak FIDE rating was 2707 in October 2005, when he was ranked fifteenth in the world, and the highest ranked Romanian player ever...
. After drawing his first three games, Carlsen won his next four and set a personal livechess rating peak of 2825.1. He finished with 7½/10 and a 2918 performance rating, winning the tournament by two points over Radjabov and Gelfand. The victory ensured that Carlsen remained at the top of the Elo rating list. His official rating hit 2826, a figure exceeded only by Kasparov and just 25 points shy of tying Kasparov's all-time record.
Carlsen then played in a rapid tournament from August 28 to August 30 at the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament in Kristiansund, Norway. The field featured world champion Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, female world #1 Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
, and Jon Ludvig Hammer
Jon Ludvig Hammer
Jon Ludvig Nilssen Hammer is a Norwegian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster , the tenth Norwegian to do so...
. 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
39th Chess Olympiad
The 39th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on to...
from September 19 to October 4, he scored 4½/8, losing three games, to Baadur Jobava
Baadur Jobava
Baadur Jobava is a Georgian chess grandmaster. His first major achievement on the international scene was winning the Dubai Open 2003 with 7/9. He took the gold medal at the 2004 36th Chess Olympiad, scoring 8½/10. He has taken part in the Olympiads 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010...
, 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
Bilbao Chess Masters Final
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final is one of the most important annual chess tournaments thanks to the level of the participants and the prizes at stake. It is a double round robin tournament typically featuring the winners of the grand slam chess tournaments which are part of the Grand Slam Chess...
from October 9 to October 15, 2010, 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
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
and the highest two scorers from the preliminary stage held in Shanghai in September, which featured Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov
Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
, and Wang Hao
Wang Hao (chess player)
Wang Hao is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang Hao became the fourth ever Chinese player to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark. He is the reigning Chinese Chess Champion, with a ranking of No. 1 in China, No. 2 in Asia behind Viswanathan Anand and No. 19 in the world...
; Shirov and Kramnik qualified. The official September 2010 ratings of Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik and Shirov made the Grand Slam final the strongest tournament in chess history, with an average ELO of 2789. In the first round, Carlsen lost on the black side of the Queen's Indian Defense
Queen's Indian Defense
The Queen's Indian Defense is a chess opening defined by the movesBy playing 3.Nf3, White sidesteps the Nimzo-Indian Defense that arises after 3.Nc3 Bb4. The Queen's Indian is regarded as the sister opening of the Nimzo-Indian, since both openings aim to impede White's efforts to gain full control...
to Kramnik; this was Carlsen's second consecutive loss to Kramnik, and placed his hold on the world #1 ranking in serious jeopardy. In his second round, Carlsen lost with the white pieces to Anand in the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
; this was his first loss as white since January 2010, and dropped him to world #2 in the live rankings behind Anand. Carlsen recovered somewhat in the latter part of the tournament, finishing with 2½/6, including a win over Shirov; 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 officially ended Carlsen's reign at world #1. These setbacks called into question from some whether Carlsen's activities outside chess, such as modelling for G-Star Raw, was distracting him from performing well at the chess board. Carlsen said he did not believe there was a direct connection, and that he was looking forward to the Pearl Spring tournament, where he had scored 8/10 in 2009.
Following the Grand Slam Masters Final
Bilbao Chess Masters Final
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final is one of the most important annual chess tournaments thanks to the level of the participants and the prizes at stake. It is a double round robin tournament typically featuring the winners of the grand slam chess tournaments which are part of the Grand Slam Chess...
, Carlsen's next tournament was the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament
Pearl Spring chess tournament
The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament is a double round robin chess tournament event featuring six super-GM players that takes place in Nanjing, China. The first edition in December 2008 was won by Veselin Topalov...
, from October 19 to 30 in Nanjing, China, against Anand, world #2 Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
, Vugar Gashimov
Vugar Gashimov
Vugar Gashimov , born July 24, 1986 in Baku, is one of the leading chess players from Azerbaijan. He is a noted player of Bullet chess and three times Azerbaijani national chess champion .He won at Athens 2005 ....
, Wang Yue
Wang Yue
Wang Yue is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. He is China's highest-ever rated player with a peak Elo rating of 2751. In 2004, he became China's 18th Grandmaster at the age of 17....
, and Étienne Bacrot
Étienne Bacrot
Étienne Bacrot is a French chess grandmaster and currently ranked number one in France.He started playing at 4; by 10 young Bacrot was already winning junior competitions and in 1996, at 13 years of age, he won against Vasily Smyslov...
. 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 the black pieces. This was his second victory in the tournament over the former world #1, and improved his score to 6½/9. The victory clinched Carlsen a place in the 2011 Grand Slam Chess Masters final, his final score of 7/10 (with a performance rating of 2903) was a full point ahead of runner-up Anand, and moved him back to world #1 on the live rankings.
Carlsen next played in the 2010 World Blitz Championship, in Moscow from November 16 to 18, attempting to defend his 2009 title. With a score of 23.5/38, he finished in third place behind Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov
Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...
and winner Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
.
Carlsen won the 2010 London Chess Classic
London Chess Classic
The London Chess Classic is a festival of the game of chess held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters...
from December 8 to 15 in a field comprising world champion Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, American number one Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
, and British players Michael Adams, Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
, David Howell
David Howell (chess player)
David Wei Liang Howell is an English chess player. He is the youngest chess Grandmaster in the United Kingdom, a title he earned when he came second during the 35th Rilton Cup in Stockholm on 5 January 2007 when he was 16...
, and Luke McShane
Luke McShane
Luke James McShane is an English chess player. A former World Youth Champion and prodigious talent in chess, he has become one of England's leading players and a member of the Olympiad team. He has also been a trader in London's financial sector.- Early career :McShane won the World Under-10...
. Carlsen had a rocky start, losing his Black 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 Black win over Howell in round 5, and managed to stay in the lead following a harrowing draw with Black against Kramnik in round 6, before defeating Short in the last round with White. Since the tournament was played with three points for a win
Three points for a win
Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points to the losing team. If the game is drawn, each team receives one point...
, Carlsen's +4=1-2 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).
Carlsen won the Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar is an international award given to the best chess player every year. The winner is selected by a poll of chess experts across the world, including Grandmasters...
for 2010 by narrowly beating Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
.
2011
Carlsen competed in the GM-A group of the Tata Steel Chess (Corus) tournament from January 14 to 30 in Wijk aan Zee in an attempt to defend his title; the field included world champion Viswanathan AnandViswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
, reigning world blitz champion Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....
, Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
, and former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
among others. Despite losing games with White against Anish Giri
Anish Giri
Anish Giri is a chess prodigy. He met his final grandmaster norm at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days when he beat Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in the C Group of the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands....
and reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi is a Russian chess grandmaster and the chess champion of Russia in 2010. , he was listed by FIDE as having an Elo rating of 2730....
, Carlsen finished with 8.0/13, including victories over Kramnik and tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura. Although Carlsen's performance raised his rating from 2814 to 2815, Anand's 8.5/13 score elevated his rating to 2817, making him the official world #1 for the March 2011 FIDE rating list.
The first tournament victory of 2011 came in the Bazna Kings tournament, a double round-robin played in Medias
Medias
Mediaș is the second largest city in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania.-Geographic location:Mediaș is located in the middle basin of Târnava Mare River, at 39 km from Sighișoara and 41 km from Blaj. The health resort Bazna, officially recognized for the first time in 1302, is...
from June 11 to June 21. Carlsen finished with 6.5 points (+3=7), equal with Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master, eleven years and eleven months, and grandmaster in history, at the age of twelve years and seven months...
but with a better tiebreak score. Carlsen won his White games against Nakamura, Nisipeanu, and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games. This result raised Carlsen's rating by six points to 2821, and returned Carlsen to first place on the live rating list.
, Carlsen is again #1 on the official FIDE rating list with a 2826 rating.
The Grand Slam Chess Final
Bilbao Chess Masters Final
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final is one of the most important annual chess tournaments thanks to the level of the participants and the prizes at stake. It is a double round robin tournament typically featuring the winners of the grand slam chess tournaments which are part of the Grand Slam Chess...
was held as a double-round robin with six players, in São Paulo (September 25th to October 1st) and Bilbao (5th to 11th October). Although Carlsen had a slow start, including a loss against bottom ranked Vallejo Pons, he finished +3=6-1, 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 16th-25th November 2011 as a round robin with ten players. Carlsen won two games, against Gelfand and Nakamura, and drew the rest. He finished equal on points with Aronian, and finished ahead since the first tiebreak was the number of Black games; Carlsen had five Black games while Aronian only had four.
Playing style
As a teenager, Carlsen became known for his attacking playing style. His win over Sipke Ernst in the 2004 Wijk aan Zee C-group which ended with an epaulette mate was an example of the play that 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. Around 2005 Carlsen was struggling against more experienced grandmasters, 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 has alternated between various opening moves. Instead of specializing in either 1.d4 or 1.e4, Carlsen has alternated between them, thus making it harder for opponents to prepare against him.Since the announcement that he was coaching Carlsen, Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
has repeatedly stated that Carlsen has a positional style, similar to that of past world champions such as Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
, José Capablanca and Vassily Smyslov, rather than the tactical style of Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
, Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
and himself.
Rating
In the October 2006 FIDE Elo ratings, Carlsen advanced to world number 22 with a rating of 2698. In the January 2007 ratings he dropped to 2690 and rank 24. In the July 2007 ratings, after a series of strong results, Carlsen advanced to become world number 17 with a rating of 2710. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list he was rated at 2733, and on October 2008 he reached 2786 Elo rating.He was placed sixth in the July 2008 list, but if his Aerosvit result had been included he would have been ranked second. The omission of the Aerosvit result, which finished after the cut-off date for the July 2008 list, caused some controversy.
On 5 September 2008, after winning round 4 in the Bilbao Grand Slam chess championship, Carlsen, still under 18, briefly became number one on the unofficial live ratings list.
Carlsen's September–October 2009 victory in the Nanjing Pearl tournament raised his official rating to 2801, making him at age 18 the youngest player ever to break 2800. The youngest before him was Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
at age 25. Besides Carlsen, only Kasparov, Topalov, Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
, and Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
had achieved a 2800 rating (Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
later accomplished the feat in October 2010). Carlsen said that he hoped his victory would mark the "beginning of a new era."
After the Tal Memorial (November 2009) he became number one in the unofficial live chess rating list with his new peak rating of 2805.7, 0.6 point over the number 2, Veselin Topalov.
The official FIDE rankings were published on 1 January 2010, and the 16 games played at the Tal Memorial and the London Chess Classic
London Chess Classic
The London Chess Classic is a festival of the game of chess held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters...
were enough to raise his rating by 8.6 rating points to 2810. This meant that Carlsen started 2010 by being the official (and, at the age of , the youngest ever) world number one, and also the first player from a western nation to reach the top in the FIDE rating list since Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
in 1972. The press coverage of this feat included an interview and article in Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
.
Standing on each top 100 FIDE list
| Rating list | Rating | Games | Change | World ranking | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2006 | 2625 | 40 | +55 | 89 | 15 years, 01 month |
| April 2006 | 2646 | 13 | +21 | 63 | 15 years, 04 months |
| July 2006 | 2675 | 27 | +29 | 31 | 15 years, 07 months |
| October 2006 | 2698 | 46 | +23 | 21 | 15 years, 10 months |
| January 2007 | 2690 | 11 | −8 | 24 | 16 years, 01 month |
| April 2007 | 2693 | 27 | +3 | 22 | 16 years, 04 months |
| July 2007 | 2710 | 19 | +17 | 17 | 16 years, 07 months |
| October 2007 | 2714 | 25 | +4 | 16 | 16 years, 10 months |
| January 2008 | 2733 | 37 | +19 | 13 | 17 years, 01 month |
| April 2008 | 2765 | 27 | +32 | 5 | 17 years, 04 months |
| July 2008 | 2775 | 16 | +10 | 6 | 17 years, 07 months |
| October 2008 | 2786 | 31 | +11 | 4 | 17 years, 10 months |
| January 2009 | 2776 | 17 | −10 | 4 | 18 years, 01 month |
| April 2009 | 2770 | 27 | −6 | 3 | 18 years, 04 months |
| July 2009 | 2772 | 12 | +2 | 3 | 18 years, 07 months |
| September 2009 | 2772 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 18 years, 09 months |
| November 2009 | 2801 | 10 | +29 | 2 | 18 years, 11 months |
| January 2010 | 2810 | 16 | +9 | 1 | 19 years, 01 month |
| March 2010 | 2813 | 13 | +3 | 1 | 19 years, 03 months |
| May 2010 | 2813 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 years, 05 months |
| July 2010 | 2826 | 10 | +13 | 1 | 19 years, 07 months |
| September 2010 | 2826 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 years, 09 months |
| November 2010 | 2802 | 14 | −24 | 2 | 19 years, 11 months |
| January 2011 | 2814 | 17 | +12 | 1 | 20 years, 01 month |
| March 2011 | 2815 | 13 | +1 | 2 | 20 years, 03 months |
| May 2011 | 2815 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 20 years, 05 months |
| July 2011 | 2821 | 10 | +6 | 1 | 20 years, 07 months |
| September 2011 | 2823 | 10 | +2 | 1 | 20 years, 09 months |
| November 2011 | 2826 | 10 | +3 | 1 | 20 years, 11 months |
- bold, new peak rating
Books and films
- Valaker, O; Carlsen, M. (2004). Lær sjakk med Magnus. Gyldendal Norsk ForlagGyldendal Norsk ForlagGyldendal Norsk Forlag, commonly referred to as Gyldendal, is one of the largest Norwegian publishing houses .-Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS:Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS was founded in 1925...
. ISBN 9788205339637. - Agdestein, S. (2004). Wonderboy: how Magnus Carlsen became the youngest Chess Grandmaster in the world: the story of the games. Interchess. ISBN 90-5691-131-7.
- The Prince of Chess, a film about Magnus Carlsen (2005) Directed by Øyvind AsbjørnsenØyvind AsbjørnsenØyvind Asbjørnsen is a Norwegian film producer and director. member of . He has made several documentaries and short films. His most notable work was The Prince of Chess, a 2005 documentary about 13-year-old chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen....
.
Beyond chess
Magnus Carlsen modeled for G-Star Raw's Fall/Winter 2010 advertising campaign.Official links
- Official website
- Official blog (as per link from "Blog" section of website)
News items and interviews
- Mega Magnus in Wijk aan Zee, ChessBaseChessBaseChessBase GmbH is a German company that markets chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates a server for online chess. Set up in 1998, it maintains and sells massive databases, containing most historic games, that permit analysis that had not been possible prior to computing...
, 27 January 2004 - World's youngest grandmaster, AftenpostenAftenpostenAftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
, 26 April 2004 - Magnificent Magnus, the world's youngest grandmaster, ChessBase, 30 April 2004 – extensive interview
- Carlsen and Kasparov in a chat show, YouTube, 18 September 2009 - very impressive how Kasparov is recalling his first encounter with Carlsen in Reykjavik 2004, being on the verge of defeat in game 1, feeling gruesome in hindsight
- Magnus Carlsen: The 19-Year-Old King of Chess, Time.com, 29 September 2009 – interview
- A Bold Opening for Chess Player Magnus Carlsen, Time.com, 11 January 2010
- Magnus Carlsen on his chess career, ChessBase, 15 March 2010 – English translation of SpiegelDer SpiegelDer Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
interview - The Prince's Gambit—A chess star emerges for the post-computer age (abstract), by D.T. Max, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, 21 March 2011