Magnus Øen Carlsen (born Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen on 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Chess Grandmaster and Chess Prodigy.

Magnus Carlsen played in his first tournament when he was eight. Relatively late some might say, but his development has been dramatic. His talent was discovered immediately and Norway’s best player of all time, GM Simen Agdestein, took on the task of training him. This has proven very successful and with Magnus’ never ending enthusiasm and desire to learn, the results came quickly.

Magnus participated in both World and European Youth Championships (age grade groups), and his best result came in Crete, Greece in November 2002 where he finished second with 9 points (he lost on tie-breakers to his arch-nemesis: Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2433).

Already a star in the chess community in Norway, Magnus is a very well liked kid. He has a smile and natural charm that people love. Often he is observed playing with a football while waiting for his opponent to find a move (or resign).

In order to keep developing his chess he has to work very hard. Until recently it was 2-3 hours a day, now-a-days it is more like 4-5 hours. He spends many hours reading chess books (which he loves), playing on the Internet and training with his tutor. In addition, he also loves to play football, go skiing and even ski jumping! Scary.

To give him the opportunity to develop his talents his parents have sold their second car, rented out their house, and for a year they will be traveling around the world so Magnus can participate in chess tournaments. Magnus’ school work is not neglected at all, but it has to be done in the back seat of a car, in hotel rooms, etc. Both his father and sisters participate in some of the tournaments as well. Traveling around to chess tournaments in different countries is not at all cheap, and it would not have been possible without financial aid. Luckily he has now found a sponsor (Microsoft)

Magnus' memory is said to be photographic. His coach did a little stunt for some journalists: on TV he showed the boy a diagram from a position in a chess book Magnus immediately replied which game it was, from which book, and roughly how it went. His father also has stories of five year old Magnus reciting the name, size and population of all the 430 counties in Norway. This ability is undoubtedly very useful when keeping up-to-date on modern opening theory. One might assume this has been vital when building up his amazing opening repertoire.

On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 27 days, making him the third youngest Grandmaster in history. Carlsen has since become one of the world's leading players. His performance at the September-October 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring Tournament was described as one of the greatest in history, and lifted him to an Elo Rating of 2801, second in the world. He is the fifth player, and at age 18 is by far the youngest, to achieve a rating over 2800. He is also the 2009 World Blitz Champion, the youngest in history.

On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 27 days, making him the third youngest Grandmaster in history. Carlsen has since become one of the world's leading players. His performance at the September-October 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring Tournament was described as one of the greatest in history, and lifted him to an Elo Rating of 2801, second in the world. He is the fifth player, and at age 18 is by far the youngest, to achieve a rating over 2800. He is also the 2009 World Blitz Champion, the youngest in history.

 I was not at all happy with my 0.5-1.5 against Kasparov in the rapid chess game," Magnus said. "I  should have won as White. As Black I played like a child!" (2004)

Chronology of Magnus Carlsen’s Chess Career (2004-2009)

2004

Carlsen was brought to the attention of the international chess world after his victory in the C group at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He had a score of 10.5/13, 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 is a significantly better player than he was himself at the same age. He also said that Carlsen has an excellent memory and plays 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, Magnus 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 April to 28, 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. Resulting from this he was at the time world's youngest GM 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 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 7 out of 9 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 Shirov, 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 2nd 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 Bulgarian 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 Joel 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 8 out of 9 points and a performance rating of 2792 at the age of 14.

2006

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/Bienne 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 he was number 8 of 16 participants with 7½/15 points.

In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs i Cap d'Agde, France he got to the semifinal, losing to Sergey Karjakin.

2007

In the 2007 Corus chess tournament 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 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.

2008

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 8 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 8 out of 14 (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 2011. 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 8 out of 11 (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 6 points out of 10 (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008.

In the Mainz Rapid Chess world championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to world classic and rapid champion Vishy Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws).^[19] To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgar scoring 1.5 point out of two (one win, one draw), against Vishy Anand scoring one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scoring 1 point out of two (two draws).

2009

Playing in Group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen tied for fourth 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, 2.5 points ahead of second-place finisher Topalov, the world's highest-rated player. He scored 8/10 (6 wins, 4 draws, no losses), winning every game as White (against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Radjabov, and Jakovenko), and also winning as Black against Jakovenko. This was described as one of the greatest tournament results in history. Jeff Sonas considers Carlsen's result the best performance ever by a teenager, and tied for the 13th best tournament result in history. His performance rating for the tournament was 3002.

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.^[28]

Carlsen entered the 2009 London Chess Center 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 (3 points were awarded for a win, and 1 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 2011 cycle.

Magnus Carlsen started cooperating with former world champion Garry Kasparov in early 2009. In September 2009 their cooperation was confirmed in Norwegian newspapers.

His 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, Magnus Carlsen, still under 18, briefly became #1 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 (all of whom were world champions) have achieved a 2800 rating. Carlsen said that he hoped his victory would mark the "beginning of a new era."

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