World Grandmaster Chess

[Endike Baur]

Carlsenbecame World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. He retained his title against Anand the following year and won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, becoming the first player to hold all three titles simultaneously, a feat which he repeated in 2019 and 2022.[4][5] He defended his classical world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016, Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021. Nepomniachtchi qualified again for the title match in 2023, but this time Carlsen declined to defend his title, citing a lack of motivation.[6]

Known for his attacking style as a teenager, Carlsen has since developed into a universal player. He uses a variety of openings to make it harder for opponents to prepare against him and reduce the utility of pre-game computer analysis.[7]

His father, a keen amateur chess player,[13] taught him to play at age five, although he initially showed little interest in it.[14] He has three sisters, and in 2010 stated that one thing that first motivated him to take up chess seriously was the desire to beat his elder sister at the game.[15]

Carlsen was coached at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein,[10] who in turn cites Norwegian football manager Egil "Drillo" Olsen as a key inspiration for his coaching strategy.[20] In 2000, Agdestein introduced Carlsen to Torbjrn Ringdal Hansen, a former Norwegian junior champion and later International Master (IM) and Grandmaster (GM),[21] as Ringdal served a one-year siviltjeneste (an alternative civilian service programme) at the college.

Over the course of that year, Carlsen's rating rose from 904 in June 2000 to 1907. His breakthrough occurred in the Norwegian junior teams championship in September 2000, where he scored 3/5 against the country's top junior players and gained a tournament performance rating (TPR) of around 2000.[22] Apart from chess, which he studied about three to four hours a day, his favourite pastimes included playing football and reading Donald Duck comics.[23] He also practised skiing until age ten.[24]

From autumn 2000 to the end of 2002, Carlsen played almost 300 rated tournament games, as well as in several blitz tournaments, and participated in other minor events.[25] In October 2002, he placed sixth in the European Under-12 Championship in Peiscola.[26] The following month, he tied for first place in the 2002 World Under-12 Championship in Heraklion, placing second to Ian Nepomniachtchi on tiebreak.[27] He then obtained three IM norms in relatively quick succession: the first at the January 2003 Gausdal Troll Masters (score 7/10, 2453 PR); the second at the June 2003 Salongernas IM-tournament in Stockholm (6/9, 2470 PR); and the third at the July 2003 Politiken Cup in Copenhagen (8/11, 2503 PR). He was officially awarded the IM title on 20 August 2003.[28]

After finishing primary school, Carlsen took a year off to participate in international chess tournaments in Europe during the autumn of 2003, then returned to complete secondary education at a sports school.[29][30] During the year away from school, he placed joint-third in the European Under-14 Championship[31] and ninth in the 2003 World Under-14 Championship.[32]

Carlsen made headlines after his victory, at the age of 13, in the C group at the 2004 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee.[33] He obtained a score of 10/13, losing just one game (against the highest-rated player of the C group, Duško Pavasovič).[34] As a result, he earned his first GM norm, and achieved a PR of 2702. Particularly notable was his win over Sipke Ernst in the penultimate round, when he sacrificed material to give mate in just 29 moves.[35] His victory in the C group qualified him to play in the B group in 2005, and it led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, to give him the title "the Mozart of chess" (although, as pointed out by Edward Winter, the nickname had been given to many illustrious predecessors).[36] Agdestein said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of openings.[37] Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft, which became his sponsor.[38]

Carlsen obtained his second GM norm at the Moscow Aeroflot Open in February. On 17 March, in a blitz chess tournament in Reykjavk, Iceland, he defeated former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. It was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day. In that event, Carlsen was paired with Garry Kasparov, then the top-rated player in the world. Carlsen achieved a draw in their first game but lost the second, and was thus knocked out of the tournament.[39]

In July, Carlsen and Berge stenstad, then the reigning Norwegian champion, tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship, each scoring 7/9. A two-game match between them was arranged to decide the title. Both games were drawn, which left stenstad the champion because he had superior tiebreaks in the tournament.[42]

At the end of 2005, Carlsen participated at the Chess World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the knockout tournament, he upset 44th-ranked Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round one, and proceeded to defeat Farrukh Amonatov and Ivan Cheparinov to reach the round of 16. There he lost to Evgeny Bareev,[49] but won against Jol Lautier and Vladimir Malakhov before losing again to Gata Kamsky. Carlsen finished in tenth place and became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.[50]

At the 2006 international 'Bosna' tournament in Sarajevo, Carlsen shared first place with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (who won on tiebreak evaluation) and Vladimir Malakhov; this could be regarded as Carlsen's first "A" elite tournament win, although it was not a clear first.[52]

In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament in Troms, Carlsen finished second to Sergei Shipov.[58] In the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, he placed second, beating the tournament winner Alexander Morozevich twice.[59]

With a score of 7/15, Carlsen placed 8th out of 16 participants at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon LeZion, Israel.[61] In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'checs in Cap d'Agde, France, he reached the semi-final, losing there to Sergey Karjakin.[62] In November, Carlsen achieved a shared 8th place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. He finished ninth in a group of 18 participants in the associated blitz tournament, which was won by Anand.[63]

Playing in the top group of the Corus chess tournament for the first time, Carlsen placed last with nine draws and four losses, scoring 4/13.[64] In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen played against top-rated players Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, and Vasyl Ivanchuk. Despite being rated significantly lower than any of them, he finished in second place on tiebreaks with 7/14, having scored four wins, seven draws and three losses, and achieving a PR of 2778.[65]

Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo in March. In the 11 rounds, he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold games, as well as three wins, seven draws and one loss in the rapid games. This resulted in a shared ninth place in the blindfold, shared second place in the rapid (behind Anand), and a shared eighth place overall.[66]

In July and August, Carlsen won the Biel Grandmaster Tournament with a 6/10 record and a PR of 2753. His score was matched by Alexander Onischuk and they played a match to break the tie. After drawing two rapid and two blitz games, Carlsen won the armageddon game.[68] Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Troms, but his fourth-place result with +5=4 was a slight underperformance in terms of rating. In the first round, Carlsen conceded a draw to his classmate Brede Hagen (rated 2034)[69] after having a lost position at one point.[70] A game which attracted some attention was his sixth-round win over his father, Henrik Carlsen.[71]

In the top group A of the 69th Corus chess tournament, Carlsen scored 8/13, achieving a PR of 2830. Carlsen won five games, lost two and drew six, sharing first place with Levon Aronian.[73] At the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ PR, scoring 8/14. He finished in sole second place, point behind the winner World Champion Viswanathan Anand.[74]

In March, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, two losses, and six draws in the rapid. 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.[75]

Playing in Group A of the 71st Corus chess tournament, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 PR.[84] In the Linares chess tournament, he finished third with a 2777 PR.[85] He 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.[86]

Carlsen won the category 21 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament, 2 points ahead of second-place finisher Topalov, the world's highest-rated player at the time. He scored an undefeated 8/10, winning every game as white (against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Teimour Radjabov, and Dmitry Jakovenko), and also winning as black against Jakovenko. By rating performance, this was one of the greatest results in history, with a PR of 3002.[87] Chess statistician Jeff Sonas has declared it one of the 20 best tournament performances of all time, and the best chess performance of all time by a teenager.[88]

In the Tal Memorial, played from 5 to 14 November, Carlsen started with seven straight draws, but finished with wins over former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko. This result put Carlsen in shared second place behind former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and equal with Ivanchuk.[89][90] After the Tal Memorial, Carlsen won the World Blitz Championship, played from 16 to 18 November in Moscow, Russia. His score of 28 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses left him three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second place.[91]

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