Magnus Carlsen

About Magnus Carlsen

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster, No. 1 ranked player in the world and reigning World Chess Champion in classical and rapid. His peak rating is 2882, the highest in history.

Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters:

• Michael Adams +8-1=6
  
• Evgeny Alekseev +0-2=7
  
• Viswanathan Anand +10-8=38
  
• Levon Aronian +12-5=31
  
• Étienne Bacrot +3-0=8
  
• Fabiano Caruana +8-5=9
  
• Leinier Domínguez +5-0=5
  
• Boris Gelfand +5-1=9
  
• Anish Giri +0-1=11
  
• Alexander Grischuk +3-1=8
  
• Wang Hao +3-2=1
  
• Pentala Harikrishna +1-1=2
  
• Vassily Ivanchuk +8-3=15
  
• Dmitry Jakovenko +4-0=2
  
• Baadur Jobava +2-2=2
  
• Gata Kamsky +3-2=6
  
• Sergey Karjakin +3-1=14
  
• Vladimir Kramnik +5-4=13
  
• Peter Leko +3-3=10
  
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov +5-1=6
  
• Luke McShane +3-1=3
  
• Alexander Morozevich +3-0=8
  
• Arkadij Naiditsch +3-2=7
  
• Hikaru Nakamura +12-0=18
  
• David Navara +1-1=3
  
• Ian Nepomniachtchi +0-3=1
  
• Judit Polgár +2-0=1
  
• Ruslan Ponomariov +2-1=3
  
• Teimour Radjabov +9-2=18
  
• Krishnan Sasikiran +0-0=3
  
• Alexei Shirov +6-2=8
  
• Nigel Short +2-0=3
  
• Sanan Sjugirov +0-1=0
  
• Wesley So +1-0=3
  
• Peter Svidler +1-2=10
  
• Evgeny Tomashevsky +0-0=1
  
• Veselin Topalov +8-5=8
  
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave +4-1=6
  
• Andrei Volokitin +0-4=2
  
• Loek van Wely +6-2=5
  
• Radoslaw Wojtaszek +2-1=0
  

Notable games:

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

Magnus Carlsen Achievements

Carlsen won the Chess Oscars for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The Chess Oscar, conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64, is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists.The Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) has awarded him "Name of the Year" (Årets navn) twice, in 2009 and 2013.VG also named him "Sportsman of the year" in 2009 and in the same year he won the Folkets Idrettspris, a people's choice award from the newspaper Dagbladet. In 2011, he was given the Peer Gynt Prize, a Norwegian honour prize awarded annually to "a person or institution that has achieved distinction in society";the following year, he repeated as winner of Folkets Idrettspris.In 2013, Time magazine named Carlsen one of the 100 most influential people in the world.