Magnus Carlsen 16thclassical world champ (2013 - current)

Magus Carlsen aged 13 in giving a July 2004. Magnus Calsen world champ since 2013 to current

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (Norwegian: [svɛn ˈmɑ̀ŋnʉs øːn ˈkɑːlsn̩ ]; born 30 November 1990) Carlsen was born in Tønsberg, , on 30 November 1990, to Sigrun Øen, a chemical engineer, and Henrik Albert Carlsen, an IT consultant. The family spent one year in Espoo, Finland, and then in , Belgium, before returning to Norway in 1998, where they lived in Lommedalen, Bærum. They later moved to Haslum. Carlsen showed an aptitude for intellectual challenges at a young age: at two years, he could solve 50-piece jigsaw puzzles; at four, he enjoyed assembling Lego sets with instructions intended for children aged 10–14. His father, a keen amateur player, taught him to play chess at the age of 5, although he initially showed little interest in the game. He has three sisters, and in 2010 he stated that one of the things that first motivated him to take up chess seriously was the desire to beat his elder sister at the game

Carlsen was coached at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport by the country's top player, (GM) , who in turn cites Norwegian football manager Egil "Drillo" Olsen as a key inspiration for his coaching strategy. In 2000, Agdestein introduced Carlsen to Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, a former Norwegian champion and later International Master (IM) and Grandmaster (GM), 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. Carlsen's breakthrough occurred in the Norwegian junior teams championship in September 2000, where Carlsen scored 3½/5 against the top junior players of the country, and a performance rating (PR) of about 2000. Apart from chess, which he studied about three to four hours a day, Carlsen's favourite pastimes included playing football and reading Donald Duck comics. Carlsen also practised skiing until the age of ten. From autumn 2000 to the end of 2002, Carlsen played almost 300 rated tournament games, as well as several blitz tournaments, and participated in other minor events.

A , Carlsen finished first in the C group of the Corus shortly after he turned 13, and earned the title of grandmaster a few months later. At age 15, he won the Norwegian Chess Championship, and at 17, he finished joint first in the top group of Corus. He surpassed a rating of 2800 at age 18 and reached number one in the FIDE world rankings aged 19, becoming the youngest person ever to achieve those feats.

Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating . In the following year, he retained his title against Anand, and won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, thus becoming the first player to hold all three titles simultaneously, a feat he repeated in 2019. He defended his classical world title against in 2016, and against in 2018.

Trivia From the very beginning of his career, Carlsen impressed his coaches with a prodigious memory, which he has used in his career to play a large variety of openings. He favours a positional style of play in which overall control of the board, rather than attacking an opponent’s pieces, is of paramount importance.

Carlsen surprised the chess world in November 2010, when he decided to forgo the 2011 Candidate Matches to select a challenger to play against Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand for the world championship, arguing that the championship structure was flawed and that the reigning champion should not receive an automatic spot in the final round.

However, Carlsen participated in the 2013 in . Despite losing in the final round to Russian player , he accumulated enough wins earlier in the tournament to best Russian player (who had the same number of points) and secure the challenger spot against Anand. In November 2013 Carlsen defeated Anand in 10 games at the world championship match in , , with a score of 3 wins and 7 draws. Carlsen was the second youngest player (after Kasparov) to win the world title. He successfully defended his title in a rematch against Anand in 2014 in , , with a score of 3 wins, 7 draws, and 1 loss.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen https://www.britannica.com/biography/Magnus-Carlsen