125 Facts About Magnus Carlsen

1.

Magnus Carlsen holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at the elite level in classical chess.

2.

Magnus Carlsen surpassed a rating of 2800 at 18, the youngest at the time to do so.

3.

Magnus Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand.

4.

Magnus Carlsen 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.

5.

Magnus Carlsen defended his classical world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016, Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021.

6.

Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title against Nepomniachtchi in 2023.

7.

Magnus Carlsen uses a variety of openings to make it harder for opponents to prepare against him and reduce the utility of pre-game computer analysis.

8.

Magnus Carlsen has stated the middlegame is his favorite part of the game as it "comes down to pure chess".

9.

Magnus Carlsen showed an aptitude for intellectual challenges at a young age.

10.

Magnus Carlsen 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.

11.

The first chess book Magnus Carlsen read was a booklet named Find the Plan by Bent Larsen, and his first book on openings was Eduard Gufeld's The Complete Dragon.

12.

Magnus Carlsen was coached at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport by the country's top player, Grandmaster Simen Agdestein, who in turn cites Norwegian football manager Egil "Drillo" Olsen as a key inspiration for his coaching strategy.

13.

From autumn 2000 to the end of 2002, Magnus Carlsen played almost 300 rated tournament games, as well as in several blitz tournaments, and participated in other minor events.

14.

Magnus Carlsen then obtained three IM norms in relatively quick succession: the first at the January 2003 Gausdal Troll Masters ; the second at the June 2003 Salongernas IM-tournament in Stockholm ; and the third at the July 2003 Politiken Cup in Copenhagen.

15.

Magnus Carlsen was officially awarded the IM title on 20 August 2003.

16.

Magnus 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.

17.

Agdestein said that Magnus Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of openings.

18.

Magnus Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft, which became his sponsor.

19.

In that event, Magnus Carlsen was paired with Garry Kasparov, then the top-rated player in the world.

20.

Magnus Carlsen achieved a draw in their first game but lost the second, and was thus knocked out of the tournament.

21.

Magnus Carlsen played in the FIDE World Chess Championship, becoming the youngest player ever to participate in one, but was knocked out in the first round by Levon Aronian.

22.

Magnus Carlsen finished in tenth place and became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.

23.

At the 2006 international 'Bosna' tournament in Sarajevo, Magnus Carlsen shared first place with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Vladimir Malakhov; this could be regarded as Magnus Carlsen's first "A" elite tournament win, although it was not a clear first.

24.

Magnus Carlsen finished ninth in a group of 18 participants in the associated blitz tournament, which was won by Anand.

25.

In May and June, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007, facing Levon Aronian in a six-game match at standard time controls, which Magnus Carlsen drew by coming from behind twice.

26.

The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well, with Magnus Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match.

27.

Magnus Carlsen's score was matched by Alexander Onischuk and they played a match to break the tie.

28.

Magnus Carlsen won five games, lost two and drew six, sharing first place with Levon Aronian.

29.

Magnus Carlsen later withdrew from the Grand Prix cycle despite his initial success, criticising FIDE for "changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a World Championship cycle".

30.

Magnus Carlsen tied for second place with Veselin Topalov at the M-Tel Masters tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.

31.

Magnus Carlsen lost to eventual winner Alexei Shirov in their final game, dropping him from first.

32.

Magnus Carlsen entered the 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.

33.

In November 2010 Magnus Carlsen announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates Tournament.

34.

In early 2009 Magnus Carlsen engaged former World Champion Garry Kasparov as a personal trainer.

35.

Magnus 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.

36.

Magnus Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber blindfold and rapid tournament.

37.

Magnus Carlsen had helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championships in 2007 and 2008.

38.

Magnus Carlsen said he did not believe there was a direct connection.

39.

On 5 November, Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the 2011 Candidates Tournament, having qualified as the highest rated challenger, citing dissatisfaction with the World Championship cycle format.

40.

Magnus Carlsen had a rocky start, losing his games to McShane and Anand in rounds 1 and 3, but winning with white against Adams and Nakamura in rounds 2 and 4.

41.

Magnus Carlsen joined the lead with a win over Howell in round 5, and managed to stay in the lead following a harrowing draw against Kramnik in round 6, before defeating Short in the last round.

42.

Magnus Carlsen won his White games against Nakamura, Nisipeanu, and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games.

43.

Magnus Carlsen won two games, against Gelfand and Nakamura, and drew the rest.

44.

Magnus Carlsen defeated Gashimov, Aronian, Gelfand, and Topalov, but lost against Karjakin.

45.

Magnus Carlsen finished in first place, ahead of Radjabov and Caruana.

46.

Magnus Carlsen defeated the winner Wang in both of their individual games.

47.

Magnus Carlsen won the tournament by winning both tiebreak games against Caruana.

48.

Magnus Carlsen then took part in the knockout exhibition event "Cuadrangular UNAM".

49.

Magnus Carlsen played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April.

50.

Magnus Carlsen faced Anand in the World Chess Championship 2013, at Hyatt Regency in Chennai, India, from 9 to 22 November.

51.

Magnus Carlsen had his first win in game 5 by taking advantage of a small mistake by Anand, and emerged victorious in games 6 and 9, making him the 16th undisputed World Chess Champion.

52.

Magnus Carlsen fared worse in the rapid event, which counted towards the overall standings, but retained enough of a lead to win the tournament.

53.

Magnus Carlsen played in the A group along with Caruana, Nakamura, Karjakin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Radjabov.

54.

Magnus Carlsen then drew against Karjakin, only to lose two games in a row for the first time in four years, losing to Caruana with black and then with white to Radjabov.

55.

The game was drawn when Magnus Carlsen forced a perpetual check.

56.

Magnus Carlsen went on to claim the World Blitz Championship two days later, becoming the first player to simultaneously hold the title in all three FIDE rated time controls.

57.

Magnus Carlsen played nine games for Norway in the 41st Chess Olympiad, scoring five wins, two draws, and two losses.

58.

Magnus Carlsen lost to Caruana in round 3 and defeated Aronian and Nakamura in rounds 5 and 7, respectively.

59.

Magnus Carlsen faced Anand in a match for the title of World Chess Champion in 2014.

60.

Magnus Carlsen was then outplayed by Caruana in the second round, missed a win against Anish Giri in round 3, and lost to Anand in round 4.

61.

Magnus Carlsen won against Grischuk in round 5, drew against Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave in rounds 6 and 7, and defeated Aronian in round 8, but he lost the last round against Jon Ludvig Hammer, leaving him in seventh place and with a performance rating of 2693.

62.

From 22 August to 3 September, Magnus Carlsen played in the 2015 Sinquefield Cup.

63.

Magnus Carlsen defeated the 2014 Sinquefield winner Fabiano Caruana, as well as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and wild-card Wesley So, but lost to Veselin Topalov and Alexander Grischuk.

64.

Magnus Carlsen eventually won the tournament by defeating Vachier-Lagrave, which meant he won the overall Grand Chess Tour.

65.

Magnus Carlsen won the tournament by scoring 9 points out of 13, earning him his 5th Wijk Aan Zee title.

66.

Also during this tournament, Magnus Carlsen recorded his first victory over Anish Giri in a classical game.

67.

Magnus Carlsen played ten games for Norway in the 42nd Chess Olympiad, scoring five wins and five draws, as the Norwegians placed 5th among the 180 teams in the open event.

68.

Magnus Carlsen faced Sergey Karjakin in the 2016 World Chess Championship in New York City.

69.

Karjakin drew first blood by winning game 8, but Magnus Carlsen equalised the match in game 10.

70.

Magnus Carlsen started well, scoring 2 wins and 4 draws in his first 6 games, but missed mate-in-3 versus Giri in round 7, which Giri described as "the most embarrassing moment" of Carlsen's career.

71.

Magnus Carlsen performed poorly and had a of 2755, his lowest since 2015.

72.

Magnus Carlsen played in the Paris leg of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour, which was held from 21 to 25 June.

73.

Magnus Carlsen then defeated Vachier-Lagrave in the playoff to win the tournament.

74.

From 9 to 14 November, Magnus Carlsen faced Ding Liren in the 2017 Champions Showdown, a match consisting of 10 rapid and 20 blitz games, hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club.

75.

From 1 to 11 December, Magnus Carlsen competed in the 2017 London Chess Classic, the final event of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour.

76.

Magnus Carlsen's placing awarded him 7 additional points in the Grand Chess Tour standings, which was enough to crown him the 2017 Grand Chess Tour champion.

77.

From 26 to 30 December, Magnus Carlsen played in the 2017 World Rapid and World Blitz Chess Championships, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

78.

From October 2017 to January 2018, Magnus Carlsen played in the second edition of Chess.

79.

Magnus Carlsen defeated Caruana and Aronian in rounds 1 and 3, respectively, but lost to So in round 6.

80.

From 26 to 30 December, Magnus Carlsen played in the 2018 World Rapid and World Blitz Chess Championships, held in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

81.

Magnus Carlsen faced Fabiano Caruana in the 2018 World Chess Championship in London.

82.

Magnus Carlsen cited the first rapid game as "critical", and said he felt "very calm" after winning it.

83.

From 26 June to 7 July, Magnus Carlsen participated in the second leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, held in Zagreb.

84.

Magnus Carlsen thus extended his unbeaten streak in classical chess to 101 games, surpassing Ding's record of 100 games.

85.

Magnus Carlsen was automatically seeded to the semifinal round, as the unofficial Fischer Random Chess champion.

86.

Magnus Carlsen then went on to beat Levon Aronian to claim third place.

87.

Magnus Carlsen won after defeating Hikaru Nakamura in a tiebreak match, drawing the first game with black and winning the second game with the white pieces.

88.

Magnus Carlsen had gone 125 games without defeat, a period spanning 2 years, 2 months and 10 days.

89.

At the FIDE World Cup 2021 held in Sochi, Magnus Carlsen won the third place match against Fedoseev after being defeated in the semifinals by Duda, who eventually won the event.

90.

From 26 to 28 December, Magnus Carlsen participated in the World Rapid Chess Championship 2021.

91.

At the 2021 World Chess Championship, Magnus Carlsen defeated challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in Game 6 after drawing the first five games.

92.

Subsequently, Magnus Carlsen defeated Nepomniachtchi in Games 8,9, and 11, thus retaining his championship title.

93.

On 20 July, the deadline FIDE had given him, Magnus Carlsen announced that he would not defend his World Championship title against Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship match.

94.

Magnus Carlsen said he enjoyed playing chess tournaments more than championships, and would still continue playing professional chess.

95.

Magnus Carlsen won the Airthings Masters, Charity Cup, and FTX Crypto Cup.

96.

Magnus Carlsen joined the Norway team for the 44th Chess Olympiad.

97.

Magnus Carlsen won his first game against Nepomniachtchi, the Candidates Tournament 2022 winner.

98.

Magnus Carlsen subsequently drew his second game to Levon Aronian, leaving him in tied first place with American wildcard Hans Niemann.

99.

Two weeks later, Magnus Carlsen faced Niemann in the Julius Baer Generation Cup, a section of the Champions Chess Tour 2022, an online chess tour.

100.

Magnus Carlsen, playing as black, resigned after one move, continuing the scandal.

101.

Magnus Carlsen lost two games in a row, which had not happened since 2015, first to Anish Giri and then to the young Uzbek prodigy Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

102.

Magnus Carlsen recovered and finished 3rd, with the same score as Abdusattorov, but behind Giri, who won the tournament.

103.

In February, Magnus Carlsen participated in the Airthings Masters 2023 which he won by defeating the American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in the finals.

104.

Magnus Carlsen ceased to be World Champion after the World Chess Championship 2023, ceding the title to Ding Liren.

105.

Magnus Carlsen has won the Folkets Idrettspris, a people's choice award from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, in 2009 and 2010.

106.

The youngest before Magnus Carlsen to achieve this feat was Vladimir Kramnik at the age of 25, and up until this point only Kasparov, Topalov, Kramnik, and Anand had achieved a 2800+ rating.

107.

Magnus Carlsen had an aggressive style of play as a youth, and, according to Simen Agdestein, his play was characterised by "a fearless readiness to offer material for activity".

108.

Magnus Carlsen said in 2015 that the middlegame is his favourite part of the game as it comes down to "pure chess".

109.

Magnus Carlsen tries to put the accent only on play, getting away from preparation, but for me preparation plays an enormous role.

110.

Magnus Carlsen's repertoire is aimed at avoiding an early crisis in the game.

111.

Magnus Carlsen invariably aims for middlegames that lend themselves to a strategic approach.

112.

Magnus Carlsen gets his positions [and] then never lets go of that bulldog bite.

113.

Magnus Carlsen grew up when I was in power, and perhaps he studied my games.

114.

Magnus Carlsen can convert a minimal advantage into a real one.

115.

Magnus Carlsen has the highest nettlesomeness score by this metric, because his creative moves pressure the other player and open up a lot of room for mistakes.

116.

Magnus Carlsen plays on for ever, calmly, methodically and, perhaps most importantly of all, without fear: calculating superbly, with very few outright mistakes and a good proportion of the "very best" moves.

117.

Magnus Carlsen is known for meme openings such as the Bongcloud Attack and exceptionally strong play, despite banter and gags.

118.

The campaign was coordinated with the RAW World Chess Challenge in New York, an event in which Magnus Carlsen played an online team of global chess players, who voted on moves suggested by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura and Judit Polgar.

119.

In 2012, Magnus Carlsen was featured in a 60 Minutes segment and appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report.

120.

Magnus Carlsen was interviewed by Rainn Wilson for SoulPancake in 2013.

121.

In 2017, Magnus Carlsen made a special guest appearance on The Simpsons in an episode where Homer's chess history is revealed.

122.

In 2020, Magnus Carlsen announced that he had signed a two-year sponsorship deal with gambling company Unibet to act as a "global ambassador".

123.

Magnus Carlsen stated he wished for the app to encourage more people to play chess.

124.

On 8 October 2020, Play Magnus Carlsen Group was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

125.

Magnus Carlsen is an avid fan of football, with Real Madrid CF as his favourite club.