Born on November 30, 1990, Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a grandmaster in chess from Norway.
In addition to being the current World Chess Champion, he has won the World Rapid Chess Championship five times, the World Blitz Chess Championship seven times, and the Chess World Cup Champion five times. Since July 1, 2011, he has remained at the top of the FIDE world chess rankings, only surpassed in the amount of time by Garry Kasparov as the highest-rated player in the world. He also holds the record for the longest reign in this ranking. His 2882 peak rating is the highest in recorded history. With 125 games played, he also has the record for the longest winning run in top classical chess.
A chess prodigy, Carlsen became a grandmaster a few months after turning 13 and won first place in the Corus chess tournament in the C category. In addition to becoming the youngest player to ever qualify for the Candidates Tournament in 2005, he won the Norwegian Chess Championship at the age of 15. He tied for first place in Corus’ top group at the age of 17. At the age of 18, he became the youngest person to ever surpass a rating of 2800. He became the youngest person to ever rank #1 in the FIDE world rankings in 2010 at the age of 19.
In 2013, Carlsen overcame Viswanathan Anand to win the title of World Chess Champion. He won the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, holding the title against Anand the following year. This made him the first player to hold all three titles concurrently, a feat he repeated in 2019 and 2022. He faced off against Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021, Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and Sergey Karjakin in 2016 to defend his classical world title. In 2023, Nepomniachtchi made it back to the championship match, but Carlsen turned down the opportunity to defend his crown this time around, claiming a lack of desire.
When he was a teenager, Carlsen was well-known for his attacking play, but he has now matured into a versatile player. He employs a range of openings to hinder opponents’ preparation and lessen the usefulness of computer analysis before to the game.
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