Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen was born on November 30, 1990, in Tønsberg, Norway, and is from Lommedalen in Bærum.⁠[1]

His father, Henrik Carlsen, taught him chess at five, though he showed little interest at first; later coached by Norway’s top player Simen Agdestein, he raised his rating from 904 to 1907 in the single year 2000.⁠[2]

At 13 he won the Corus C-group in Wijk aan Zee and earned his first grandmaster norm; Grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek of the Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is an American daily newspaper founded in Washington in 1877, known for its role in the Pentagon Papers case and the Watergate investigation. Run by the Meyer–Graham family for eighty years from 1933, it has been owned personally by Jeff Bezos since 2013.Open the full entry called him the “Mozart of Chess.”⁠[3]

In 2004 he drew with Garry KasparovGarry KasparovGarry Kasparov is a chess player, author and political activist born in Baku in the Soviet Union; in 1985 he became the youngest world chess champion in history, and he played IBM’s Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997. After retiring in 2005 he turned to political activism against Vladimir Putin’s government and has lived in New York since 2013.Open the full entry and beat Anatoly Karpov at the same event; a month later he earned his third norm and, at 13 years, four months and 27 days, became the world’s youngest grandmaster at the time and the second-youngest in history.⁠[2]

On FIDE’s January 2010 rating list the 19-year-old was world No. 1 with 2810, five points ahead of Veselin Topalov and 20 ahead of world champion Viswanathan Anand, becoming the youngest player to top the rankings and to cross 2800.⁠[4]

He announced his withdrawal from the World Championship cycle, giving up his place in the eight-player Candidates knockout matches due to begin in March 2011, and explained his reasons in a letter to FIDE.⁠[5]

He has been the world’s highest-rated player continuously since July 2011.⁠[1]

He founded Play Magnus AS in 2013 with Espen Agdestein and Anders Brandt.⁠[6]

The 22-year-old beat defending champion Viswanathan Anand 6.5–3.5 over 10 games in Chennai, India, with three wins and seven draws, to become world chess champion.⁠[7]

The match drew huge attention in Norway, where Prime Minister Erna Solberg called it one of the country’s greatest sporting achievements of all time.⁠[8]

He took prize money of around $800,000; his former coach Garry Kasparov said he still had more to offer.⁠[9]

In 2014 he reached a peak rating of 2882, the highest in chess history.⁠[10]

In Dubai he won the FIDE World Rapid and then the World Blitz Championship, taking the blitz with 17/21, a point clear, and so became official world champion in classical, rapid and blitz chess at once.⁠[11]

He won game 11 of his rematch with Anand to retain the title with a game to spare, saying afterward that he had been fighting an illness and did not want to come back for a 12th game.⁠[12]

After their 12-game match ended level, he defeated Russia’s Sergey Karjakin in rapid tiebreakers in New York on his 26th birthday to keep the title.⁠[13]

The match at the South Street Seaport carried a €1 million prize fund; Karjakin took the lead in game 8 before he levelled the score in game 10.⁠[14]

After all 12 classical games with American Fabiano Caruana were drawn, he won the rapid tiebreak 3–0 for his third title defence; responding to criticism of his draw offer from a superior position in game 12, he said it gave him the best chance of winning the match.⁠[15]

He lost to Jan-Krzysztof Duda in round five of Norway Chess, ending a classical unbeaten run of 125 games lasting two years, two months and 10 days; he beat Duda when they met again in round six.⁠[16]

Play Magnus Group listed on the Oslo Børs Merkur Market in a placement valuing its equity at NOK 796 million; Magnus Chess, owned by Carlsen and his family, held 9.5%.⁠[6]

The group’s services comprised the Play Magnus App Suite, chess24, Chessable and CoChess, and in 2020 it launched the professional online Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour.⁠[17]

His 136-move game 6 against Ian Nepomniachtchi, lasting almost eight hours, was the longest game in World Championship history and his first classical win in a title match in more than five years.⁠[18]

The match ended 7.5–3.5, giving him the FIDE world title for the fifth consecutive time.⁠[19]

On his podcast The Magnus Effect he announced that he would not defend his title in the next World Championship match, saying he had weighed the decision for more than a year, while making clear he was not retiring.⁠[10]

FIDE said he deserved respect for whatever he decided, while calling the decision a disappointment for fans and saying the World Championship would go on.⁠[20]

He appeared on episode 315 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing game 6 of the 2021 World Championship, openings, ratings, the World Championship, training, Garry Kasparov, the greatest player of all time and poker.⁠[21]

After losing to 19-year-old American Hans Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis he withdrew from the tournament, then resigned after one move against Niemann in an online event.⁠[22]

He then issued a statement saying he believed Niemann had cheated more, and more recently, than he had publicly admitted; Niemann had admitted cheating online at 12 and 16 but denied ever cheating over the board. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich shared concerns about cheating but criticized the one-move resignation, saying the world champion bears a moral responsibility.⁠[22]

Chess.com, which announced its acquisition of Play Magnus Group on August 24, 2022, completed the deal on December 16; Carlsen then signed on as a Chess.com ambassador and agreed to play in its events.⁠[23]

Niemann had sued him, Chess.com and others for $100 million, alleging defamation and collusion to exclude him from tournaments; US District Judge Audrey Fleissig in Missouri rejected the antitrust claims and declined jurisdiction over the state-law claims, including defamation.⁠[24]

Niemann’s lawyers said the ruling had no impact on his ability to pursue defamation claims in state court, while Carlsen’s lawyer said the court had rejected Niemann’s attempt to recover an undeserved windfall in federal court.⁠[24]

Chess.com announced that the parties had settled after private negotiations and that Niemann was reinstated on the site; Chess.com stood by its investigation but said it found no conclusive evidence that Niemann cheated in over-the-board games. In his statement Carlsen acknowledged Chess.com’s finding of no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated against him at the Sinquefield Cup and said he was open to playing Niemann in future.⁠[25]

In the Baku World CupFIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup is FIFA’s men’s national-team football tournament, held every four years.Open the full entry final, after two drawn classical games, he beat 18-year-old Indian R Praggnanandhaa in rapid tiebreaks, winning the one major event missing from his record.⁠[26]

At the World Rapid Championship in New York FIDE fined him $200 for wearing jeans and told him to change immediately; he refused and left the rapid event, calling it a matter of principle, while FIDE said jeans had long been explicitly prohibited and the rule applied equally to all players.⁠[27]

He then reversed course and played the World Blitz Championship, where he and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to share the title in the final; it was his eighth world blitz title and the first individual chess world title ever shared.⁠[28]

He married at Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo.⁠[29]

Representing Team Liquid in Riyadh, he beat Alireza Firouzja 2–0 to win the first chess event at the Esports World Cup; the organizer noted that earlier that year he had also won the Champions Chess Tour, his seventh Norway Chess title and the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open with a perfect score.⁠[30]

At the 2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha he won his sixth World Rapid title with 10½/13 and took his ninth World Blitz title.⁠[31]

He beat Fabiano Caruana 2.5–1.5 in the final in Weissenhaus, Germany, to become the first FIDE-recognized Freestyle Chess world champion; FIDE called it his 21st world title across formats.⁠[32]

He won the 2026 TePe Sigeman Chess tournament by beating Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus in the final classical round and then defeating Arjun Erigaisi, with whom he had tied, in blitz tiebreaks.⁠[33]

At Norway Chess 2026, held in Oslo from May 25 to June 5, the title went to R Praggnanandhaa; Carlsen lost four classical games at the event and beat world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in the final round.⁠[34]

His official website says he has founded companies including Play Magnus Group, Offerspill Chess Club and Take Take Take, and that he fronted global G-Star campaigns in 2010 and again in 2025.⁠[35]

Personal website: Public link: https://magnuscarlsen.com (opens in a new window)⁠[21]

X: Public account: https://x.com/MagnusCarlsen (opens in a new window)⁠[21]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/themagnuscarlsen (opens in a new window)⁠[21]