Magnus Carlsen: new chess world champion
On Friday, 22 year old Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen became the new chess world champion.
Simon Lillistone
28 November 2013
On Friday in Chennai India, 22 year old Norwegian chess ‘Super’ Grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, stormed to victory in convincing manner, securing his place as new chess world champion. In what proved to be the final game of his match against the now dethroned world champion Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen – playing as white – forced play into a drawn endgame position giving him the ½ point he needed to take the title.
To win the match, one player needed 6 ½ points – draws score ½ point for each player and a win scores 1 point. The final score was 6 ½ – 3 ½ in Carlsen’s favour and was reached in only 10 games; a result showing the Norwegian prodigy’s dominance over his opponent during the match.
In the post-match press conference, Carlsen seemed relaxed and discussed his win and new title in a laid-back manner. He admitted, however, that he had been very nervous at times. He said he felt that during the first and third games he was “too nervous” and “perhaps not quite ready for this big occasion”. Being the highest ranked player of all time, Carlsen was favourite to win and despite a hesitant first few games had several outstanding wins.
During the press conference, the defeated Anand who has been world champion since 2007, spoke sombrely of the disappointment he felt regarding his performance over the board, admitting that “mistakes are beginning to creep into my games”.
Away from chess battles, Carlsen and Anand have a good relationship and Magnus told the press that if there was some psychological battle off the board, a la the Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky match of 1972 in Reykjavik Iceland, then he didn’t notice it. Carlsen has in the past helped Anand prepare for world chess championships against other rivals and the two players have a deep respect for one another.
Official commentators of the match, which included the chess grandmaster Susan Polgar – the only World Chess Champion in history (male or female) to win the triple-crown (Blitz, Rapid and Classical World Championships) and the first woman ever in history to break the gender barrier to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle (1986) – described Carlsen as a “legend” and spoke of a hope that having the young and dynamic Magnus Carlsen as chess world champion would be a boon to chess. The match was shown on Norwegian television and Carlsen hopes that his victory will inspire others to take up the game and change the way people perceive chess.
Carlsen has been compared to Mozart and Harry Potter for his prodigious talent and on Friday he netted 60% of the total prize fund of £1.4 million for his victory. The 43 year old Anand received the remaining 40%.
Source: http://www.theyorker.co.uk
They rock.
Why do they continue to compare Magnus to Harry Potter? Mozart makes sense as he was a young prodigy who had an amazing gift for music! … Harry Potter is a fictional character!
really? first you dont reveal the name of the seconds who worked so hard for you.. Look their names in public will add value to them..u do not want that to happen and ur selfish title is important. Now you have a rethink on the tournament format for WC bcoz you have the title now.. This type of hypocrisy is not going to draw people to the game ..
I wonder what pranks Carlsen will play now vs Fide, now that he has the title. Also his snide remarks about Anand ( his recent lack of tournament victories and his obsession with the title ) was in poor taste. Anand was the one player that Carlsen found hard to tackle a few years ago – so he cosied up to him, pretending to be friendly, only so that he could get an inside glimpse of the Anand thought process. Once he had done that, the friendship was thrown out of the window. Typical.
Carlsen has a boring though effective style. Unfortunately many youngsters will copy his style and make chess even more boring. The exciting players like Tal, Fischer, Kasparov, Topalov will soon become extinct like dinosaurs.