Carlsen is utterly atypical for a professional chess player

Magnus Carlsen, an unlikely chess master
Adam Thomson
Financial Times

He moonlights as a model, naps on the job, skips homework – and snuffs out every rival

At five years old – an age by which any aspiring grandmaster should at least have made a start – Magnus Carlsen showed little interest in chess. His father, a keen amateur player, stowed away the family chessmen and assumed that was that.

He was wrong. This week, in a tournament held in the Russian town of Sochi, the 23-year-old Norwegian retained the world championship he first won almost effortlessly last year. Appearing in a casual blue jacket covered with the logos of his sponsors, Carlsen said in modest but self-assured tones that he was “happy and relieved . . . it was a tough match”. Sunday afternoon’s victory against former champion Viswanathan Anand confirmed what many have long suspected: that the man who won is the best chess player there has ever been.

It was when he was 13, still baby-faced and turning up to tournaments with Donald Duck comic books in his hand, that Carlsen took chess’s highest official title of grandmaster. He topped the world rankings six years later, in 2010, and this May achieved a rating of 2,882 points – the highest of any human in history. His meteoric rise prompted Garry Kasparov, a former world champion, to predict: “Before he is done, Carlsen will have changed our ancient game.”

For a professional chess player, he is utterly atypical. Most develop an obsession for the game within a couple of years of learning to talk; Carlsen was eight by the time he finally came around to it. Most eschew other activities; Carlsen loves football and skiing. As a boy, he practised ski-jumping. He supports Real Madrid, often attending matches, and follows basketball’s Boston Celtics. He even models for G-Star Raw, a Dutch fashion company known for urban jeanswear.

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