‘Super talent’ Magnus Carlsen: the new world chess champion
People | Agence France-Presse | Updated: November 25, 2013 16:44 IST
Oslo: As a prodigal genius and fashion model, newly-crowned world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has already lit up the game and has now added the world crown to his list of achievements.
The Norwegian world number one earned his maiden world title on Friday when he defeated reigning champion Viswanathan Anand of India in the 12-game challenge match in Chennai.
Carlsen, who turns 23 on November 30, missed out on becoming the youngest world champion by a few weeks, a record set by his one-time coach and Russian legend Garry Kasparov in 1985.
Kasparov, the undisputed world champion from 1985 to 1993, described Carlsen as a Harry Potter-type “super-talent” who is the first Westerner to hold the world title since America’s Bobby Fischer in 1975.
“Magnus rocketed to the top of the rating list almost without pause, displaying a consistency and tenacity rare in a young player to accompany his limitless talent,” Kasparov wrote in the Business Insider earlier this month.
Carlsen has dominated the World Chess Federation’s list of top players in the last three years, with a top rating of 2,870 points that broke Kasparov’s best of 2,851 points achieved in 1999.
“Magnus is a very different player and his approach is refreshingly new,” American chess grandmaster and former Olympic champion Susan Polgar told AFP, with his aggressive tactics on show throughout the bouts with Anand.
Introduced to chess by his father, Carlsen showed off his genius as a toddler.
At the age of two, the self-taught prodigy knew by heart all the car brands and later memorised the long list of all Norway’s municipalities, with their flags and administrative centres.
Sibling rivalry with one of his older sisters sparked his interest in chess, which soon led to his first competition at the age of eight.
The breakthrough came in 2004, when the 13-year-old defeated Russian former world champion Anatoly Karpov, forced Kasparov to a draw and became a grandmaster.
Full article here.
Amazing kid.