Carlsen’s turn must surely come
Leonard Barden
Saturday February 9, 2008
The Guardian
Magnus Carlsen’s joint first with Levon Aronian at the elite Corus Wijk event puts the 17-year-old Norwegian up to No9 in the world. Media coverage of his meteoric rise is growing, with comparisons to the teenage Bobby Fischer. It is already sure that Carlsen is the most credible Western-born world title candidate since the US legend.
For the first time, too, Carlsen is now arguably ahead of the American at the same age. Fischer at 16 was fifth, though well behind the Soviets, in the 1959 candidates. But his next real breakthrough only came at 18, when he was second to Mikhail Tal at Bled 1961, winning their individual game, then won the Stockholm interzonal by a wide margin.
So far Garry Kasparov is the youngest ever world champion, at age 22 in 1985. Carlsen’s earliest opportunity to break that record will be in 2010 at age 19 or 20. The International Chess Federation (Fide) has just announced a series of Grand Prix tournaments in 2008-9, and the teenager, who attends Norway’s special school for elite sportsman, is qualified for the Grand Prix after his semi-final finish in the 2007 World Cup.
The 2009 Grand Prix winner meets the 2009 World Cup winner to decide the 2010 world championship challenger. It is not yet known who will be the titleholder in 2010. Vishy Anand, the holder, and Vladimir Kramnik meet later this year, and the survivor of that must defend in 2009 against either Veselin Topalov or Gata Kamsky.
Whatever happens next time round, Carlsen’s turn must surely come.
Source: The Guardian
He’ll be the world champ before 20.
People seems to forget about Ruslan Ponomariov, who was WC at 18. He seems to have lost some of his ambition when his match with Kasparov was cancelled, but the guy is just 24 years old, and he still has a great future ahead of him…
Ruslan only held the FIDE title at a point where it held no credibility.
Magnus Carlsen is the next Bobby Fischer! Give him a few years and he will be #1 in the world.
perhaps he’ll be overtaken by some 11-year-old
“Anonymous said…
perhaps he’ll be overtaken by some 11-year-old”
Yes, Ms. Munoz,
You are allowed to dream!
I would be a pleasure to see you wear the Polgar crown one day…
Why is the Chess World Champion putting his title on the line just once a year???? If FIDE wants to make Chess more appealing to the media they must find a more convincing approach to the world championship matches. Look at boxing for example: Mayweather defended his title at least 3 times in 2007. We really need to create more credibility around this so called world champions by taking them away from FIDE’s protective glass cage and make them really fight to hold on to their crown. Also, a change in the process is needed so more GM’s can actually have a shot at the title.