Discover the Phenomenal Strategies and Techniques Behind the World Chess Champion’s Success!

Magnus Carlsen was born on the 30th of  November 1990. He is a chess player who has held the Classical World Chess Championship since 2013.

There has always been a debate as to if he is the Greatest Chess Player of All Time.

We will now look at some of his achievements and why he is the G.O.A.T

Grandmaster Title for a Little Kid Named Magnus

The GM title is the highest title any chess player can achieve. If you have achieved the title, you are part of the elite among chess players.

It usually takes years to attain the title of Grandmaster. For Magnus Carlsen, it only took months to attain the title.

He got his first norm on 25 Jan 2004 during the Corus tournament, after winning group C with a score of 10½/13.

The second norm came on 25 February, during the Aeroflot Open, where he finished with 5.5/9 points.

Norm number 3 and the title of GM came on 28 April, during the Dubai Open Chess Championship, as he finished with 6.5/9, just half a point behind Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

This ultimately meant that Magnus Carlsen was a grandmaster, the second youngest grandmaster in chess history at the time.

What was more impressive was the fact that he had jumped from being an International Master into a Grandmaster in the space of just 4 months.

Carlsen on His Road to 2700 FIDE Rating

Chess players who achieve the rating of 2700+ are known to be among the elite of all time.

Getting to such a level would require absolute consistency and long-term dedication to chess.

Magnus Carlsen became the youngest player to become a 2700+ GM after he attained a rating of 2710 in July 2007.

This meant that it took him a total of 3 years to move from being an ordinary 2500 GM into becoming an elite 2700 GM.

The moment when he hit 2700, major top players were now starting to notice the young 16-year-old’s talent.

In the video lesson below, you can enjoy the 5 Greatest Queen Sacrifices by Magnus Carlsen analyzed by GM Igor Smirnov.

Magnus Carlsen on the Top of The Pile!

The next goals for Magnus were to reach a rating of 2800+ and also become World Number 1 on the FIDE rankings.

In November 2009, he got to the magical 2800+ number, making him the youngest player to ever reach that rating at the time.

The record was broken in 2021 by Alireza Firoujza, whom even Magnus has dubbed as a future World Chess Champion. You could know more about this emerging chess player by watching the video lesson Chess Prodigy Alireza Firouzja’s Attacking Masterpiece.

In January 2010, Magnus Carlsen became World Number 1 in chess, making him the youngest to achieve this rate at 19 years and 32 days.

In November 2010, Magnus shortly dropped to World Number 2 in chess. This was just a 6 months drop.

When he went back to World Number 1 in chess, he set his eyes on breaking Garry Kasparov’s rating record of 2856.

He broke the record in January 2013 as he got to a rating of 2861, making him the highest-rated player ever.

Talks of him being better than Kasparov were rising. The only major point that was against Magnus was the fact that he hadn’t achieved the title of World Chess Champion.

Magnus Carlsen in World Chess Championships

There is no higher prize in chess than being the World Champion. Players who are considered to be the best of their generation have held this title.

The modern rules to achieving this title see players in a tournament called the “Candidates Tournament“.

2013 Candidates Tournament ― The First Tough Test for Carlsen

The 2013 Candidates Tournament took place from 15 March to 1 April.

There are multiple criteria required to qualify for this tournament. Magnus qualified due to his rating as he was by the time the Highest Rated Player.

The other participants in the tournament were:

1. Vladimir Kramnik (2810)
2. Levon Aronian (2809)
3. Teimour Radjabov (2793)
4. Alexander Grischuk (2764)
5. Vasyl Ivanchuk (2757)
6. Peter Svidler (2747)
7. Boris Gelfand (2740)

Going into the last round, there were tie-in points between Magnus and Vladimir Kramnik, with both having 8½ points.

While going into the match, Magnus had a 5 game lead in the classical format; this was the hardest WCC opponent he had to face, as Caruana was also rated 2800+  on the FIDE rankings.

The match contained some accurate games. At the end of the classical format, there was a total of 12 draws between the 2 players.

This was the first World Chess Championship match to end with only draws throughout the classical format.

During the tiebreaks, we always knew Caruana was at a disadvantage in fast time controls, and this was evident because Magnus Carlsen won 3 games in a row to retain his title yet again.

2021 WCC ― Magnus Carlsen Remains to Be the Undisputed Reigning World Chess Champion!

The format was now changed to 14 classical games due to the 12 consecutive draws that occurred in the 2018 title match. Anyway, this match was for Magnus Carlsen a piece of cake!

The opponent for Magnus was Ian Nepomniachtchi. The Russian was considered to be the perfect opponent as he had an H2H lead against Magnus of 3 games.

At first, chess fans didn’t know what to expect from this World Chess Championship. The first 5 games were draws, with the first decisive result coming in game 6 as Magnus had the white pieces.

The game was a total of 136 moves, making it the longest ever decisive game in a World Chess Championship Match.

It was going to be hard for Nepo to hold an endgame that saw Magnus having a rook, a knight, and 2 pawns while Nepo had only a queen.

Nepo lost, and this result probably broke his spirit as he went on to lose 8,9, and 11. Carlsen retained his title with 3 more rounds left!

This also means that there is no current elite chess player with a positive H2H score against Magnus Carlsen currently.

Magnus Carlsen Is the GOAT

Carlsen has always dominated any opponent placed in front of him. Also won a total of 5 Blitz World Chess Championship titles and 3 Rapid World Chess Championship titles.

The accolades he has achieved and the way he has won his titles make it very hard to consider someone else the Greatest Chess Player of All Time.